Book Review: The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson, Sr. and the Making of IBM

This book read like a novel, in fact a better novel than many that i have read. It starts with white collar crime then a life remade through determination, then rich business exploits and adventures follow, but it has drama and ups and downs. The central character is a charismatic super-hero but he also has a number of fantastic flaws. There is a lot of family dysfunction and tragedy, but still the son receives the baton from the father and excels his achievements in many ways.

This is about Thomas Watson Sr. who built IBM to be a great corporation by building a great culture and becoming an embodiment of that culture. IBM is a very customer oriented and sales oriented company. But it also made huge R&D investments, spearheaded enormous number of technical advancements and did a number of "bet the farm" technological initiatives. So they are no doubt a technology company. But the important thing about IBM is that it a very customer and sales oriented company. And the reason lies in it's history and its roots laid out by Thomas Watson Sr. And this book essentially gets into the essence of what IBM is all about by dissecting the life of Mr. Watson.

Some of the fascinating things to learn from this book are how the computing era dawned from the mechanical calculators and the cash registers. Mr. Watson figured out how to sell technology long before others did. This explains totally the "IBM Middleware commercials" which only talks about the solutions and the business benefits and never gets into the technological mumbo-jumbo.

Lou Gerstener in his book: Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Inside IBM's Historic Turnaround
talks about how his turnaround job was essentially to re-establish IBM's culture like it was under the Watsons. Reading this book will really help in understanding Lou's book and what he accomplished at IBM.

When I read that book, Mr. Watson's persona often reminded me of Larry Ellison (Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle ) with their outsized ego, penchant for publicity and self-promotion and impeccable business instincts. I was delighted to find out that the author thought the same too.

DNA: The Secret of Life by James D. Watson and Andrew Berry

I could not have received a more enlightening introduction to the DNA and Genetic Sciences and BioTechnology than this book from a worthy and eminently illuminating author - Dr. Watson.
He weaves his book with tales, trivia, history and facts and information as well as deeply involved scientific subject matter from the world of DNA and Genetic Sciences.

From DNA fingerprinting to Genetically modified Corn and Potatoes that is ubiquitous in the Soda, Sweeteners, Chips and Fries, I bet that no one living in the US is left untouched by the genetic technologies.

What i liked about Dr. Watson's book is that parts of it is history and tales around this large subject area: Biology, Genetics, Forensics, Law, Science, Technology, etc. I listened to the audiobook version of the book so that style works well for the audiobook. I think the printed version might feel excessively long winded.

Dr. Watson is a controversial figure. I do not agree with all the ideas that he espouses. Especially in the last chapter, he argues for aggressively pursuing Gene Therapy and advocates differential learning programs to account for the difference in learning potentials that are dictated by the genes. I thought those arguments were not clearly articulated and I do not agree with all those ideas.

In any case, for a novice to these subjects, this book presents the best choice by weaving several threads in this large story and presenting how all these connect and intertwine. The blurb says this book is an "Instant Classic". I think I agree.

The HP Way - David Packard - Book Review

I was led to this book after reading Tom Perkins' Valley Boy. The book is somewhat of an inconsistent read though. It is part memoir and part Valley history. But partly it reads as the HP employee benefits package explaining the history and values of HP. You can learn about how Fred Terman mentored Packard and other entrepreneurs of the Bay Area. In turn, Packard helped other budding businesses (Tektronix for ex.) The book illustrates the spirit of cooperation amidst competition that existed in the hi-tech industry, HP and General Radio, for example.
Many of the practices that are taken for granted in the Valley companies like: comprehensive benefits program, profit sharing programs like ESPP, stock options, education reimbursement, etc., company offsites and company picnics, informal work atmosphere, de-centralized organization structure, open door policy, etc. all of these were pioneered or early adopted by HP.

The takeaway messages from the book are the principles of Management by Objective and Management by Walking Around. Packard talks about how the management works effectively by laying out the objective and leaving the details to the team doing the execution. He also talks about Management By Walking Around (MBWA), which balances the former principle. He talks about how the managers need to have a deep view of their business, including all the details of how execution happens. His approach for gaining that is by walking around the factory floor and watching everyone doing their jobs. He argues that detailed view is vital for effective management and that Walking around will help in overseeing exactly how the goals of a business are carried out and in correcting the mistakes that could happen in Execution.

