Books

... that I've read lately...


The Big Short by Micheal Lewis

This book chronicles the root cause of financial collapse of fall 2008 to present. Lewis does a great job of taking a ridiculously complicated subject and laying it out in terms that were simple enough for me to grasp. Lewis has an interesting background - he used to work for a large financial firm in the 80's strait out of college. This was when the first investment banks turned public, a fact that contributed to the overall downfall of the system. He believed then, that the financial system wasn't a sustainable model and it was due to collapse sooner or later. He decided to get out while he still could - about 2 decades to early. The story follows the odd mix of characters that saw the crisis coming. What I got out of the book was that the government intervention was indeed needed to stabilize our economy (as opposed to just throwing money at the auto industry) and though that seems to have helped, virtually nothing has been done to insure that this won't or can't happen again. Its a good lesson in due diligence and keeping a logical perspective even if everyone else is doing the opposite.


Switch: How to Change Things when Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath (they're brothers)

A great book about how to change peoples' minds and actions. I picked this book up to help me with my job, but its relevant to anytime you're tying to enact change. It has tons of examples and is an easy read. They break down the techniques for effective change into 3 categories; making the logical case, an emotional case and shaping the path so that the easiest way is the change you want. I strongly recommend it.

Anybody have any suggestions of books for me to read?