Amr Eldib's Reviews

The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies

Tue, 06 Jun 2017 00:00:00 -0700

Andrew McAfee’s TED talks (Are droids taking our jobs? and What will future jobs look like) are my go-to reference for anyone looking to understand the potential of automation and AI and how it could impact jobs and work. I started reading this book after watching the authors talk at Google, which I recommend as a good overview of what to expect from this book.

This book is a good primer on the current status and potential of automation and AI. The authors think through the possible impact of these changes and offer ideas of how to minimize damage and improve results. They follow a healthy attitude towards automation; neither cheering for it or warning about it, but rather accepting it as a likely future and thinking through its implementations.

The authors aren’t afraid to say “we don’t know” and offered honest assessment for the likelihood of their predications.
I disagree with some of the ideas, especially their critique of universal basic income. However I found some of the other ideas impressive and thought-provoking like how when humans and machines work together they can produce better results than machines on their own. The section on improving education is a recommended reading for everyone.

I recommend this book for anyone looking to understand the upcoming changes in Automation and AI whether they have read about the subject before or looking for an introduction and overview.

Quotes from the book

The second half of the chess board

82%

Only self-motivated people take advantage of the freely available online courses while their peers are falling behind. This means that, unless we make sure its impact is more wide spread, digitization of education is widening the gap, not closing it

93%

If machines can do better job than humans at a certain task, pairing humans with machines can produce an even better job

Little Rice: Smartphones, Xiaomi, and The Chinese Dream

Mon, 26 Sep 2016 00:00:00 -0700

Clay Shirky’s easy style of writing takes you on a trip through the busy corridors of a tech mall in Shenzhen to discover how China became the economic powerhouse it is today, and how its citizens are still struggling through poverty and climbing to the middle class.

Xiaomi, the young maker of a successful line of Chinese-designed and Chinese-made smartphones, is the focal point, but is only the beginning of a much larger story, a story about China’s economic rise, its struggle to achieve economic freedom while maintaining political control, a story about the changing relation between hardware and software and which is the main seller of products today, a story about the new reality of selling products online and directly to customers, and a story about the maker movement and its effect in a country where they actually make everything.

This might seem like a lot of stories for a book with only 130 pages, but Shirky gets to the point directly and dives deep enough into any of those topics to offer the background needed to understand how all those stories are connected to each other. I really enjoyed how the book is seem to be written for the Internet-age, where there’s so much other stuff to read. The book doesn’t repeat itself, just gets to the point, illustrates it completely and thoroughly and moves on.

The book certainly opened my appetite for more books and material on China’s modern history, economic rise, and the possibilities for its near future.

Highly Recommended.

Quotes from the book

Page 15

The first day the note was offered, it sold out in 3 minutes. Xiaomi raised $41 million in their first round of funding in 2010. As 2014 closed, it was not yet 5 years old and is valued at $45 billion. It is, by several metrics, the most valuable startup ever.

Page 16

To give you an idea of the scalpel-like removal of the free play of ideas from public conversation, the government agency in charge of media has banned both time travel and the use of puns in certain kinds of writing, as both forms allows for alternate meanings that might threaten government narratives.

Page 25

The people who flood online conversations with pro-Beijing sentiment are called the 50 Cent Party, on the, appalling but false, idea that they are paid half a yuan for every post. But even this is not enough, so the government is now recruiting members of the Communist Youth League to be part of a volunteer online propaganda group, each of whom would agree to participate in at least three “sunshine comment” campaigns a year.

Page 43

In January 2015, it sold out of the Mi note, it’s priciest phone to that point, in three minutes. In May, and Mi Bands, Xiaomi’s Fitness tracker, sold out in India and 7 Seconds. Xiaomi was given a Guinness world record for selling over 2 million phones in 12 hours on Singles day, beating its previous record. In the case of the 7-second Indian sale, only 1000 Mi bands were offered.

Page 49

The concern was that instead of buying phones from Xiaomi and re-selling them, as China mobile does, the knockoff stores would sell fake phones of the Sam Song/Svmsmvg sort. The irony of a Chinese electronics firm worrying about copying was lost on no one.

Page 50

Michael Anti, a Chinese blogger who’s often censored by Chinese authorities, notes that many social media services are required to have their servers in Beijing, to simplify surveillance.

Page 91

China used more cement in the first three years of this decade than the US used in the 20th century. Much more 6.6 billion tonnes to 4.5

Page 119

Xiaomi is bad news for the models of manufacturing that starts with Hardware first, rely on unit sales without engaging users, and sell things in store. There will always be some products that have to be made and sold that way, but everything with a chip in it (and increasingly sizable subset of everything) is a good candidate to be sold Services-first, and online. As we know from companies like Tesla, even cars, the most valuable manufactured item anyone buys, can be sold online with only perfectionist impulses keeping local dealerships free from competition.

Page 120

The car company Daimler decided to try a flash sale of their two-passenger city car on WeChat and sold 388 of them in three minutes.

Page 124

China is bigger than anybody, but it’s not bigger than everybody.