The book although it was a very good read, it somehow did not fit together and did not feel complete to me. I still recommend it.

Quote of the day - from John Adams

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress. - John Adams

Rise and Fall of King Cotton - Book Review

This is a book about the history of Cotton plant. This is a very well written book. It is out of print now and can be either loaned from libraries or purchased from used book sellers. I loaned it from our library.

I grew up in a cotton town - Erode. My town was a big market for cotton clothes. I had many many friends from the weaving families and i had even visited their family handlooms and powerlooms. We had a spinning mill (natesar mill) in front of my house and everyday the mill workers came on bicycles with their lunch pails. When the siren went on, workers would enter and the earlier shift workers would leave. Occasionally there would be picket lines for the workers strike. Almost every month there would be union members standing outside and would shout slogans announcing their demands. I was naturally curious to know about Cotton. India was a major cotton producer in the ancient times. Indian cotton was the luxury fabric used for the Roman togas.

This book combines the history of technology of processing cotton with the social impact that the crop had on so many continents.

o Cotton was the crop that largely fueled the Slave trade and the Plantation system in American South.
o The Lancashire cotton mills employing poorly paid and treated workers and that produced cotton cloth were essentially funding the whole Slave operations!
o When American Civil War raged, it shut off the cotton from American South and thus pushing the British to go to India to source their Cotton. They had originally given up on growing cotton for their industries in India due to various reasons.
o Many of the Indian Railway projects that the British built were actually for transporting cotton! And many were funded after civil war, perhaps indirectly by the Cotton industry. The cotton crop was introduced in my home town Erode around 1819. I believe, the original railway lines (railroad) and railway station in my home town were originally built by the British. It is astonishing to know that it perhaps got built there only because of the American Civil war!

The book chronicles how many important inventions that made the cotton cloth production possible were invented by American and English inventors and how despite the patent laws, they were cheated out of their inventions by the ruthless capitalists of the early industrial age.

The book is a strong cautionary tale for the modern times. Technology, Trade, Consumption and Social changes all feed off of each other in powerful ways in both good and bad. There are plenty of examples that were contemporary to the cotton's development like: Automobiles. But there are also plenty of modern examples: internet, mobile phones, etc.

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World - Alan Greenspan - Book Review

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World By Alan Greenspan - Audiobook version

This is a very long volume. Thankfully, the audiobook version was very well produced and did not induce sleep despite the mundane subject that it covers - economics. Actually that is not quite true, because although Alan is the personification of an economist and the tone his memoir sounds very much like the his congress briefings, he covers a lot of history and current events. After all, he is the ultimate insider who was thick in the middle of so much action in the recent times.

He argues forcefully this book behalf of market based economy, rule of law, strong property rights, free trade and globalism. He expresses disgust at Nixon and George W's presidencies. He doesn't have much of an opinion for Bush Sr. He adores Bill Clinton as he probably achieved the most under his presidency. He readily admits that Iraq was was about oil. He proclaims that "the Republicans traded power for principles and ended up with none", which rings very true. He certainly does not come across as the "Republican Hack" as Harry Reid called him.

When i finished the book, i got a very good insight into how the macroeconomics works and i got a very good introduction into how the government regulates the monetary system. I am now very curious to read Adam Smith's book. I am going to start with P.J. O'Rourke's The Wealth of Nations.

I thought his long term economic preditions are a wash. They are very much similar to his famous Fedspeak pronouncements. It was like if we don't run into any crisis and if we dont screw up, we will do just fine in the long run. Thank you very much Nostradamus!

o I very much agree with his stressing of the "Rule of Law" and strong property rights as a key foundation to the Wealth of a nation.
o He seems to be still convinced that Gold Standard is a good idea. Similarly there are several instances where he seem to adhere to ideas that have more to do with Libertarian purity than being more practical.
o Regardless of his convictions he seems willing to set them aside to arrive at practical solutions under the rules of the economic system we have setup for ourselves. His libertarian bent and strong advocacy of free market economy seems to have checked the tendency of politicians to meddle in the economy.
o His argument that Adam Smith's approach won over Keynesian, Fabian and Marxist economic philosophies is very convincing. Having grown up in the centrally planned economy of India, I still remember the days when we had to stop the building of our house because of the cement scarcity. We had used up our quota, which was grossly inadequate for the building requirements, and we had to wait for the next cycle to get our next quota.
o His survey of the major economies was very interesting. He is very bullish on china, not very impressed with India, understandably so.
o He is very much against the dependence on foreign oil and optimistic about the technologies which can reduce that like: plugin hybrids. And the surprising thing was that he was not opposed to introducing taxes in order to promote and accelarate the adoption of green technologies that will reduce our oil dependence. I thought that was remarkable coming from a staunch libertarian.

