Books of 2009

Here's the annual rundown of books I read this past year:

Chris Anderson	FREE: The Future of a Radical Price
Paul Arden	It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be
Brian Ashcraft with Jean Snow	Arcade Mania: The Turbo-charged World of Japan's Video Game Centers
Julian Baggini	The Pig that Wants to be Eaten and 99 Other Thought Experiments
Stephen Baker	The Numerati
Alan Beattie	False Economy: A Surprising Economic History of the World
Michael Chabon	The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Stephen M. R. Covey with Rebecca R. Merrill	The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything
Tyler Cowen	Create Your Own Economy: The Path to Prosperity in a Disorganized World
Chris Denove and James D. Power IV	Satisfaction: How Every Great Company Listens to the Voice of the Customer
Niall Ferguson	The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
Mark L. Frigo and Joel Litman	Driven: Business Strategy, Human Actions, and the Creation of Wealth
Neil Gaiman	Odd and the Frost Giants
Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves	Interworld
Benjamin Gilad	Business War Games: How Large, Small and New Companies Can Vastly Improve Their Strategies and Outmaneuver the Competition
Seth Godin	Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
Sasha Issenberg	The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy
Craig Karmin	Biography of the Dollar: How the Mighty Buck Conquered the World and Why It's Under Siege
Koushun Takami	Battle Royale
Stephen Leeb	Game Over: How You Can Prosper in a Shattered Economy
Jonah Lehrer	How We Decide
Martin Lindstrom	Buyology: How Everything We Believe About Why We Buy Is Wrong
Danny Meyer	Setting the Table: the Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business
Haruki Murakami	What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (A Memoir)
Dan Roam	Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
John Rolfe and Peter Troob	Monkey Business: Swinging through the Wall Street Jungle
John Rosenberger, John Nash and Ann Graham	The Deciding Factor: The Power of Analytics to Make Every Decision a Winner
Peter Sheahan	Flip: How to Turn Everything You Know on Its Head and Succeed Beyond Your Wildest Imaginings
David M. Smick	The World is Curved: Hidden Dangers of the Global Economy
Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams	Wikinomics
Dana Thomas	Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster
Rob Walker	Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are
Carlos Ruiz Zafon	The Angel's Game
Various	What Matters Now

Fewer fiction on the list this time around, and a fair bit of pass-along reading from my dad. While there are a couple of misses on the list -- didn't much care for Flip! or Create Your Own Economy -- there are several that are absolutely exceptional, such as Free, The Sushi Economy, What Matters Now, and what I feel was the best book I read this year, Buying In.

All in all, a great reading list for 2009. As for 2010, I've only got three books on queue right now (one of which is my copy of Nancy Duarte's Slide:ology that's been sitting on my shelf for months!), so suggestions are very welcome.

What Matters Now

I read Seth Godin's Blog. In fact, I think more people should do so, too, because a.) he's brilliant and b.) his blog is one of the most insightful sources of business perspective on the Internet today. That and because he shares links to equally interesting content, such as when he blogged sometime back about the free ebook, What Matters Now [download].

It's a collection of essays from a veritable who's who of respected authors and opinionmakers who, individually, should rate on anyone's reading list. Tom Peters. Elizabeth Gilbert. Chip and Dan Heath. Guy Kawasaki. Arianna Huffington. Dan Ariely. Chris Anderson. Kevin Kelly. The list goes on and on. To each, a page to write about things to think about or do altogether making for an enjoyable and powerful piece of reading.

I won't mince words: read it. You'll thank me later. On second thought, don't thank me. Like Seth Godin and the different personalities he convinced to contribute to What Matters Now, I'd rather you spread the word, pass it along, and share it with those who matter to you. Ask them to do the same. I'm sure you won't regret it.

Joy

This set of woodcarvings are from a Christmas store we passed by in Carmel-by-the-Sea during our last trip to the US. All in all, a nice way to keep things in perspective this holiday season.

The Christmas Tree 2009

For posterity: here's the Christmas Tree that the wife and I bought, assembled and decorated for our first Christmas together.

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

(The accompanying loot is quite respectable, too, I should add!)

