| archives • main |
| archives • main |
|
NOW DISCOVER YOUR STRENGTHS 
Another pre-work book I read was Now Discover Your Strengths. Recommended by many and an interesting read. Especially in this way:This fixation with weakness is deeply rooted in out education and upbringing. We presented parents with this scenario: Say your child returns home with the following grades: and A in English, an A in social studies, a C in biology, and and F in algebra. Which of these grades would you spend the most time discussing with your son or daughter? Seventy-seven percent of parents chose to focus on the F in algebra, only 6 percent on the A in English, and an even more minuscule number, 1 percent, on the A in social studies. Obviously, the algebras grade requires some attention because to progress in school and secure a place at a college or university the child cannot to fail a subject. But the question was phrased carefully: Which of these grades would you spend the most time discussing with your son or daughter? Despite the demands of today's education system, does the most time really deserve to be invested in the child's weakness? It's quite amazing but totally accurate that we tend to concantrate on our weaknesses and how to make them better instead of using our strengths to circumvent the weaker areas. 
Here are a few more I've read since I last posted: Recommended by a friend: Paypal Wars was a very badly written but really interesting read. Quite interesting to see how many times they came close to closing up shop and how many stupid business decisions were made and how strongly they depended on paypal. 
And, of course, The Long Tail. Interesting and thought-provoking read and worthwhile for anyone who doesn't understand the difference between online and offline retail and the potential in both. There are many, many people in the world and their tastes and interests vary drastically. Not Fade Away 
So there are a few drafts I had left in my inbox before I started working at Google. I am going to try to post those (all have to do with books) first. I found out about Not Fade Away in someone's blog and decided to pick it up. I read the whole book in one day and enjoyed it very much. Here are a few quotes that really spoke to me:
And this, unfortunately, brings me to one of the most excruciating incidents of my childhood - one of those awful moments, totally trivial in itself, that you literally spent your whole life getting over. I tell this story as a plea to parents, coaches, teachers: For God's sake, be careful what you say when a child messes up! This is one of my biggest pet-peeves. Parents who speak without thinking, parents who think their children have the same sensitivity level they have. Parents who scar you forever. It would have been easy to finish that degree - easier than bolting. With the degree in hand, it would have been easier for me to land a job with one of the status quo watchdogs that with anybody else. Once I had the job, it would have been easier to amend my own beliefs that to change the organization. Thus, by increments so exquisitely gradual that they might have just passed unnoticed, I could have ended up being totally untrue to myself and living a life I hated. Twenty years later, I might have had a closet full of suits, a passport full of visas, and and irreparable feeling that I'd really blown it. Another beautifully poignant point. It's sad and amazing how quickly and quietly we lose control of our lives. How we wake up suddenly, years later, and we can't remember why we are where we are and how we got there. How easy it is to take the next easy step without thinking why and whether it's still a step on your eventual destination (assuming you still remember your eventual destination.) It's funny, in a way - our society warns us about the temptations of wealth and power, about the slender chances of a rich man getting into Heaven. But poverty has its pitfalls, too. Too little dough can erode a person's ethics and values just as easily as too much. |
| ©2009 karenika.com |