However, he certainly seemed to have made compromises in order to remain in power. The constant support of Republican administrations, even when they pursued bad economic policies is a good example. He strongly supported Republicans even when Nixon imposed price controls. He supported George W Bush's tax cut even when the balanced budget was clearly resulting in widespread prosperity for the country and the tax cuts essentially would bring back the deficits.

Overall a very worthwhile book for understanding the world that we live in and the political and economic context of our generation. I highly recommend it!

Valley Boy - The education of Tom Perkins Book Review

This is a memoir from Tom Perkins a founding partner of the legendary Silicon Valley Venture capital firm: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

This book provides a rare insight into the personal dynamics between some of the legends of the Silicon Valley, Hewlett, Packard, Perkins, etc. It chronicles the adventures of founding new companies and in many instances new industries that generate billions in turnover. It has an interesting interview about Perkin's relationship with Danielle Steele, which talks much about the prolific author's writing habits. It also has a great chapter on building of Perkins' high tech yatch: Maltese Falcon.

These days venture capital has become a big industry that in many instances they don't provide the value in guiding a young company by providing the executive input and connecting it to the vital network of people that will help the company to succeed. Instead they just provide the money, which seems to be abundant these days in the venture capital industry. Even hedge funds are getting into providing venture capital and they provide nothing other than money to the budding venture.

For anyone living in the valley and working on hitech, i think this book should be high on their reading list. If you want to understand how the valley was founded and the values of entrepreneurship that still powers it and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, you must read this book.

In Defense of Food - Book Review

This book by Michael Pollan warning the public about the harms caused by our modern culture of food and eating is built around a simple set of rules of eating that he outlines:

Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.

The first one points out that the modern and scientific sounding inventions of food industry like "fiber rich", "vitamin fortified", "omega 3 enhanced", "protein formulated" etc. probably come at a high cost to us. The industry takes the basic food ingredients, processes them removing them of one nutrient or the other and then adds others to make up for the ones they removed like a mad scientist who always invents things that always have a downside to them.
He says: if any food is marketed for its nutrients, avoid it.

The middle rule talks about our culture of fast food, of removing the culture of eating from our lives and turning ourselves into food processors for the Food industry so they can sell us more food than we need, sell mindless nutrients instead of food and later sell food to deal with the effect of too much food and thus pocketing the profits.

The final rule talks up the benefits of not eating too much meat. It illustrates how humans had never in the past, late as much meat as often as the western world does today. It talks about how so much meat eating was due to the promotion of Meat by the Meat industry with ample support from government.

This is not a big book but it is well written and is a wonderful read.

Basic Brown - Book Review

For a memoir from a politician, this book from Willie Brown, the colorful and engaging mayor of SFO was a very gripping read. I loaned this from the library not expecting to read it within the 1 week rental period. I finished it in 2 days. I bought Hillary's memoir but never read more than 2 pages.

Willie fills the book with anecdotes, his political conquests and skullduggery, sacremento and san francisco politics, san francisco city vibes and lots of fashion tips.

o Im rather proud of the liberal and progressive roots of the Bay Area where i live.
o California is on the forefront of forward thinking legislation (Civil Rights, Environment, etc.) because of the liberal influence of our area and of the politicians coming from our area like Willie.
o As much as i do not like the politicians who tax and spend, I do not like the direct democracy system either. Proposition 13 is evil and took the pendulum in the other extreme. This is Athenian democracy and ultimately, it is not not very democratic. I like the Roman republican system better.
o Term limits are not evil. They are absolutely necessary for posts with a lot of power like presidents. But term limits for legislators are completly useless. Perhaps term limits for powerful assembly positions like Speakership could be term limited.
o Business people seem to have huge influence in the California government. Lots of bad initiatives come from down in SoCal.
o Anti Politician attitude may be good populist politics but not good for our civic system and government. Legislators control a lot of our lives and take a number of important decisions, you want it or not. So instead of bringing quality people into the system by paying them fairly, why treat them in a miserly way thus encouraging corruption? Im not convinced "Citizen Legislators" idea will ever work in the modern world unless you pay them properly.

