Rework by Jason Fried
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Pick this up if you are thinking of starting your own company, or department. Provides a number of little vignettes regarding how to treat your employees, customers and culture. Throw out the mentality that bigger is better. Faster, simpler and honesty is better.
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
One of the most intellectually challenging books I have ever read. Funny how I finished this on July 4th! Her thoughts are especially relevant in the modern age.
I like a lot of Ayn’s philosophy, but why use 1100 pages when you can use 400? I do fault the book for being a bit too wordy during the impassioned speeches. There was a lot of redundancy and overlap and the story (which was excellent) could have progressed a bit more (especially in the early parts of the book) if characters did not feel the need to give 54 page monologs.
Perhaps all of our leaders have not read what she has to say, given the length of her work. She does have another book, "For the New Intellectual" which takes the salient points of her philosophy and the character monologs and breaks them down into little quotable chunks. You can use those at your next rally.
I NEED to be taken around the country to try all of these delicious styles:
http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2009/09/a-guide-to-glossary-of-regional-american-burger-cheeseburger-styles-and-cooking-methods.html?ref=skybox3
On a more realistic note, I hear Shake Shack is coming to Philly. Finally! Although they seem to be late for the burger Renaissance here. Not sure if they will unseat my much loved P.Y.T, Cavanaugh’s Rittenhouse or Square Burger.
Major updates:
In the next few weeks I’m planning trips to Denver and Chicago.
In the very immediate term I am considering making a ‘No Bake’ cheesecake and eating the whole thing for lunch (just because I can…)
So, yeah… Utter failure when you consider the fact that I haven’t touched this thing since December.
Work has gotten progressively busier and every week crazier than the previous. Honestly as each milestone has approached I (naively) thought that things would calm down, however it really just means we are on the road to the next milestone and we have to be even more insane than before!
I know, I know… no excuse. Sitting at home with not much to do today… perhaps I’ll find a new theme for this bad boy.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Wow, just wow. Having read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, I was already familiar with what Seth Grahame-Smith could do with a novel.
This was entirely different, but the writing style was fantastic. It was funny, engaging and most of all period based, which just made things fun. Written largely from the perspective of Abraham Lincoln himself, you learn about a whole different side of the President, and the real reasons for the Civil War.
busy day. total insanity at work as usual. this project is moving forward at 1000mph and it isn’t making any stops along the way.
Found this interesting today. This is the exact counter-intuitiveness one comes to expect with the telecoms industry.