Whistlestop

Tue, 13 Sep 2016 00:00:00 -0700

John Dickerson’s easy, funny and details-rich style of storytelling is probably capable of making grocery lists interesting, but he doesn’t have to count so much on his skills in this case since the stories picked for this book are already interesting.

While some stories can be harder to follow if you’re not familiar with the history of its period, you can still enjoy them as just stories. Stories of men hailed as heroes or deemed as villains of history, and sometimes forgotten to be just men. The scene-setting details in each story removes the spectacle of history and shows the characters of the story as men stressed out and vulnerable to emotions while making decisions that they understand their historical implications.

I’ve been an early fan of the Whistlestop podcast which led to this book. This, of course, meant getting the audio version of the book with Dickerson’s narration.

In a US election year, this book doesn’t just offer fun stories from elections’ history, but also puts into perspective some of the not-fun stories from this election. Some of the stories reflects this current election either by mirroring many of its events, or by providing explanation of how we got here.

Recommended.

Bush

Mon, 01 Aug 2016 00:00:00 -0700

Good detailed summary of the Bush administration with focus on Iraq (of course). The book doesn’t hide its criticism of Bush and his decisions. One good thing that the book illustrates is Bush’s world view, how he sees the world, his role in it, and how he approaches making decisions.
Going through all the Bush years in one book like this can be very depressing given the number of huge mistakes he did. I’ve read many books before about each one, but to have them all in one story is a little shocking even though I’ve lived through these years.
You also get to understand Bush’s point of view. Once you understand how he sees the world, it’s easy to understand how he approaches his decisions. The book focuses on the small number of Bush’s accomplishments especially the AIDS initiative. It’s certainly an important accomplishment, but it’s essentially charity work. It shows that Bush has a good side, but as an ill-informed rich person, his idea of helping amounts to giving money. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s a normal thing.
The book is almost entirely secondarily-sourced with very little original reporting. It’s understandable that very small number of people from the Bush administration would be willing to talk about the Bush years. But it’s important to understand the book for what it is. It’s not breaking any news and discovering long hidden secrets. It goes into details about certain parts of the Bush years, but given the amount of details about each of those years, the book doesn’t go into so much details.
If you’re not familiar with the Bush years, or have any illusions about how bad they were, or forgot how bad they were, read this book.

Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right

Sun, 28 Feb 2016 00:00:00 -0800

Absolutely scary
It’s no secret that the Koch Brothers spend a lot of money to influence elections, any observer of US politics knows this. But learning about the extent and scope of their operation is another thing. It amounts to money-laundering for the purpose of influencing politics.
It’s not just the amount of money being spent, but the scope of their goals, the size of their operation, and how much ROI they’re getting so far.
If you’re interested in understanding today’s US politics, this book is an essential read.

The Martian

Thu, 07 Jan 2016 00:00:00 -0800

Matt Damon is stuck on Mars. NASA wants to save him. They do.

The movie seems to have forgot to have an inspiring message of hope and hanging in there during the movie, so they added a scene at the very end to do just that. It's a good scene, but it's only one.

The movie has this subplot about how NASA worries about its public image, which is understandable. I'm sure every organization considers that in their decisions. However, this subplot have very little consequences, and doesn't really make much sense.

The movie's message is very simple: YAY Science!

Watch it on TV. Or, maybe read the book, everyone says it’s good.

Mission: Impossible - Rouge Nation

Thu, 07 Jan 2016 00:00:00 -0800

Solid action movie.
People tend to dismiss Tom Cruise but in the past two years, he delivered two solid actions movies; Mission Impossible and Edge of Tomorrow.
I really like how the movie has a strong female lead who is as much an equal to Cruise as any other. To make things even better, the movie avoids any BS romantic subplot between the two leads which these type of movie usually have. Instead, they have a deeper unspoken bond of two people who understand what it’s like to be the other.
The movie is, of couse, a mission impossible movie with the usual MI tricks which is expected. However, I really like how every time they seem to have locked themselves in a corner, they got out of it in a reasonable manner. It made sense in the movie-logic.
Recommended

Inside Out

Thu, 07 Jan 2016 00:00:00 -0800

Inside Out is pretty clever. It doesn’t give up on the complixity of the issue, but offers it in a simple way. It embraces all of our emtions and doesn’t deny any of them, aiming for reaching a balance.
It highlights how emtions, that are usually deemed negative (e.g. sadness), are part of who we are and can serve us well if we let it do its part.
It’s amazing how this complixity is offered in what is considered a kids animation movie. This is what movies should be like; doesn’t scarifice the story for entraining the audenince.
Recommended

Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution

Sun, 09 Feb 2014 00:00:00 -0800

Very good overview of the relationship between Google and Apple and it’s affecting the present and future of smartphone operating systems. It’s mostly known information for people who are following the tech industry but it’s put together very well and still has some new information that I didn’t know about. Good read.

Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel

Thu, 23 Jan 2014 00:00:00 -0800

Very detailed, excellent reporting, and very depressing.
This book is a true eye opener. It’s not as if my eyes were shut to Israel’s actions against Palestinians, I knew about that. But Israel’s actions against its citizens, whether they’re Arabs, Africans, Russian, or of any other race or background were shocking.
While the book was truly depressing sometimes, just because of the sad state of humanity, this book is really a must-read for any defender or opposer of Israel.

Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture

Fri, 27 Dec 2013 00:00:00 -0800

One word: Fantastic.
I can draw a Venn diagram to describe this book. It would be three awesome circles: True Story, Told like a dramatic story, About Games. This book is at the intersection of these three circles. I can enjoy the story with all its drama, I can learn about all that happened, and I can have a wide smile when I remember all my childhood days playing those games.
If you played any of these games as a kid: Wolf 3D, Doom, or Quake, read this book.

Double Down

Mon, 18 Nov 2013 00:00:00 -0800

As all squeals, this book as a squeal to “Game Change” is also over hyped, disappointing, has few elements from the first book, will sell a lot of copies because you’ll read it any way.
The 2012 election wasn’t as exciting of a story as 2008. You can try to play it any way you want, you can listen to all the news media repeating how “this is the most important election of our life time”. Well, they say that about every election. It just wasn’t.
Maybe it was an important election, it certainly sealed the fate of Obamacare. If Romney won, it would’ve been the end of Obamacare, not because Romney would’ve repealed on the first day as he said (which is absurd and stupid) but because his win would’ve been a mandate to repeal Obamacare. Just as Obama’s win was a mandate to go ahead with it, as all of Obama’s other policies.
The election, however, wasn’t as exciting. Because Romney is boring. Because Romney is a weak opponent to Obama. Because the cast of characters in 2012 wasn’t as interesting as that of 2008. Because 2012 wasn’t a historical moment as 2008.
Comparing the book to Game Change will negatively affect your read. However, you can’t really avoid the comparison. The authors are asking you for it. “Game Change 2012” is right there in the title. However, they didn’t stand a chance in getting the same scoops they did in 2008. It’s the kind of book that could only be written once. The book actually tells a story about the Obama camp fighting leaks to two authors writing a book about the ongoing campaign. That’s when you’re no longer only telling the story but also part of the story.
It’s maybe unfair to judge this book only by comparing it to “Game Change” which explains the 3 stars. However, I recommend it anyway for all of you, political junkies.

This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral — plus plenty of valet parking! — in America’s Gilded Capital

Wed, 31 Jul 2013 00:00:00 -0700

If you always hated Washington, now you have a detailed explanation for “Why?”.
This book is a collection of stories witnessed by the author (a long time Washington reporter) who not only knows these stories first hand but actually participated in some of them.
The book’s tone is funny but aware that it’s about a very serious topic. It comes off as “sad to be laughing about this”.
The book can feed the cynicism about Washington, but mostly it’s the acts of the characters in the book that are feeding that cynicism.
There’s no grand conclusion or “Here’s my 37-point plan for how to fix Washington”. It’s mostly like “I’ve lived there and knew these people and thought you should know this”.
It’s an excellent read, and I recommend it.

باب الخروج

Sat, 04 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

أهم حاجة لازم تفتكرها وإنت بتقرأ الرواية ديه هي إنك لازم تكمل للأخر .. أوعي تستسلم .. أنا مش هأقدر أحرق لك القصة لأن الغلاف فيه النهاية والعنوان دليل الخلاصة والصفحة الأولي فيها كيف تنتهي الأمور
أهم حاجة هي إنك تكمل للأخر
ممكن تكره المؤلف عز الدين ف النص كده .. وممكن ما تطيقش شكري بعدها بشوية .. وقبل النهاية ممكن تصل إلي إنك تلعن آل فشير كلهم .. لكن ف النهاية لازم تعترف إنه عبقري
أهم حاجة إنك تكمل للأخر
الرواية هي عبارة عن دراسة منطقية للأوضاع السياسية بناء علي خبرة المؤلف كدبلوماسي ودكتور في العلوم السياسية .. الدراسة تتخيل ما يمكن أن يحدث وما يجب أن يحدث ولا يحدث في إطار درامي قد يدفع الأحداث إلي قمة درامية لكن بدون مبالغة لا يمكن تصديقها
إذا ما قرأت كتاب “في عين العاصفة” لنفس الكاتب وهو تجميع لمجموعة مقالات في مرحلة ما بعد الثورة تجد تشابه بين الأحداث الحقيقية والدرامية
بالتأكيد أنت لا تحتاج لقراءة هذا الكتاب لأنك بالفعل عايش الأحداث الحقيقية
أهم حاجة إنك لا تيأس وإنك تكمل للأخر
أحداث الكتاب أحيانا تبدو متسارعة .. يمكن ده كان إحساسي لأني قرأت 500 صفحة في 3 أيام
الأحداث تنتقل مما يحدث لوطن إلي نقاش عن العلاقة بين أب وإبنه بسلاسلة مريحة
لغة الكتاب وتسلسل القصة مريح وسهل
والخلاصة من الرواية هي أهم حاجة لازم تفتكرها وإنت بتقرأ الرواية أهم حاجة إنك تكمل للأخر