I do not believe all of what Willie says in the book but a lot of it. I do not like some aspects of his persona but i do respect him much better than the likes of people like Gingrich, Dashle, Byrd, DeLay, Bob Dole, etc.

Very interesting book, i recommend it!

Guns, Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond

I listened to the audiobook version of this book
It is a treasure trove of facts, history and science and was intellectually stimulating.
The author uses anthropology, history, linguistics, archeology, etc. to make a case for his theory on how the European/Eurasian dominance of the world was due to environmental and geographical reasons and not a result of any genetic or racial superiority.
The book won lots of prizes. However, it had a lots of sweeping generalizations. Maybe in order to embrace his theory more completely, author did not spend much time on the shortcomings and determining factors, other than the environmental ones, of some of the areas of the world that did not fare as well as Eurasia.

Here are somethings i learnt from the book:

o Humans are so different. They come in all different kinds and they can survive in all kinds of places and conditions.
o The achievements of Australian aborigines who landed and colonized the continent probably about 60000 years ago are as amazing or more amazing than the european expeditions to Northpole.
o Polynesian people are fantastic. They could go on the unbelievably expansive pacific ocean in their puny canoes for thousands of miles and reach the island they intended to go land in. All using their neolithic technology and using only the stars and other natural elements as their navigatory aids. Im going to feel so little when i fire up my GPS to go to an address 5 miles away!
o Different hunter-gatherer people survived their entire life, just eating fruits, tubers, grubs and worms, moths and insects and occasionally some people ate others as delicacy when they had meager food and protein supply.
o Competition between countries is good for our collective advancement, as long as it doesn't involve violence.
o So called "advanced and civilized" people who call others "savages" or "uncivilized" or perhaps the real "uncivilized" ones because in spite of their so called advancements, they are unable to understand why other people are the way they are.

In summary, i was left with awe of our shared human heritage and with deep respect for the land, the environment that we live in, where ever we are, because the environment is what shapes our collective destiny.

Article on Ankle Pain and Injuries

Here is a very interesting NYTimes article on Ankle Injuries and Ankle Pain.

In a Sunburned Country

I listened to the audio book version of this. It had 10 discs. Bryson's books are very long but they are very interesting reading. I had read the Short History of Nearly Everything book and it was one very good reading. But i do not have the time or inclination for reading long books these days. Audiobooks are another matter.
I learned so much about the Down Under in this book. This book is a cross of a travelogue and a memoir. Many facts and historical notes and stories were narrated in such an engrossing way you almost feel mesmerized by the story telling.
I thoroughly loved it and at the same time learnt a lot!

firefox 3 upgrade!

I participated in the firefox 3 download record breaking attempt and upgraded my browser.
The upgrade was uneventful. The browser feels great! doesnt look all that different. Everything seems to work a bit faster.

Proxybutton plugin i had did not have a ff3 upgrade. So i downloaded FoxyProxy add on.
It works fine. QuickProxy addon installed but it did not work.

Now waiting for Thunderbird 3.0

Build Your Own Business Networks Course

Recently I attended this course and i thought of writing a post summarizing just 2 of the many lessons that i learnt in that course that will be of interest to the team.

Personally, I thought this course was somewhat timely given that we are now in the era of Social Network sites (facebook, linkedin, orkut, myspace, etc.). However, this course was probably written in ancient times (about 5 years ago) although the concepts taught here are very general and timeless.

Despite the title sounding somewhat like a jargon, the course is about how to build communication and relationships with the community of people that you work with and how to maintain them. If you draw a Network diagram and plot yourself and the teams and people you work with, as nodes in that diagram, that is your Business Network diagram.

So, Lesson 1. People networks and Business Networks are very similar to Computer networks. First, you need to establish connection. Then you need to keep the connection alive (periodic pings?). In order to derive value out of your network, you need to be ready to provide value yourself. And often, like good karma or a savings account, you may have to pay your dues to the network before reaping benefits.