The War of the Lions

When Squaresoft (now Square Enix) released Final Fantasy VII in 1997, it may be said that an entire generation of video game enthusiasts lost their minds. I was one of them: FFVII was unlike anything I'd ever played, and I was so captivated by the experience that I decided to buy into two subsequent releases of Square that promised -- if only tangentially -- to expand upon that universe. The first of these was Ehrgeiz, whose appeal for me was its arena battle mode and the chance to use some of FFVII's characters in head-to-head battle (there was a quest mode, too, but to me the fighting game was where it was at). The second was Final Fantasy Tactics, which was uncharted territory for me, being a strategy role-playing game (SRPG).

I played a fair bit of the first until it bored me; for the most part, it's been forgotten. As for the second, I played as far as the fourth mission (plus a few random encounters) before giving it up. At the time, I found it just too difficult, and the English localization just terrible. So I lent it out to friends, a journey from which it would never return.

Years later, my brother asked me whatever happened to the as yet unconquered FF Tactics. Because he wanted to have a go at it (and I was equally curious), I bought a "Greatest Hits" reissue on eBay and turned it over to him. He gave up pretty quickly, too, mostly because we had other newer games worth playing. But in the short time he did give it a try, it was exactly as I remembered it, especially the bit about the terrible localization.

When I picked up a Playstation Portable (PSP) some time after that, I became curious about FF Tactics again. It had been re-released for the PSP as FF Tactics: The War of the Lions, altogether the same game but retouched and updated. Figuring I didn't have much to lose, I picked up a used copy just to check it out.

Over the next few months, I logged in upwards of ninety hours playing time, and I'll be damned if it didn't end too soon.

It's without a doubt a delightfully complex game with plenty of depth, both in terms of gameplay and story. With respect to the former, FF Tactics ranks among the pre-eminent SRPGs, and the game's battle system is perhaps the one most often associated with the genre. Meanwhile, where the latter is concerned, War of the Lions manages to pull off the "epic fantasy adventure" despite (or maybe because of) an unapologetically convoluted plot, with enough twists and turns, political intrigue and personal tragedy to actually become engrossing. Add to this updated graphics that give it a pseudo-retro appeal (to the Playstation era) and magnificently rendered animated cutscenes, and the result is a game that ranks as a must-have for any PSP-owner looking for a protracted playing experience.

And yes, most of the localization issues have been resolved, with the use of a medieval-esque affectation in the story language giving the game its own kind of charm.

That said, the one drawback (literally) to FF Tactics: The War of the Lions as a PSP release is its battery consumption. In its initial release, the original FF Tactics had noticeably lengthy loading times. While these have been addressed in the PSP version, the game still manages to draw down the PSP's battery relatively quickly, presumably because it runs on UMD. Last I checked, there is a downloadable version of War of the Lions on the Playstation Network that should alleviate this problem. Still, for a game of its length, one should be prepared for a fair amount of charging and recharging during the course of a campaign.

It's amazing how a little nip here and tuck there can breathe new life to an already great game. Or maybe that's just a testament to how good FF Tactics was to begin with, warts and all.

Instapaper

When I got my iPhone, the first order of business was to turn it into a portable news delivery medium. An easy enough task, given that NetNewsWire (my desktop RSS aggregator) had an iPhone version. In the process, however, I discovered an altogether better solution that doesn't even need an iPhone to enjoy.

It's called Instapaper, a service developed by Marco Arment that allows you to save online articles for subsequent reading. All it takes is an Instapaper account (which is free), a shortcut you add to your browser (which is easy enough to do), and you're all set to go. If, say, while browsing the Internet you come across an interesting article that you don't have time to read, you can simply "send it to Instapaper" (using the shortcut) and read it later on by logging on to Instapaper. Think of it like "bookmarking plus," except that rather than create a bookmark you actually save the entire text content of a webpage for later reading.

Taken together, Instapaper and an RSS feed reader make for a potent combination. An Instapaper account can serve as a temporary archive of articles you've found interesting and would like to revisit, like a one-stop-shop for your web-sourced reading that eliminates the hassle of visiting multiple sites. It even allows you to syndicate your archived articles like an RSS reading list. But taken mobile -- it has a Kindle version and is already optimized for the iPhone -- Instapaper becomes a killer app, allowing you to take your internet reading with you on the go.