Grand Pursuit: A History of Economic Genius

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Oh My God, this is a long book that is not easy to read.
I mostly read non-fiction and I enjoy political and historical books with boring numbers, dates and statistics, but this is something else.
I’m not really familiar with the history of economics. I know a bit about economics, enough to get me through the publicly available details of the 2008 crisis. However, this is about history as much as it is about economics. It’s how all these principles came to be. It’s the countries, houses, families, personal stories, wars, upbringings and biases that made these theories what they are.
The book’s language is not easy, it’s formal, a bit old (at least for my taste). The book moves between personal stories, public stories, and economic principles. This makes harder to get a grasp on what’s going on exactly.
History is complicated, and what the book does well is moving you into whatever period it’s discussing and really getting a feel of how things were. It’s a nice straight forward story of events. It’s not focused on one person, one country, or any one focus point. All the stories are connected, where every character builds on the work of the character before it.
What the book does well is give a very good idea for why economics is important and how it really impacts our lives.
I’ve finished the book over about 18 months because I left it for a long while. I’d like to read it again now that I know all the characters. Second time would provide a better understanding, but it’s not easy to read.

The Price of Politics

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

I’ve really enjoyed Woodward’s first book on the Obama presidency “Obama’s War”. I came out of it with the idea that Obama is (and I’m quoting my 5-stars review of the book) “a thoughtful leader who is engaged with the issue, familiar with the details (does his homework), open to different opinions, and doesn’t want to micro-manage”. The Obama in this book seems like a completely different person. Many times in the book, it’s stated that “there’s no one is leading in the White House”, “They didn’t have a Plan-B”, and “He (Obama) didn’t offer anything”.
Maybe the first book was wrong and this one is right?
I kept reading and found how many details and how accurate are the descriptions of the meetings in the White House and among its staff. On the other hand, there are very little (in comparison) details on how the Republicans operated. All the details about that came directly from interviews with named staff members, implying that this is how they thought rather than what actually happened.
This is how the book comes off as biased towards the republican’s point of view.
Woodward doesn’t do a good job in following the time line of the events. There are a lot of gaps and it seems selective sometimes.
But he does a terrible job in explaining what any of the proposals actually mean. It’s a lot of Washington talk and acronyms briefly explained once with not a lot of details all the time. Because they are so many proposals that are changing all the time, it’s impossible to keep track of what is what.
One thing you can take away from this book very clearly is John Boehner is not on the wave length as Eric Cantor who is clearly going for Boehner’s job at some point. It seemed to me that Boehner wanted to get a deal but Cantor didn’t.
Still, for any political junkie, this is a Woodward book and it’s an election year. This is on any body’s top 5 list for now.

Last Days of The Pharaoh

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

A look behind the scene during the last days of Mubarak’s 30 years of rule over Egypt. It’s a good story, and the author does a good job reporting. However, it seems to have be put together in a hurry, I found two obvious errors in the book. The author was quick to correct them after my email to him. It’s an ebook release, so the author can make changes easily. Good read.

Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

This book is more like a collection of stories about members of Congress than it is a coherent narrative that tells a specific story. It certainly tells stories about the same time period (112th United States Congress), and naturally the same events but it doesn’t tell the same story or even one story. It’s mostly, I think, what the author was able to find out about these congresspeople that he covered during that period of time.
Some of these congresspeople are Democrats and some are Republicans but mostly the focus is on the Tea Party congresspeople (mostly, congressmen).
The most fascinating character has to be Allen West. The author treats him that way, and he is that way. The book seem to revolve around Kevin McCarthy but Allen West seems the most colorful character. He’s a man of his conventions, has a view of the world and no length of discussion or strength of argument will change that. He seems sincere but mostly a moron who refuses to accept reality to be able to change it.
The book is mostly a first draft of history. It’s a lot of individual stories that you would find in a newspaper article collected in a book. It draws a picture of these congresspeople and what they’re like, beyond their press statements and policy positions.
I’ve listened to an audio version of the book and the narration is good. It’s difficult to follow at time because there are too many characters to follow.
The book is a good warm up for the 2012 election.

Catching Fire

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0700

I’m not thrilled with this book.

It felt like it’s written to please readers with unexpected twists (that are totally expected if you watch enough movies or read enough novels) and love triangles (built out of thin air) extended to keep readers hooked. Story still doesn’t offer any ideas behind the mere progress of events. No deep exploration of characters, war, society, nothing. It’s just a confused young girl being confused. She has amazing abilities when it fits, and is young and innocent when it fits.

Maybe I’m just not a good reader of fiction or the book is too long to enjoy it like a movie (2 hours with complete focus), or maybe this book is just over-hyped.

