Monthly Archives: April 2005

I read 29 books in Q1 of 2005. I have broken SOME of them down into Must-Reads and Good Reads. Amazon links and the full list appears, as always, on the left side of my blog.

Must Reads:

1. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity – by Larry Lessig – Essential to understanding rights management around new media.

2. Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire – by Michael T. Kaufman – Excellent biography of the most influential private citizen in the world.

3. The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations – by James Surowiecki – Oodles of anecdotes, especially around behavioral economics, that are actionable and interesting.

4. Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life – by Steven Johnson – The best practical explanation of neuroscience and neurofeedback that I’ve read.

5. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim – by David Sedaris – Makes the utterly mundane hilarious and witty.

Good Reads:

1. A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles by Thomas Sowell

2. The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures – by Frans Johansson – Interesting ideas about the emergence of great insights.

3. Joel on Software – by Joel Spolsky – Some great essays on software development.

4. The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead – by David Callahan – Read the first 150 pages and don’t prepare to receive a cookie cutter solution to America’s serious integrity problem.

5. Hard News : The Scandals at The New York Times and Their Meaning for American Media – by Seth Mnookin – for journalism junkies only.

6. The Accidental Asian : Notes of a Native Speaker – by Eric Liu – Explores the blurring of the color lines. What does it mean, exactly, to be “Asian-American”?

7. The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Strategies for Products That Win – by Steven Blank – An excellent exploration of the customer development process.

8. Never Eat Alone : And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time – by Keith Ferrazzi – Some nice networking tips.

9. Race Matters – by Cornel West – Highly academic look at African American race relations in America.

In a week I’m going to re-cap all the books I’ve read Jan-April because there have been some real winners. But last night I was laughing out loud so much reading Me v. Everybody: Absurd Contracts for an Absurd World that I couldn’t wait to blog it.

Calling this a “book” is a little bit of a stretch – it’s officially a paperback but each page is on thick paper that can be ripped out for everyday use as the need arises. There are numerous joke “contracts” to use on some of the most important parts of our lives – how to determine who controls the remote, when and how to keep the toilet seat down when it is used by both genders, how to screw over the guy sitting in front of you on a plane who decides it’s within his right to recline all the way back, and various other situations that can only be resolved through a thorough contract. It is all really funny and I reccomend it for anyone who likes to laugh (or as a gift to a lawyer-friend). Some excerpts from one of my favorite contracts:

Guidlines for Air Travel Beside Unknown Individual:

Hello. I understand that I have the “pleasure” of sitting beside you on this lovely flight. As you can tell from my strategic placement of this agreement upon your seat prior to your boarding, I have absolutely no desire to talk to you. I could certainly pretend to be engrossed in a novel as you attempt to cram your Honda-size backpack into the overhead compartment above us, endangering everyone within a twenty-foot radius. Or, in response to your pleasant inquires about whether I am headed home today, I could feign ignorance of the English language, shake my head, and cluck meaningless psuedo-Slavic syllables. But in the name of honesty and forthrightness, I have chosen to engage you directly and inform you that I do not wish to befriend you merely because some random accident of geopgraphy and ticketing has led us to be seated next to each other.

I am certain you are a remarkable person, with myriad delightful tales to tell and a thousand interesting life experiences from which I might learn Something Valuable. Also, I grieve for your Aunt Violet and that whole eye tag removal mess she went through last week in Minneapolis. But unfortunately, I am already overdrawn on my account at the bank of compassion and caring. My current relationship and the demands of my nuclear “family” have drained me of empathy or the ability to feign same.

I therefore think it best that we refrain from the chitchit that routinely results from long-distance travel, often leading to embarassing personal disclosures and revelations unlikely to be offered to anyone other than our therapists under any other set of circumstances.

Personal Space
Having paid [blank] for my ticket, I am enttiled to one armrest; one headrest; and one square foot of floor space at my feet. Should you dispute these claims I am willing to a) wrestle you in the curtained-off food service area at the back of the plane, b) submit to a process of binding arbitration at any time with the uniformed flight attendant of your choice. Should you be toting more than 200 pounds of carry-on luggage; nursing more than [blank] mewling infants’ or be in possession of colossal thights and/or oversize arm fat, I ask that you stow such exceess cargo in the overhead.

The light and air vent over your head shall belong exclusively to you, as mine to me. Put another way, I do not like it when you use my air nozzle to blow-dry your beard.

I could go on, but my hands are tired.