Life in Prague
Monday Mar 03, 2008
Book Review: The Psychology of Harry Potter
Book Review: The Psychology of Harry Potter
Edited by Neil Mulholland, PhD
What Kind of School Is Hogwarts?
Nicely organized book starts with analysis of Hogwarts school. Lack of curiosity (except Harry and Hermione), memorizing at the expense of problem solving and creativity, intergroup conflicts; is that a school that any responsible parent would send kids to? Well, it seems that parents with magically-powered kids have no other choice. However, despite of all what was said, school at Hogwarts remains attractive, at least for us, muggles, since it represents high standard of morale, like a lighthouse in the ocean of today's instability.
And how about me? Do I support his free exploration of the world or do I rather pave the road for him? How much is the experience shareable? Does everyone must go through same mistakes?
Tons of questions in my mind flying around, exactly what I love, when reading inspiring books.
Conflicts @ Hogwarts
How easy is to create a competitive atmosphere? Is it a slippery slope
to a continuous conflict? Can competition help to motivate people? The
believe is that light competition is good, but think twice. Especially
if you're a manager. Competition and cooperation in the same time
within the same team is unlikely. So what do you support, what kind of
behavior do you provoke?Will Harry be OK?
That's actually interesting and thoughtful chapter too. Harry's
orphaned childhood is not the kind you'd like to live, though his
values remains intact by the derogation from his uncle. On the other
hand, his difficulty to start dating is worrisome, psychologists say.
Admired by his fanclub, hated later on, not able to keep long term
engagement. Well, I'm on Harry's side in this case, he's an introvert, so what.
Is the Book Readable by Non-Psychologits?
Yes. These essays, although written by different authors, are quite
readable. Cooked in very informal language, with flavors of magix
language, you can eat them all at once or pick what most interests you.
Nice extension to J.K. Rowling's bestselling saga for adult Muggles
that like to think about the life. Posted at 10:18PM Mar 03, 2008 by Pavel Suk in Books | Comments[2]
Monday Feb 18, 2008
Tomato Soup and Books at Amsterdam Airport
Tomato Soup and Books at Amsterdam Airport
Schiphol airport in Amsterdam is my favorite airport.
I always go for a bowl of tomato soup there, it's so delicious. Very
tasty, deliberately spiced. I also spend some money for books. They
have good collection of bestsellers, not only fiction, but also science
and mind inspiring books. So what did I buy this time?
- The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford
- Watching the English by Kate Fox
Posted at 07:26AM Feb 18, 2008 by Pavel Suk in Books | Comments[3]
Thursday Jan 17, 2008
Book Review: Chinese Business Etiquette by Scott Seligman
Book Review: Chinese Business Etiquette by Scott Seligman
No doubt, there are differences between US/Western and Chinese culture, one would have to be completely blind to ignore it. The question is how to overcome it, how to play the game, how to understand reasons for different behavior.
Scott D. Seligman, using his 2 decades of experience in China, is quite insightful while definitely not boring. His vivid style, full of examples guides you through a crash course in dealing with your Chinese counterparts.
Can you "lose face"?
Surprisingly, it's not just about business, it's also a fascinating book that uncovers different kinds of human motivation. Money doesn't have to be the primary engine, there is also an inner pride, position in society or - face. 'Face' that you can lose or gain.Imagine a typical situation, in which you disagree with your business partner. Scott's guidebook suggests using indirect methods, such as assigned negotiators, instead of confronting others directly. It helps the manager or the most responsible person on the other side to save face.
That phenomenon is illustrated on a rather extreme case from a personal life.
A girl, who wanted to break up with her US boyfriend preferred to deliver that message via her close friend, to save face of her fiancée in direct confrontation.
I bet he would have been more happy to hear it from her, but that's not the Chinese way.
Are U LinkedIn?
In the light of booming Web2.0 technologies, it's interesting to read
about Chinese society that's based so much on an informal network. The
system of multi-directional relationships reminds me of a corporate
culture, largely extended though. There is also a dark side of that,
like in old socialist Czechoslovakia, you really need to have
these connections even to do little things. Recommend Book Index: 5 from 5 stars
Admittedly, I can't compare the book with the reality, since I have
very little experience in that area. Sin-Yaw and a couple of people
from his
team that I work with might not be the best sample of a typical Chinese
person, but I found the book very helpful even in these little
interactions.I can surely recommend it to all people that like to understand different culture. Readable almost as a thriller, but you can also dive into a chapter that most interests you, if you don't have enough time.
