All the Light we Cannot See

So many books have been written about World War II. I'm not particularly fond of books around war themes and yet, only in the last couple of years, I've probably read more than five novels that use WWII as the scenario for their plot (The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak  The Storyteller, by Jody Picoult; Winter of the World, by Ken Follett; Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, just to name a few).

All the Light we Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, is the title of the last novel I've read and its plot is also set during WWII. I agree with many people that has written reviews about this book that it is a beautiful novel. It is also terrible, and sad as all war books usually are.

In today's extremely interconnected world, in which data communications are ever present, for business and entertainment alike, it almost strikes odd to read a book in which the radio plays a central role in communicating people, for good as well as for bad.

If you are in the mood for a book set on WWII German occupied France this is an original story that you'll likely enjoy.

Thinking Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, summarizes the research that he has done over the past forty years; beginning with his work with Amos Tversky.

What Kahneman, through numerous experiments, comes to demonstrate, is that human beings are intuitive thinkers and that human intuition is imperfect. There’s a large part of the book dedicated to explain the many ways our thinking is biased and how humans make irrational choices.

I studied Economics in the early 80s. Although much of what I studied is buried is some rather inaccessible part of my brain, I still remember a couple of assumptions often at the core of much of what we were taught:  one was that “consumers are rational and make rational choices”, the other was the idea that ”consumers are risk averse”. I never felt quite comfortable with the first (this book proves that my intuition was at least correct that time)

Daniel Kahneman won a Nobel prize in Economics in 2002. Over the last recent decades his research has had a major influence in the area of Behavioral Economics. One key contribution is the demonstration that human beings do make choices that are not rational and this leads to real world results that significantly differ from theoretical predictions based on economics models.

Our “fast thinking” (system 1) is effortless, is an intuitive thinking and is actually the one that takes control most of the time. Our “slow thinking” (system 2) is the one we use to resolve complicated problems; it is effortful, requires attention and, interestingly,  happens to be slept most of the time and is “lazy”, often endorsing what comes from our intuitive selves (without realizing it). Our system 1 is, as Kahneman puts it “a machine for jumping to conclusions” even if there is very little evidence to sustain them and, consequently, our conclusions are sometimes wrong; especially when having to make choices in situations where there is a high degree of uncertainty.

Three interesting features of fast thinking are largely discussed in the book:

• People make decisions in a rather “narrow way”, focusing a lot on the immediate emotional reaction to an outcome rather than to long term consequences
• People are much more sensitive to potential losses than to potential gains, this tends to makes people unreasonably risk averse
• People tend to be optimistic and overconfident, and this leads people to take unreasonable risks

Thinking Fast and Slow is a long book, to read it takes time and patience. It is, I promise, a healthy exercise for our System 2. I found the time invested in it both enjoyable and instructive. 

If you’d rather read some serious review before trying the book itself there’s plenty available in the internet. Lastly, if you do not have much time but are ready to spend an hour having the author walking you through some of the main themes of the book here’s a video for you. Enjoy!

Volunteering will make you happier!

It's been a while since my last post. A new work assignment has been mostly responsible for my lack of  activity in this space.

Yet, despite the extra mental workload associated to changing roles and having tons of new things to learn, o maybe because of it,  I recently accepted an opportunity to do some volunteering job and it was great!

This week we are celebrating the International Women's day. Inevitably, comparisons between man and women are constant in speeches and working sessions. In the volunteering space some studies highlight that we women are ahead of man; I do not know how truthful this really is. One thing I know though: having a great time dedicating some time to help others has no sex.

I have the privilege of working for an organization that gives its employees plenty of opportunity to participate in volunteering activities. This year I decided to take one of these opportunities and collaborate with the Spanish branch of the Junior Achievement International Organization. Junior Achievement's purpose reads: "Junior Achievement inspires and prepares young people to succeed in a global economy".

To make this happen Junior Achievement looks for professionals in different industries and specialties that voluntarily conduct training sessions for young students, often in their schools.

So for a few weeks this year I went back to school. I put myself in front of a group of 17 year old and walked them through the materials of a program called "Skills to Succeed". Some themes resonated more than others and prompted more debate: for me those were the best moments. When you feel that the class is engaged in the discussion, there's participation, even disagreement. 

All my colleagues that have collaborated in this program could tell you great stories about it. If you have an opportunñity to participate I'd recommend you go for it! You'll be happy!

Modern work key characteristics and their impact on people's values and feelings

For most of my professional life I've been working for a large global organization that, in my opinion, is an excellent example of today’s modern way of work. Themes like team work, collaboration, change, the upsides of taking risks, re-engineering, network-based organization, flexibility, short-term results, etc. are all very familiar to me. I in fact live surrounded by constant positive messages about them and about how important they are for all of us to succeed in our jobs.

A few weeks ago I came across a book that, like so many others in my house, has been sitting idle on a shelf for years: TheCorrosion of Character by Richard Sennet. This book was published in 1998 and when I started reading it I though “maybe after all these years whatever I find here is going to be outdated”. Well, I was wrong.

What I’ve liked most about the book is that it gives context and structure to these themes of modern work I’m so familiar with. He is however not so optimistic about them…through numerous examples or real life situations and personal interviews he explains the downside of modern work characteristics and their negative effects on people’s values, people’s sense of achievement (or, even more, failure) or people’s commitment.

Sennet’s book is not overly optimistic. I really want to think that many organizations, like the one I work for, do make a genuine effort to avoid or minimize some of the risks he points out. After reading the book, though, I can more clearly see organizations and individuals alike have a great challenge ahead to balance mutual needs and overcome the issues and the risks of today’s ever changing work’s demands.

Summer Reads

Summer vacation is a wonderful time to spend discovering new places, doing a little exercise and resting from it with some entertaining book in my hands. And this is pretty much how I spent it this year.

I began this year with a few novels written in my mother tongue, usually this means I can read more, faster and effortlessly. Not this time though. After the third book, that - ironically - I had found somewhat violent, I decided to switch gears and try something different: a crime fiction novel.

“The Bat” is the first of Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series. I picked the book on impulse, without knowing anything about it or its author. Harry Hole is a somewhat unorthodox and alcoholic police officer that, of course, resolves the crime and makes the murderer pay for it.

Jo Nesbo is an Scandinavian author. One reason I picked his book is that I made a mental association between him and another Scandinavian that became extremely popular around 2005 with his Millennium Trilogy (Stieg Larsson). Strangely enough, I enjoyed Lisbeth Salander’s stories very much (so much for non-violence!). A pity Mr. Larsson did not live to enjoy his success.

Mr. Nesbo has lived to enjoy his success though and has continued to work to extend it further. "The Bat" is an entertaining story, plenty of very troubled characters that have to live with themselves every day and do so with different degrees of success. I guess this is definitely an ingredient that helps readers to connect with the book and the characters. Yet, I’m still not sure why the Harry Hole’s series (more than ten novels, I believe) have become as popular as it seems they have: maybe I should pick up another one soon and see what other cases await for Harry to resolve.