The Hunger Games

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0700

I’m not much of a fiction reader. I prefer movies. Easier and much more time efficient. Go ahead, disagree with that.
I watched the movie first. Hated the first half hour, and got really excited during the rest of the movie. Got really intrigued at the end and couldn’t wait to know what happens next. So, here I am.
The novel definitely offers more than the movie. It gives more back story, and details where the movie offers quick scenes.
I can’t really comment on the story unless I know how it plays out. Not necessarily how it ends, but what’s the idea behind the story, what it’s trying to say. This part I still don’t get after the first part.
It was easy to read the first part, because I watched the movie. Characters had faces of actors.
I look forward to the second and third books.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

I was only 100 pages into this book when I started recommending it. Another 150 pages and I continued to recommend it. After I’m done with it, I’m here to go on the record to recommend this book.
I have to admit that big part of it for me that it’s the right book at the right time. Reading a book about how habits work while in the middle of trying to be more active, lose some weight and other personal projects is just a great fit.
However, I still think that this is a great read and the book makes a great case about how and why do most of the things we do on daily basis. Gaining self-awareness about your good habits can make them better and more sustainable, and understanding your bad habits is the start of how you can get rid of them.
The book isn’t one of those books about self improvement or how to be a better person. It’s just a collection of stories of people, organizations, communities applying science or just good sense to make their lives better. Even though the book contains a chapter at the very end about how to take advantage of all these stories and apply them to your life, it doesn’t do that in a form of a plan or “10-steps to better habits”. This is a big relieve for me.
Sometimes the author gets a little carried away with the theory of how habits is the base of all behavior. That still doesn’t take away from the book being a great read. The author is able to move easily from one story to another, give the right amount of details and keep you interested.
This book doesn’t really fall within my genre of books that I usually read, but I really really enjoyed it.

The Bridge

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

I’ve read quite a number of books about Obama, from the ones that were available during the 2008 campaign like David Mendell’s “Obama: from Promise to Power” to the ones covering his first year in office like Richard Wolffe’s “Revival”, Bob Woodward’s “Obama’s Wars” and Jonathon Alter’s “The Promise”, not to mention Obama’s two books. I list these books to brag but rather to show how David Remnick’s book “The Bridge” is different.
Even though Remnick’s book goes through all the events of Obama’s life like any biography would, it offers an analytical look into those events. It reviews Obama’s first book and tries to look into the author’s intentions sometimes. It’s a little skeptic on some aspects of the author memories of certain events. Maybe my focus on this analytical look is because I’ve read an Obama biography before, but I think it’s also because it’s the intention of Remnick who chooses to cover the 2008 campaign in its relation to Race rather than cover the day to day events or uncover new secrets like “Game Change” does for example.
However, the book does shed some light on events that weren’t covered in other biographies of Obama like this time in Hawaii, the story of his mother, the process of selecting him as president of the Harvard Law Review, and other.
One thing I like about “The Bridge” is the dive into the history of other characters that affects Obama’s life even in indirect ways. The election of Harold Washington as Mayor of Chicago is a good example. Also, I liked the review of Obama’s performance as a Law Professor, it’s a good indication of how thinks.
I listened to the audio version of the book and the narrator does a good job at changing voices to reflect the different characters participating in any dialog. He’s at good pace and made following a 20+ hours books easy.
“The Bridge” is a good biography of Obama whether you already read another biography or not. Hope you enjoy it too.
Watch David Remnick on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart interviewed about the book.

MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for A New Best Friend

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

I thought this book is about finding new friends, but actually it’s about a woman finding new girlfriends. That’s its biggest flaw for me, I’m not the target audience.
However, I really enjoyed the author’s easy style of writing, how she moves from one story to another with ease and how she switches from stories to facts, statistics, and quotes from psychological studies about friendship.
The book can get too ‘girly’ at times, not just for me but I think for most people but that’s understandable given the author’s fascination with pop culture in general, Harry Potter, Glee and Entertainment Weekly which she reads cover to cover.
On the other hand, the author offers great information on friendship, making friends, and relationships in general. She uses number of books as a source (The Lonely American, Bowling Alone, and others) but also meets with a Professor who is an expert on the issue.
The book doesn’t offer any grand conclusion on the experience, it chronicles the author’s experience throughout her quest to make friends in a new city. Sometimes it can get a little bit repetitive, but you can enjoy the progress she makes in approaching new “friend date” as she calls them.
Don’t try to keep up with all the people that she meets, there’s way too many of them. You can use the author’s husband way of remembering them; “the one with the …”. You can enjoy how the author come up with all those different ways to meet new people. This falls into a “tip and tricks” type of information, it can be very helpful. There’s plenty of those tips regarding how to approach people without scaring them away.
You can see throughout the book how trying to make friends can make you more social, even if you don’t end up with a new BFF, you can still enjoy the benefits of being more open to new relationships, more adventurous, and more at ease when talking to strangers.
I’ve listened to the audio version of this book. I’ve found the narrator to be very good. Her normal tone matches the spirit of the book; happy, discovering and uplifting. She does an excellent job of switching between all the different characters (and there’s a lot of them).
In general, I found the book to be a fun read. I’m not really the target audience but it was a nice break from all the serious (and mostly depressing) books I normally read. The book can be too happy at times, but most of the time it will just make you laugh.