Posted at 07:39PM Jan 17, 2008 by Pavel Suk in Books | Comments[2]
Sunday Nov 04, 2007
Freakonomics: Six Lenkas
Freakonomics: Six Lenkas
Steven
Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner in their book
talkes not only about incentives, as I mentioned in my last blog, but
also about hot topics, like abortion, crime, drugs or diminishing power
of Ku-Klux-Klan. Not being an expert in any of these areas, I felt
slightly manipulated by the data presented there.Abortion stopped the wave of crime in 90's
I bet abortion is very controversial topic in the US, since it's a nice
theme for gaining points in the political game. But it's a also very serious
subject and linking abortion rights with low crime is, well, strange.
At least.Although I do support the right for abortion, the assumption that the crime wave in New York stopped, due to the legalization of abortion is quite a strong argument that I can't easily swallow.
The author's illustration of that phenomena by using a revolution in Romania that went wild, due to all these unwanted babies is quite off. How come that the champion in statistical data somehow omit to consider other fallen regimes in that time, I don't know.
Am I also unwanted baby, since I was active student back in 1989, as many, many other students? I hope not.
On the other hand, I see the correlation between the pressure of communistic governments at that time, economical wealth and the desire for for revenge. The more you control, the more likely people hate you.
Six Lenkas I know
Final chapter is about parenting. I love first couple paragraphs. "A baby should always be put to sleep on her back - until it is decreed that she should only be put to sleep on her stomach". I laughed almost five minutes.
The rest of that chapter is not as humorous as that. Well, playing with all these lists of popular names was interesting at the beginning, but I lost track after reading the third list.
Popular names are subject to fashion, so what? There were three other Pavels in the class of 20 people, when I was a kid. There are 3 Lenkas in Sun@Prague that I work with. My sister is also Lenka, my sister in law is Lenka and my neighbor is Lenka too. The generation of Lenkas. Waves come and go, but how it's related to good parenting, I have no clue. It's difficult to apply St&St's method on non-clustered population, as Czech Republic.
Read it or leave it?
Mmm, depends. If you're looking for quick solutions, buy a cookbook, some
sort of Economy for Dummies or 100 Advices for Anything.
Even though I'd be careful to take all the data and
ideas as granted, as there are too many assumptions, it's very
refreshing reading. Very easy to understand and sometimes funny. And don't worry, it is not a book that requires an university degree in economics. On the contrary, all these real examples are very vivid, it's about life not numbers.
To sum up, if you like interesting questions, that stimulate other thoughts in your mind, go and read it.
Posted at 09:38PM Nov 04, 2007 by Pavel Suk in Books | Comments[2]
Wednesday Oct 31, 2007
Freakonomics: Incentives in a Real World
Freakonomics: Incentives in a Real World
I exchange books with some folks in the Prague Engineering Center from time to time and I've got an interesting one from Martin Grebac lately: Freakonomics written by Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.
QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS
- What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?
- Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?
- Would you rather send your kids to play with friends, whose parents have a gun or to a family house with swimming pool?
- How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime?
If you like provocative questions, Freakonomics is a book that you must read, although, you might come with different answers then the author[s].
What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?
This chapter is all about cheating. Or rather Incentives that drive specific behavior. Steven Levitt came with an idea that incentives, in addition to general economical meaning as financial incentives can also materialize in social or moral sphere. What motivates [some] people to clean up after their dogs in public areas? Definitely no financial pressure. Why people give blood for free? Can it be boosted by offering them quite nice sum of money?Or, speaking about bad behavior, why some teachers in US schools cheat? It's all about incentives.
BTW the author came up with a data mining idea for detecting the cheaters. Compare the statistical data from previous years, the same teacher, same class and look for patterns and deviations, that's the basics of his recipe.
WYMIWYG: What you measure is what you get
The chapter about incentives reminds me another slogan: WYMIWYG: What you measure is what you get. It's true in a positive as well as negative form. Imagine a company (can be of any kind of support, doesn't really matter), where people are measured by the 'Time to response'. Their motivation is to finish the call and close the case as soon as possible, which doesn't always mean that they helped a customer. Or not as much as the customer expects. Beside the example with real estate agents, that's nicely mentioned there, you might come up with other ones. Travel agent, that's motivated to sell you the ticket that's on the table, rather than spending a couple more minutes looking for the best price, is another example that come to my mind.I'll write a couple more comments about the book next time, but I wonder what your experience is with metrics-oriented organizations. Any thoughts?
Posted at 07:48PM Oct 31, 2007 by Pavel Suk in Books | Comments[2]