These concepts apply to everyone. All of us have colleagues and other teams we work with. That is our internal business network. And our business networks are often larger than the slice that we interact with everyday(external network, previous colleagues, classmates, etc. etc.).

I related these ideas also to the Metcalfe’s law of networking: (which i think very much applies to the people networks as well) The value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system (n²).

But the important thing is to start today and set forth some time every week to nurture your network. Like gardening this is a job that never stops. Perhaps it is time for me to schedule that lunch meeting with a colleague that i haven’t met with in years.

Lesson 2: What do we get out of these networks?

Information, knowledge, knowhow and best practices, support among others. Often these will make the crucial input to turn a so-so performance into fantastic success. I saw that first hand in some of the simulated activities or group exercises in the course. We had 3 teams working together as a (virtual) corporation and our mission was to develop technology to manufacture a product (using rubber tubes, cans, buckets, water, etc.), transport it (after building bridges using blocks and wood) and deliver to the customer.

No team was able to work successfully all on its own. When the teams passed on information back and forth, they transferred knowhow and best practices and all teams gained very rapidly.

Project planning and execution

I am taking a class and they had an assignment where they gave the following list in a jumbled order and asked participants to order it as they see fit. This is how i ordered it. I thought it was an interesting exercise. Im sure different people can have a slightly different take on this based on how they see the world.

I also thought the list captured fairly completely a manager's responsibilities.


1 Set project objectives (desired results).
2 Develop strategies (priorities, sequence, timing of major steps).
3 Develop possible alternative courses of action.
4 Identify the negative consequences of each course of action.
5 Decide on a basic course of action.
6 Determine when and how overall progress will be measured.
7 Determine the allocation of resources (including budget,facilities, etc.).
8 Establish qualifications for new positions.
9 Define scope of relationships, responsibilities and authority of new positions.
10 Find qualified people to fill positions.
11 Identify and analyze the various job tasks necessary to implement the project.
12 Assign responsibility / accountibility / authority.
13 Develop individual performance objectives which are mutually agreeable to the individual and his / her manager.
14 Train and develop personnel for new responsibilities / authority.
15 Coordinate day-to-day activities.
16 Measure individual performance against performance objectives and standards.
17 Measure progress toward and/or deviation from the project's goal.
18 Deliver appropropriate consequences for individual performance.
19 Gather and analyze the facts of the current project situation.
20 Take corrective action action on the project (recycle project plans).

IPL Cricket Match - Kolkata vs Mumbai

Very exciting match! I saw the second part. Mumbai did a great chase on 137 with Dawayne Bravo and Robin Uthappa. Jayasurya did 3 wickets earlier.

this is kolkata's second loss. Chennai is still unbeaten!

Next Chennai match is on May 2 - Friday.

Points Table:
http://content-ind.cricinfo.com/ipl/engine/series/313494.html?view=pointstable

Geothermal heating

Article on heating or cooling home using geothermal energy.
Apparently the trenches needed for this system in the author's home is:
300ft long 5 ft wide 5 ft deep. That probably is the downside of this kind of system, requirement for large amount of backyard space.
But the technology seems very simple, using PVC pipes and a compressor and a heat exchanger, heat and cool your home with minimal electricity requirement. Sounds cool!

Stumbled into this article while following an article: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4245896.html?page=1

on low temperature geothermal power generation at Chena-alaska: http://www.yourownpower.com/

ipod nano and accessories

(originally posted on 7/29/07)

I finally gave in and purchased ipod nano (about $190) - silver from costco on july 2007.
When i went to buy sleeves for ipod, i noticed they are all overpriced (although stylish).
I settled for Belkin F8Z060 Sports Sleeve for iPod nanos (Black)
http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/B000DLB91A/ref=s9_asin_title_2-1966_g1/002-8483196-6299211?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=10P7AB0B31G0C33C74VM&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=278240701&pf_rd_i=507846
for $15 at officemax. it comes with a protective screen overlay and armband and it is a silicone sleeve.

I like the nano and the sleeve!

Cut and Paste while using vncviewer

In order to transfer data through clipboard and cut and paste, while using the vncviewer (realvnc or tightvnc) on windows machines (dont know if it is an issue on other OSes), you should run the app: vncconfig.
This is an X app, you start it per display and leave it running in the background.
This has options to enable clipboard data transfer.