The Big Short

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Amazing Story, Beautifully Told
In the tsunami of the economic crisis of 2008, there’s a million story. I’ve read many books on the topic and they cover it very well. “All the Devils are Here” covers the history. “Too Big To Fail” covers the top guys on Wall Street and Government during the crisis. “The Big Short” tells the story of few people who, while not connected at all, saw it coming. Not only did they see it coming but also made ton of money off of it.
Michael Lewis have a talent for adding a human touch on a tough cold subject like economics and trading on Wall Street. He dives in the background of the characters deep enough to make us understand why they do what they do but not too deep to make us bored with characters that are not known to the general public.
I don’t really have many comments on the book itself other than the story is well told. I have lots of comments on the content of the story but I don’t want to spoil it. All I can say is, this is probably the closest an economic story comes to a horror story.

أوبنتو ببساطة

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

مجهود ممتاز لتقديم نظام التشغيل أوبنتو للمستخدم العربي المبتدئ يميزه الإسلوب البسيط في الشرح مع الإلتزام بتعريب المصطلحات وتقديم بديلها الإنجليزي وكذلك الخطوات المفصلة لتنفيذ كل العمليات الأساسية كنت أتمني أن يتضمن توجيها لمستخدمي ويندز علي إعتبار أن الغالبية الساحقة من القراء هم من مستخدمي ويندز أصلا وليسوا من المبتدئين بإستخدام الكومبيوتر هذا التوجيه يمكن أن يتضمن كيفية إجراء العمليات الأساسية علي ويندز وكذلك كيف تترجم مفاهيم ويندز إلي ما يعادلها من مفاهيم في أوبنتو

In The Plex

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

I thought this would be a fan-boy book.
There’s a big part of this book that is just about telling the story of Google. How it started, how it has grown to be the Internet giant that it is now.
But it’s the Google story told by a journalist with a long relationship with Google. This doesn’t affect his integrity but I think it makes him sees the world as Google sees it. Judge Google by their intentions rather than their actions. He’s like one of those “embed” journalists that travel with the U.S. forces in Iraq. After a while, he starts to be one of them. This issue confirms my guess that this is a fan-boy book.
But as I read on, the author raises questions about Google losing its soul (my words not his), and how it was transformed from an Internet startup to a giant corporation, and how all this affect Google. He’s not a fan-boy, he’s a fan of Google for sure but the way it was not necessarily the way it is or would be.
The story is told in terms of topics and products. Starting with important products to less important topics and failed products. This causes some jumps in the time line forward and backward which could be frustrating. At least I felt that sometimes it lacks connecting all those stories together.
There’s a focus in the book on technical details. They’re explained in plain English in a way simple enough for a reader to understand but are also very intriguing for a developer or a person with technical background.
There are two stories in the book that I was impressed by: Google’s approach to Data Center and Google position towards China.
This book is a good read and I recommend it if you want to find more information on Google or want to see the world as they do.
Thanks to Ahmed Essam (Goodreads profile for recommending this book.

The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Excellent reading of the story of Radio and TV to predict the future of the Internet. Must read for anyone concerned about the Internet.

C# in Depth

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

I like that this book have a friendly tone. It’s not a reference book, but C# in Depth is true to its title. You would like this book if you are a C# developer for 2 years or so and now you’re tired of solving all problems with the simple tools of for loops and if statements. Maybe it’s time for something more.
The book assumes that you at least know C# 1.0 (VS 2003 and .NET 1.1) and it moves through C# 2, 3 and 4 to build on the features of each version.
Sometimes you’ll find this way a little irritating because for example you heard about this LINQ thing and you just want to jump to it, or because of the author’s references “we’ll discuss this 2 chapters down the road”. But I think that the way of moving through each version is helpful because sometimes you’ll work on an application that is required to be developed for .NET 2.0 and nothing more. Then, you’ll understand that you can’t use LINQ, extension methods, etc.
The book have a friendly tone with the occasional humor which takes away some of the dullness that comes with reading such a book which is closer to studying than to reading.
The author is very knowledgeable of the subject. If you don’t know Jon Skeet then probably you haven’t been on StackOverflow.com where he is a celebrity.
Sometimes the author would delve too deep into a detail and you’ll find yourself totally lost, just continue and you’ll get out fine on the other end. You’ll find yourself coming back later to that section and going through it once again to better understand. Even if you don’t, you’ll know enough to remember it when you need it.
One tip, try out the code samples. I found myself building on those samples and trying out different situations. It was helpful.
In short this is a great book if you want to step up your C# skills.
I want to thank @EmadMokhtar (Goodreads profile) for the recommendation.

House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties

Wed, 11 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Normally, I try to find something in the book that makes it not eligible for a 5 stars rating because nothing is perfect. Most of the time there’s is something in the book that takes away that 5th star. This book is not one of those.
It’s full of information, told in a way that keeps you anticipating as if it’s a drama, and most importantly all these information and story lines are backed by references to sources including books, congressional records, declassified memos and reports.
It might be a little difficult for someone who have no prior knowledge on the topic to keep up with all the characters and the names. It’s especially difficult because most names are in Arabic and English and if you don’t know one of the two languages, then half of the names are difficult to keep up with. However that is a minor issue comparing to the amount of information provided in the book.
This book is totally worth reading (or listening to the Audio book like I did).

