Taking a unique perspective on how historical figures built their cultures, this book gives an in-depth explanation of the great significance of culture to a company and summarizes workable strategies and techniques for building a business culture. Author Ben Horowitz is one of the best-known angel investors in Silicon Valley. He’s done unique in-depth research in the fields of business, leadership and culture. We also have a bookey on his other book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things. In the book we are talking about today, Horowitz doesn’t focus on successful cases of business culture building but takes a unique perspective and tells us historical anecdotes about leadership and team culture.
There are many legends and unsolved mysteries in human society. Are there aliens in the world? Do people have souls after death? Is there life on Mars? The universe is vast and human knowledge is limited. In places out of science’s reach, pseudoscience and superstition seep in to take advantage, creating a confusing and complex situation. In this fog of uncertainty, how can we distinguish the true from the false and avoid falling into the trap of pseudoscience and superstition? This book seeks to give us the answer. The author of this book is Carl Sagan, a famous American astronomer, popular science writer and science fiction author. Sagan was dedicated to scientific research and had a passion for popular science. He made great achievements in popularizing science, and science fiction, such as the classic 1997 movie Contact, which is based on his novel of the same name. Sagan believed that pseudoscience and superstition have infiltrated all aspects of human life, and if people do not discriminate between the various claims, then the whole society will fall into gullibility, ignorance and darkness.
During the battle of World War Two, in the Japanese-occupied city of Nanjing, China, posters were plastered in every corner encouraging unarmed Chinese civilians to return to their homes. The soldiers on the posters were depicted as being kind and generous, with illustrations of them embracing children of civilians and distributing food to those in need. The posters read: "Come home! We will give you food! Trust us! We will save you!" However, when those thousands of citizens eventually returned to the city, what awaited them was brutal torture. Some of these unsuspecting and defenseless people were cut open or nailed to tree trunks and sliced like meat. Even more appalling, some were sprayed with gasoline and then shot at, while others were forced to sit naked on the hot coals from stoves. Some of the victims had acid thrown at them until their skin began to erode, and others had their organs directly eaten by the Japanese soldiers. As if this weren't horrific enough, an even great...
What is it like to be poor? If you ask a person who is not poor to imagine what poverty is like, they may say that poverty includes socioeconomic difficulties. However, no matter how poor someone is, life will go on. After all, they may be thinking, poor people are also living a life, just like everyone else. If you find yourself agreeing with this, you might be someone who’s socioeconomic status has limited your imagination of poverty. The book Nickel and Dimed, albeit old, illustrates to those who have not lived at or below the poverty line in America what life is like, through the words of the author’s experience tasting that life herself. The author of this book is Barbara Ehrenreich, who identifies herself as a feminist, democratic socialist, and political activist passionate about writing on social issues that she sees in the United States. Although she came from a working-class family, she earned a Ph.D. in biology and started a career in writing that eventually lifted her ...
A survey has shown that by 2020, there were roughly 4.54 billion Internet users worldwide, with a penetration rate of 59%, an increase of almost 300 million since 2019. Globally, social media is used by 3.96 billion people—approximately 51% of the world population—with a year-on-year increase of 10%. The Internet has now become an integral part of most of people’s lives. The internet, however, is a double-edged sword. Although the Internet has brought with it many conveniences, it has also burdened us with problems such as information overload and dependency on the virtual world. You may have noticed that much of the time, our brains have become accustomed to taking in information in a superficial manner, and that we are no longer able to hold our attention with matters that require deep thought. How have our brains changed? What are the consequences of those changes, and how can we circumvent this problem? The Shallows will provide us with answers to these questions.
From a geopolitical perspective, Israel is arguably the world's worst country, suffering from issues with wars and terrorism. Moreover, Israel's land area of 25,000 square kilometers is mostly infertile. The Negev Desert has about 12,000 square kilometers and occupies almost half of the entire Israeli territory. However, the harsh climate conditions don’t stop the country’s development. In 2014, The National RandD expenditure of Israel and its per venture capital ranked first in the world. The number of Israeli enterprises listed on NASDAQ ranked second globally, and the country’s GDP was over the average of other developed countries. So, the question is: what secret does Israel hold to keep thriving? Anyone who briefly knows the country's circumstances and historical background would ask the same question. The book Start-up Nation offers some ideas and answers on this puzzling quest. The authors believe that cultural factors such as the emphasis on education, no blind belief in ...
Today we will unlock the book The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors. This book details the history of the regime change from the fall of the House of Lancaster to the rise of the Tudors for nearly a century. In June 1420, a triumphant song rang out from a church in the city of Troyes., A young girl wearing a crown and extravagant wedding dress, walked solemnly towards the church accompanied by a band. Her distinguished groom, a scarred faced, battle-weary warrior, wore stately and luxurious attire. The church was packed with well-dressed lords, knights and noblewomen who gathered to witness the wedding while 1,600 soldiers stood guard outside the church. The two main characters in this sombre ceremony were King Henry V of Lancaster, England, and Catherine de Valois, daughter of King Charles VI of France. The pairing formalized the partnership between England and France and put Henry V in control of Britain and France. Henry V won the Anglo-French war wit...
In 1990, to the shock of even its founder Sam Walton, Walmart’s profits reached $1 billion for the very first time, representing a colossal leap in profits from the $41 million the company made ten years ago. Wall Street investors were equally shocked, as they continually derided Walmart ever since its listing on the stock market. Even with the company growing so fast, they still claimed that Walmart would never be able to keep going with such a business model after it reached $1 billion in sales. When Walmart reported annual profits of one billion dollars, they started to say that everything would fall apart at ten billion dollars because you just couldn't manage a company that big with so few down-home management philosophies. As you can see, the supposed Wall Street experts embarrassed themselves time and time again. Under Walton's leadership, Walmart became the world's largest retailer by 1990. Many statistics prove its massive scale of influence. At one point, every week Walma...
This book presents us with thorough research on a manipulation tactic called gaslighting. Where does this name come from? During the initial stages of her research, Dr. Stern couldn’t quite put her finger on the phenomenon. Despite this, she knew that it was there, and it was real. Then, she recalled the term ‘gaslighting’ that had occasionally been used since the release of a 1944 film called Gaslight. In this film, a husband convinces his wife that she is insane, in order to take her inheritance. At first, the wife maintains her grip on reality, but as he manipulates her perceptions of reality, she begins to believe that what he says is true. His main argument centers on her hallucinating that the gas lights in their house are dimming, while in reality he is controlling them. The husband in the movie is consciously manipulating his wife in order to obtain her tangible property. However, in real life the one doing the gaslighting – the gaslighter – often doesn’t realize what ...
In this era of rapid development, the standards we set for ourselves are getting higher and higher. We all strive to be competent in our jobs, to stay healthy and fit. For that, we set multiple goals urging ourselves to accomplish them all at once. However, have you ever experienced anything similar to the following situations? You want to get fit, so you pay for a gym membership. But then, because of working overtime, you don’t even make it there once. It makes you feel like a failure, so you decide to try again next year. Or your New Year’s resolution is to achieve higher performance at your workplace. But when one of your projects does not go according to the plan, you choose to give up on your goal. You believe that you are simply not smart enough, so no matter how hard you work, it won’t make a difference. You feel extremely disappointed with yourself, but in reality this phenomenon is common. According to one study, 92% of New Year’s resolutions fail. That means that only ...