The free-to-try version of Instapaper for the iPhone/iPod Touch caps the amount of articles you can take with you at ten (i.e. your Instapaper account may have more, but your device will only download the ten most recent articles you've sent to Instapaper). The "pro" version, which only costs $5, allows you to take 250 articles with you and comes with a host of other features -- tilt scrolling, text resizing, night mode -- well worth the cost.

Easily, Instapaper is a vital tool for those who get their fix of news and information on the Internet, and a must-have app for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Setting the Table

Just by reading Setting the Table, it's no wonder that Danny Meyer is successful as an enterprising restaurateur. Granted, that's principally what the book is about; yet it's how the book is put together that stands out -- and may itself speak volumes about how he runs his businesses.

In part, it's your standard business autobiography, which chronicles the beginnings of what would become the Union Square Hospitality Group and many of Meyer's other adventures (and misadventures) in between. But it is equally a treatise on Meyer's philosophy of enlightened hospitality as well, and thereby a primer of sorts on what should constitute excellent customer service. Further, the book also affords a cursory behind-the-scenes look into what goes on in the restaurant industry, one colorful anecdote at a time (such as his story about eggs daffodil; a real winner, that).

It's true that there are many other books out there that cover the same ground; some may even be about running restaurants specifically, too. But while most do so individually, Meyer manages to convey what's important about his story, his business philosophy and his experience from cover to cover, in such a way that Setting the Table is a satisfying read had one picked it up to learn about any one of those things, and all the more pleasantly surprising because of everything else the book has to offer.

Truly, isn't that -- the promise of getting exactly what you want, the excitement of coming across something new and different -- what the restaurant business should deliver?

Run Run Run

We live in the age of the extended social network, where anyone can learn anything about anybody they'd want to at the click of the mouse. By and large, this means that anyone can be a celebrity, which in turn implies that there is no detail too small about the lives of public figures and genuine celebrities to escape the watchful eye of an inquisitive public.

That said, I didn't know author Haruki Murakami was a marathon runner until reading his book, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

It might seem unusual for a literary artist of Murakami's renown to write a memoir that revolves around his affinity for running. Yet it's a testament to his talent that this almost-autobiography is rather fascinating. Surely it affords readers an opportunity to see a side of Murakami they otherwise would not (for instance, he was at one point the proprietor of a Jazz club in Japan). More than that, however, it's a personal account of the travails of a marathon enthusiast and would-be triathlete, where each challenge faced and obstacle surmounted (note to self: be careful not to rub Vaseline on one's goggles before the swim portion of a triathlon) becomes something that readers can identify with and rally around.

I am glad that I discovered this side of an author I've come to admire, not over the Internet but through this book and on his own terms. One doesn't need to be an avid runner to appreciate What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, but it certainly helps. By and large, Murakami has managed to put into words the simple joys that accompany not just running, but more importantly running one's own race.

Risky Business?

Seen on a library shelf I chanced upon. I always thought playing the stock market was a crapshoot, but this might be taking the notion a wee bit too far...

There Are Two Dimensions to Market Competition

There's theory, and there's reality.

Theory tells us that consumers are best off under a regime that promotes free competition. The logic isn't hard to follow: so long as profit opportunities exist, producers have an incentive to make things that consumers want and need. The more producers enter the market to take advantage of such opportunities, the fiercer the competition between them, with the end result that consumers enjoy access to better quality goods at the lowest possible prices. Producers win, consumers win, everybody's happy.

Reality, on the other hand, is often much different, and not just because of the many imperfections that keep markets from operating along the lines of the idyllic "free" scenario (which are many and significant, but not the point, really). Consider: a business realizes that a particular market segment has unserved or underserved needs, and proceeds to create a product accordingly. Another business realizes the profit potential and attempts to penetrate the market as well, but not by producing the exact same thing, nor even one that's technically better. Instead, it strives to compete by producing something "good enough" for the consuming public, even if it is capable of making something better. Why? Because ultimately what matters is not what consumers may want in the future but what they want right now; and as more producers seize upon this concept, the more they will vie for consumers' attention by churning out goods with fewer bells and whistles and for cheap.