Revival: The Struggle for Survival Inside the Obama White House

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

I don’t disagree with the theme of this book. Obama is a revivalist who wants good for America. Republicans are bad. Yet I don’t like the way the case for those conclusions has been made.
Richard Wolffe is not one of those partisans who are biased to one side over the other. He present himself (or at least I see him) as a journalist whose opinions are based on facts and grounded into reason. And in making the case for any of those conclusions, he would demonstrates the facts and reasons for those conclusions. Unfortunately, this is not the case here.
While the book is full of analysis to the transformation of the Obama campaign as it moved to the White House and faced the realities of governing, it’s light on reporting. There are no new insights into the White House as you find ‘Game Change’ does to the 2008 campaigns.
One thing I really didn’t like is making assertions about people and policies without explaining how did you jump to those assertions. One example is the description of Larry Summers.
The book maybe right about conclusions but that is not what you look for in a book. You can get that in a short TV segment. Maybe my expectations were wrong.
The book makes a good case for Obama. It’s a good chance to see things how Obama sees them. It reflects the authors knowledge of the president.

Being Geek: The Software Developer's Career Handbook

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Being Geek is an interesting read. Michael Lopp is able to capture that thought in your head and articulate it on paper. But that only works so many times.
Some of the chapters in this book are so good and so matching my experience that I wrote some notes on the side while reading the book. Other chapters, I don’t even know what he’s talking about.
Most chapters revolve around their title. The author sums up a certain situation - which is the center of this chapter - in the chapter title. To explain the title, the author explains the situation and then sum it up with the title and keeps referring to the title and if you fail to ‘get’ what the title is and what the situation is, the rest of the chapter becomes very boring. So you get something like the ‘Holy Shit Moment’ which I still not sure what it is despite the fact that it’s a common phrase I very well understand.
If you liked ‘Managing Humans’ (Lopp’s first book) or you like this genre of books about the software development process in a non-technical way, you’ll find this book interesting.

Obama's Wars

Sun, 26 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

I really enjoyed this book. I found it to be a great read.
The book follows the events of the strategic review of Afghanistan before Obama reached the decision of deploying additional 30,000 troops that would be withdrawn in July 2011.
I like how the book gives an insight into the decision making process in Obama’s white house, the tension between the WH and the Pentagon, the dynamic of the different people participating in the process, and the balance that Obama tried to strike between making progress in Afghanistan and ending the war to focus on domestic issues.
You can see why the WH embraced the book, Obama comes off as a thoughtful leader who is engaged with the issue, familiar with the details (does his homework), open to different opinions, and doesn’t want to micro-manage. On the other hand, the Pentagon comes off as not boxing the President in, but rather failing to deliver the options he requested.
However, there few things I didn’t really like including:

The storyline is not really of a story. It follows events rather than characters. So, there are a lot of gaps that left confuse sometimes.
There isn’t much background on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Places are not illustrated with maps or anything.
Regardless, I really enjoyed the book.

Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race

Sun, 26 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Not as good as America the Book. Not great as an Audiobook. Hard cover version is much better.
America the book was more of a single story with some related stories around it. This is more of a collection of stories bound together with one story.
I liked that it made some serious points on few occasions.
Not for children at all. Way too many sexual references.
The stuff about religion is just not funny.
Still thinks The Daily Show is great.

Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System from Crisis — and Themselves

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Confession: I didn’t read this book, it’s too long I had to use the audio book. 22 hours of personal stories and minute-by-minute account of what happened from the collapse of bear stern to the TARP program. Lots of background stories about the participants and there’s a loooot of them.
Let me list some issues and observations I have on the book:

There’s way too many characters and way too many details to a level that cast doubt on the author’s ability to collect all that information. To his credit, he puts a disclaimer that some of the stories are sourced by only one source with no way to prove them. This makes the book a way to understand the circumstances of the crisis not to make a historical account of what actually happened.
If you’re new to characters, try to find pictures of them (which is available in the hard cover and the paperback)It helps remembering who is who.
The book mentions nothing about what caused the crisis. This was a disappointment for me as I was looking forward for that part.
The book gives a kind look at the heads of financial institutions that participated in the crisis, their history, their families, their short comings in their careers and lives. Sometimes it make them look like the people who were unfortunate enough to find themselves in the middle of a perfect storm and not the ones who caused it. Though at the very end, the book describes the executives insistence on avoiding limit on bounces and reveal that the true intension of quickly paying back the TARP money is actually their desire to access their bounces, it generally gives executives a favorable treatment as people who are racing to save the financial system.
One of the things that struck me is the ease with which people on such high level managing huge financial institutions deal with important decisions. The number of possible merges between huge companies is big. Meetings over the weekend, phone calls to ask “Do you want to buy JP Morgan/Lehman Brothers/etc.?”. It just amazes me.
Read the book but don’t count it as the only account on what happened, it’s only one version of the story. The story of what happened, not what caused the crisis and who’s to blame.

Rework

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The feeling I got when I read the praise of the book in the first few pages was “This book is over-praised”. When I finished it, I still have the same feeling.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think that if you’re gonna challenge the foundations of doing business, you gotta back it up with something more that “That’s how we did it, and it worked for us”.

