Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life

Author: Francesca Gino

Franciscoa Gina is a Harvard Business School Professor who believes that rebels have got a bad rap in business. In this book she combs through her vast experience working with many successful organizations to give us examples where “rebel talent” has been the reason for their success. She cites examples from Pixar Studios, the successful Chef Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana, Eric Shmidt, etc. She claims that “Rebels understand that conflict can lead to growth and that disagreement is a feature, rather than a flaw”. She goes on to say that contrary to general wisdom, it’s better to improve on our strengths than focus on our weaknesses. This is another case of where it pays to be authentic. Trying to improve areas of weakness is likely to end up in a territory of inauthenticity which will reduce your  effectiveness. 

It’s an interesting take and definitely something to consider as you are building out your team.

The Tyranny of Metrics

Author: Jerry Z. Muller

We live in an age that puts metrics up on a pedestal. Every business is ultimately measured by its financial metrics. Internally, the business is run by a host of metrics that are expected to be an early gauge on the business performance. Recent advances in computing have provided us with a treasure trove of Big Data that from which we mine even more metrics than we can imagine.  Where does all of this lead? According to the author, Jerry Muller, “we have gone from measuring performance to fixating on measuring itself”. He argues that this has resulted in a tyranny of metrics that is misguided and leading many of us down the wrong path.

There are numerous quotes in the book on both sides of the metrics aisle. It starts with a statement that is apparently mis-attributed to Lord Kelvin: “If you can’t measure it, you cannot improve it”. 

He tackles several disciples ranging from Education to Policing. He explains how Pay-for-performance is notorious for encouraging all kinds of metrics manipulation. In Vietnam, the enemy body count was a key metric that the US used to determine success in the war. These counts were often exaggerated and sadly many US soldiers lost their lives searching for bodies.

Here are some nuggets from the book that are very relevant to our role as managers. 

A system of measured performance will work to the extent that people being measured believe in its worth.

Some things to keep in mind

• misalignment of metrics will most certainly be counter productive.
• metrics to evaluate performance and promotion are some of the most dangerous
• metrics are more effective if they are developed by someone close to the activity being measured
• more measurement means more costs in measuring and evaluating data, resulting in lost productivity
• metrics work best when those measured buy into its purpose and validity.

I found the book to be a good cautionary tale to all of us who swear by the metrics we keep track of.

Principles: Life and Work

Author: Ray Dalio

I struggled with this book. But, before I tell you about that let me talk about the book. This is Ray Dalio pontificating about his philosophy in life. He postulates the existence of universal laws governing reality and how to deal with it. He is on a quest to educate us about them.

It’s a noble goal, but unfortunately the book reads more like an advertisement for Ray Dalio and all the material he has published over the years. I liked the first part of the book where he talks about how he started his business and some of the personal challenges he has gone through. However, he tries very hard to come across as being very profound and includes some non-sensical equations like the following:

Dreams + Reality + Determination = A Successful Life.

He then qualifies this by saying that the definition of successful life is up to you. He goes so far as to say that your notion of a successful life could be a “couch potato”. I would have loved to see him explain what the variables of “Dreams” and “Determination” stood for in the above equation if  "Successful Life = Couch Potato".

As you can tell, I was not impressed with this book. It also was a drag to read.  Ray Dalio should stick to the investment business and leave writing books to professionals.

Brotopia: Breaking up the Boy's Club of Silicon Valley

Author: Emily Chang 

Emily Chang has a lot of experience interviewing the titans of the Tech Industry. As the Executive Producer of Bloomberg Technology, Ms. Chang had unfettered access to many of the movers and shakers in Silicon Valley. She packages up all of her rich experiences with this colorful cast of characters into a digestible format that is relatively easy to consume. The topics however are serious ones and are definitely of interest to anyone who works in Silicon Valley. 

The recent decline of women in Computer Science has a lot of people scrambling to find out why. Every Tech company that I have come across is eager to improve its gender diversity and have many programs to turn this around. However, to date, the improvements are marginal at best. Emily dives into this from the very beginning. She goes back in time and questions the initial premise that Computer Science is for antisocial, nerds. This self-fulfilling stereotype attracted a subset of boys and men that ultimately were a turn-off for most women. Emily challenges this notion and it definitely got me thinking about the veracity of the stereotype. 

In later chapters she examines some of the excesses in Silicon Valley and misbehaviors of powerful men. This book was written before the #metoo movement, but its not hard to imagine some of the recent exposes fitting right in this book. If you have read the excerpt in the Vanity fair then you already know all about the sex parties in Silicon Valley. Entrepreneurial women were damned if they participated or didn’t. It is clear, that Emily had an up close view into many of these sordid and sad stories of abuse by men in power in high flying tech companies. Hopefully, with the current #metoo movement, most of these are a thing of the past.

Ms. Chang highlights how history is written to glorify the male entrepreneurs and tends to downplay the contribution of women. She gives the example of Susan Wojcicki and how she had an oversized influence in the early days of Google and is responsible for the monetization of their Search platform. However not many people talk about this or even know about it. 

This book is a must read for anyone who wants to do something to improve the gender diversity in the Tech Industry.