Hence, consumers benefit from lower prices and producers make some good money, but collectively the items or services on the market aren't as good as they perhaps ought to or can be.

Yet this doesn't necessarily imply that all competition is really just a race to the bottom. There's a case to be made that truly exceptional, innovative businesses are successful by behaving as theory dictates in the face of market reality. However, they do so by recognizing that their principal competitor is not just the look-alike or startup across the way; really, they themselves are their own closest competitor. That's why, say, Nokia comes up with new phone models every so many months that render their existing models obsolete, Apple keeps upping the ante with its iPods and notebooks, and Google deems it important to get involved in various Internet ventures.

As a result, it seems that everyone wins: producers earn a profit and ensure that they are the only ones in a position to put themsleves out of business, while consumers get access to innovative products they willingly pay for even at a premium -- assuming they pay anything at all.

Reality is undoubtedly as messy as theory is pristine. But where competition is concerned, perhaps what's missing in the paradigm is that businesses sometimes need not look beyond the confines of their organizations for their closest competitor, and that by doing so they can provide goods that consumers want in their entirety, at prices the market can bear.

Strobe and Sirens

When I was in college, I had a friend who bought a police strobe light for his car.

It was a simple yellow job sans the siren, big enough to look official (notwithstanding the color) and small enough not to be taken seriously. I don't know if he ever used it to get ahead while stuck in traffic, but I do recall having some fun with it riding with him through empty parking lots late at night -- lights aglow -- or getting some extra fanfare when I'd bum a ride and he'd jokingly turn the light on when we'd reach the vicinity of his house or mine.

That yellow strobe light stayed on his dashboard until it disappeared one day. I thought it had gotten broken, but was told instead that he had to put it away after getting in trouble since he didn't have a permit for it.

That conversation stuck with me because it made a lot of sense. Not everyone can nor should have strobe lights or sirens in their car (especially not for laughs), and so it's important to police their use (pun intended) to maintain the integrity of what they stand for: a means to alert others that a vehicle must get by because of an emergency. Any other use for them on the road is either abusive or simply designed to draw attention to the user. Thus, in my values system, the only justifiable use for such things is by an official government vehicle responding to an emergency. No more, no less.

Today, however, I find it distressing that the use of strobe lights and sirens has become so debased as to represent a privilege that the wealthy, powerful or would-be important lay claim to.

Manila drivers know this all too well. On any given day, one comes across examples of their blatantly indulgent and irresponsible uses. In many instances, it's as obvious as private vehicles (those without red plates) making use of sirens to bully their way through traffic. Sometimes government vehicles are guilty of the same, too, as when a vehicle with red plates can be found, strobe lights ablaze and sirens blaring, zipping its way through traffic despite the absence of an apparent emergency.

These do violence to one's sense of propriety. Logic dictates that private vehicles, whether or not owned/used by public officials, have no business using sirens or police lights; that's why there are hazard lights in cases of emergency, which do not preclude getting assistance from local law enforcement if necessary. For their part, government-owned vehicles should be subject to one simple rule: use only in cases of emergency. A traffic jam does not constitute an emergency. If the rest of the populace can go about its business despite metropolitan traffic, there's no reason to expect anything less from our politicians and bureaucrats.

It's a breakdown of norms, to be sure, and enough to make one question the legitimacy of any siren, even on vehicles with reason to have them. I can no longer count the number of times I've looked suspiciously at an ambulance trying to make its way through heavy traffic; after all, who's to say if beneath the heavily tinted glass is some guy just out on a joyride? Yet for all that, I still make way when I see flashing lights behind me.

But I can't say this will always be the case. Driving to work the other week, I was alerted to some flashing lights and a commotion behind me. Insinctively, I began to pull aside to let the vehicle through -- until I looked at my rearview mirror and saw the conveyance in question was a piece of crap, tackily painted 1980's-era Mitsubishi Lancer. I'm sure there's no way that car could've been on any official business to merit such sound and fury.



To my mind, that disconnect embodies everything wrong with the Philippines' strobe light and siren regime, and maybe other things besides. Although a small issue, it's telling that what little social capital there is in this country, on the road, can be eroded by some douchebag in a piece of crap, tackily painted 1980's-era Mutsubishi Lancer who selfishly wants to get ahead.