Voice of the DBA

Tag: reading

  • Reading Recommendations (Twitter is cool)

    Twitter is an amazing beast. More and more I find myself getting useful information and ideas from Twitter. For someone that works at home, it’s a great window into the world outside.

    A couple days ago, a friend posted that they were looking for a science fiction book to read, and were there any recommendations. I dropped one back and didn’t think about it.

    The next day the person posted back that they liked book x, y, and z, and did anyone else have a recommendation. Four or five people chimed in and before long there was a science fiction list going back and forth in a number of tweets. A few people recommended books back to me, and I even picked up one of my own recommendations that I had read as a kid, and grabbed a sample on the Kindle App to remind me to get to it again.

    So now I have these samples on my Kindle to start reading again:

    • Daemon – Danial Suarez, and the Freedom as the next book.
    • Titan – John Varley
    • The Gunslinger (Dark Tower Series) – Stephen King, I read this a long time ago, but the recommendations from friends will have me try it again.
    • Foundation – I read this in high school or college and I recommended it, but I only read 3. There are 7, so I’ll try this one again.
    • I, Robot – Never read it. Recommended to me.
    • The Second Ship – found on an Amazon recommendation
    • Star Soldier – Another Amazon recommendation found while looking at those above.

    I’ll get to all these this year, but it’s cool to get a few recommendations.

  • Another E-Reader

    023BW No, it’s not a new device. This time it’s my son, Delaney, who has been reading on my old iPhone regularly.

    He started when he got through a series of science fiction that I had purchased in paperback and wanted to read the last book. Unfortunately I only had it in e-reader form, and told him he could buy it, or read it on the  Kindle app. I had upgrade my iPhone this year, and kept the other one as a spare. He grumbled a few days and then decided that saving some money was worth it, and he read the book electronically.

    Then he accessed my library, and read 6 more science fiction books I had in there over the next few weeks. Recently I asked him what he thought of e-reading. He had been down on it at first, and wasn’t thrilled with it. A month in, he answered in the same way as my wife (and me).

    “It’s really convenient.”

    He told me that worrying about battery was a little hassle, but not a big one since we have iPod chargers all around the house. He said that the screen was a little small, and he’d like to be able to flip less, but ultimately he said that being able to just go to the next book, and having 5 or 6 or 100 books in your pocket was cool.

    He’d started carrying the iPhone around, especially on errands. He’ll read in bed, in the car, before karate, just about any place, and being able to immediately get the next book, or switch books, is huge for him.

    I think that’s the best part of e-reading. I do miss the covers, and would like color for a few things. I’d like better imaging for photos of illustrations, but for the most part, convenience far outweighs all of that. I can hold my iPhone and read for a much longer time than I could with a Kindle device. But ultimately, being able to buy books from Amazon, BN, or anywhere else is the key win for me.

  • Drive

    59075814[1] I saw a short talk from Dan Pink a few months back from this year’s TED conference. It’s very cool, and worth watching. After watching the video, I bought the book, Drive.

    This book goes through some the reasons why we are motivated to do things. It looks back at some of the older notions of motivation, mostly the carrot/stick  techniques most of us have been exposed to. It talks about the ways that we have tried to reward people and get more work, or better work, from them.

    It does this with a mix of stories and research that Mr. Pink has done, with economists and psychologists, with interesting results. The talk summarizes it, but the book then backs it up with great examples. There’s a look at Google’s 20% time, Fed Ex days from Atlassian, and Best Buy’s ROWE work structure.

    The main thrust that I’ve seen from this is that people want three things in their lives: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. We want to direct ourselves, we want to get better, and we want to make a difference. In my life, I had thought that better rewards motivated me, but as I grow older, I’m not sure that’s the case. I think that autonomy and mastery were key drivers, and purpose is becoming more important.

    It’s a great read. If you liked Outliers, or want to try to grow yourself and become happier in your career, or even manage people better, I think this is worth the read.