The book makes a great case against all the elements of doing business (planning, raising capital, meeting, communication, workplace, organizing, etc.) but it doesn’t offer strong alternative and it certainly doesn’t make a strong case for the alternative that it’s offering. Some of the criticism is just ridicules like Don’t make long term plan and Stop calling yourself an entrepreneur, call yourself a starter. Who cares?
A lot of the criticism is filled with “.. that doesn’t mean you should do away with this item, because it’s still important..”. If it’s still important then why come out against it like it’s some kind of a disease.
Other criticism falls under the category of a clever argument rather than a logical one, like “Learning from mistakes is overrated”, you should instead learn from your successes. Well, what if I’m just starting and all I have is my first failure??

Some ideas are just confusing. On page 159:

And of course, you want all that right away. So you drop everything else you’re working on and begin pursuing your latest, greatest idea.
Bad move.

And on the same page

So let your latest grand ideas cool off for a while first.

On page 271:

Inspiration is like fresh fruit or milk: It has an expiration date. If you want to do something, you’ve got to do it now. You can’t put it on a shelf and wait two months to get around it.

(eyes wide open of amazement)

The book offer some good ideas when it comes to marketing and hiring and more importantly it offers you a chance to break out of business traditions that has been built over decades and now accepted as a given. The point you should be taken from the book is that you should break free from all these rules and follow only the ones you feel that they make sense but it doesn’t make it that clear.

One very important thing is the book audience. This book is NOT for people working in any industry. Most of the ideas of this book are more suited for digital industries (especially software) rather than more transitional industries. What is worse is that the book doesn’t offer that distinction, it actually states very clearly that this book is for anyone who started a business, wants to start a business, or even working in a job they hate.

To sum up, “Follow your heart” is good motivation to jump off the cliff of career security into the uncharted territories of starting a business, it might be helpful from time to time when making decisions but it’s not a business strategy.

The Promise: President Obama, Year One

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The fairly liberal author really likes Obama and his accomplishments in the first year, which is not surprising but it becomes very obvious sometimes (even for me, someone who favors Obama) which is not good for a book that is supposed to be a very early draft of history of the first year of the Obama presidency. However, the book is full of details about what happened in the first year (even though they mostly favor Obama) and more importantly it offers details on Obama’s management style and his attitude towards the commander-in-cheif and top executive job. Enjoy the details of the book (especially, if you’re interested in politics like I’m) but remember that it’s a first somehow biased draft of history.

Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Even though the authors of this book don’t provide evidence on many of their stories, the reason for that is understandable and the stories are reasonable on many aspects (except for stories about the Edwards who are very surprising, but now seem to be not surprising at all).
One thing the book does is (unintentionally?) compare the three candidates (Obama, The Clintons, and McCain) and their attitude towards the different events they faced throughout the campaign and you can draw your own conclusions on how attitude - not just plans and strategies - greatly affected their campaigns.
Something I really love about the book is its story-like way of stating what happened. It sound like a novel rather than actual events. Of course, the drama of events itself helped with that but the writing style also did.
“Game Change” is a great read and really good look into the insides of American politics as it played out on the 2008 presidential campaign.

Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Clay Shirky’s ability to witness changes in our lives due to the Internet and social media, and support that with stories from all over the world is still great.
Building on what he started in “Here Comes Everybody”, Shirky breaks down social media into main components: Means, Motive, Opportunity and Culture.
The book is full of stories from all over the world about the effects of social media on people’s lives and they’re told in a way that makes it interesting even if you’re not interested in the topic of the book.
The book doesn’t come to a verdict on social media, it’s still a running process that is just starting.
The book slows down sometimes and gets a little repetitive, but it’s still a great read.

بين الصحافة والسياسة

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

رغم تعدد الكتب التي كتبها محمد حسنين هيكل إلا أننا لا نعرف إلا القليل عن الرجل فهو قليلا ما يتحدث عن نفسه تمسكا بمهنته كصحفي شاهدا علي ما جري وما يجري حتي أنه في أحد كتبه يروي عن حدث هو نفسه مشارك فيه ومع ذلك لا يروي الحدث من ذاكرة ولكن من واقع الوثائق التي تذكره.
في هذا الكتاب يكسر محمد حسنين هيكل هذه العادة ويتحدث عن بداياته في الصحافة وعلاقاته بالسياسة قبل وبعد الثورة إلي أن يصل لخروجه من الأهرام وخلافه مع السادات.
الكتاب - برغم أنه بصيغة الراوي - إلا أن محمد حسنين هيكل لا يمل عادة الإستعانة بالوثائق التي تحمل أسرارا صادمة تغير من النظرة إلي كثير من الشخصيات العامة في مصر

How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Reza Aslan digs deeper into history and gets to the roots of terrorism, religious violent movements, islamism. All to describe what is a cosmic war and figure out what’s the best way to win it.
With his easy style in writing slowly and smoothly moving from one aspect to another and careful linking of different events that spans across hundreds of years. “How to Win a Cosmic War” is a recommended read.