0 commentsRecent Books I've Read, by Nicholas Todd Gray
Ugly Americans, The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions. This book sucked but was a fun/trashy read - finished it in about five hours. I bought this because it was supposed to be about hedge funds and Tokyo, instead I got a lot of Soap Opera. The author is only famous because he lucked out with the brilliant MIT blackjack story.
Money From Thin Air, The Story of Craig McCaw, the Visionary Who Invented the Cell Phone Industry, and His Next Billion Dollar Idea. This book took me a very long time to finish - about half of it is rather dry reporting of McCaw's wireless license aggregation strategies, the other half covers his childhood and college years running his inherited cable company. Don't let the subtitle fool you - McCaw was less inventor than he was shrewd futures trader. The man myth built his entire wireless business with massive debt and junk bonds, and was eventually rewarded by AT&T's aquisition of his company. Fortune magazine profiled McCaw as "the father of cellular" in their latest issue. This book provided some great insight into the early 1980's days of cellular - true mobile telephone cowboys who realized a potential and took the risk. Great anecdotes about one of the most secretive business minds today.
On Our Own Devices, The Past and Future of Body Technology. A July read, and timely (considering my science eyes were on the horizon). A really great humans are monkeys read, because this book basically says, "Look how Man improves himself." From chairs to canes and tennis shoes to typewriters, this book was very informative (if a little bit boring at times). I learned a lot of random facts that I hope to remember in conversations.
Rules for Revolutionaries, The Capitalist Manifesto for Creating and Marketing New Products and Services. I met Guy Kawasaki when I was 17 or 18 - he came to Atlanta speak for his Garage.com company. I quickly introduced myself as he was leaving and blurted out, "Your newsletters ruined some friendships I had in middle school!" He stopped and didn't know what to say, but realized it was a compliment - we shared a nice moment and shook hands. This book strokes Guy's ego a little too much, and has a lot (and I mean a lot!) of common sense fluff. Still, there are a few gold nuggets and good motivational quotes, and it's a very easy read. As quoted throughout the book -- Create Like a God - Command Like a King - Work Like a Slave
Lately I've been listening to this book on Audible:
but I need something new to read. Do you have any suggestions? Please e-mail me.