No comments about Winning Vocabulary (Smart Tapes).

5 comments about Dealers of Lightning: XEROX-PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age.

1. I do not know why this book was never more popular. It is a great read and has lots of detail on the evolution of computer R&D.
   
   It is a very well written and detailed book about the computer R&D from Boston-Washington to Palo Alto at HP - written like a smooth flowing novel. It is mainly about Xerox and the research people and how they eventually decided to move the computer R&D to California. But it includes a lot more stuff. It Includes DARPA funding of the internet and work at MIT, and in house fighting at Xerox, and then the evolution of the projects in California. Xerox did not run with the ball in an effective way post 1980 but the technology and people went on to other companies such as Microsoft, Apple, and HP. Also there was a lot of innovative work that was transferred to industry.
   
   It gives a lot of insight into the evolution of computer systems and the internet and local networks and on and on. It covers the people - grad students, scientists, spin off companies, crazed computer types working all night - that are just as interesting as the wires and machines.
   
   Great book, one of the best ever Tech Books.



2. Perhaps because of Xerox' s phenomenal growth in the 1960s, a number of habits became entrenched in the company's culture. The Xerox management hierarchy became one of rigid top-down control, which paid less attention to the opinions of its customers than the cost-and-quantity inputs of its financial models. At the end of the decade, Xerox was a one-product company that had come to rely more on patents to maintain its monopoly than on copier reliability and customer service, in spite of the company's huge sales force and its highly trained repair network.
   
   While Xerox had set up a lavishly funded laboratory in Webster, New York, that research facility was more concerned with exploiting the remaining advantages of existing patents rather than developing new technologies for the future. In other words, the Webster facility was looking backwards, preserving revenue streams rather than creating wealth.
   
   In spite of the complacency of many in the top ranks of Xerox leadership, Chief Executive C. Peter McColough began to seek to diversify he company into data processing. After all, he was aware of the efforts of both IBM and Kodak to enter the copier field. Thus, he developed a rather fluffy visionary presentation, which claimed that Xerox would create "the office of the future" as well as a new "architecture of information".
   
   To help him to realize this vision, McColough hired Jack Goldman from Ford, where as Chief Scientist he had long been frustrated by the lack of interest in the innovations that his team had developed. Goldman came up with a plan for a research facility entirely separate from the applications-driven Webster facility, a place where basic research could be conducted at a remove from the everyday concerns of Xerox headquarters. McColough gave Goldman an unusually free hand, to open a kind of "research hermitage" whose mission would be to devise technologies "10 years ahead of their time".
   
   For a variety of reasons, Goldman's timing was extremely lucky. First, in large part because of funding from the U.S. Department of Defense for the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), computer technologies were in an unusual state of ferment, an "inflection point" that carried great promise. Not only was the architecture of the mainframe computer reaching its limits by the early 1960s - they were massive and cumbersome machines that researchers had to share, with programming languages so obscure and counter-intuitive that non-specialists found them impossible to operate - but the price of semiconductor memory chips was falling as their complexity and capabilities were increasing exponentially. In addition, the ARPANET had just been invented, which could link computers into communication networks; it was the direct technological precursor to the internet. Finally, a number of visionaries in various universities and labs were pursuing a wide array of fundamental innovations; these included the development of "software" for graphical user interfaces, the "mouse" control to execute commands with a cursor on a television-like screen, and many other devices. If combined properly, these technologies promised to fundamentally transform the computer industry, making computers affordable for the individual as well as easier to use for the layman.
   
   Second, with the Vietnam War swallowing up Defense Department resources, funding for ARPA had dropped abruptly by 1969. It had become, in Hiltzik's words, "a buyer's market for research and engineering talent."
   
   Sensing an opportunity, PARC director George Pake invited Bob Taylor, one of ARPA's top research managers, to visit the facility he was establishing. During the mid-1960s, Taylor had run ARPA's research information-processing program for graphic user interfaces and computer networks. He was gifted, according to his peers, with an "instinctive grasp of the promise of man-computer interaction". Perhaps more important, he was reputed to have "an exceptionally high degree" of leadership and people skills: he could find talent, motivate people to work together towards a common goal, and yet refrain from imposing his own solutions on a problem, in effect allowing the best to do what they did best. In July, 1970, Pake hired Taylor to lead the Computer Science Laboratory (CSL) at PARC; he immediately (and successfully) set out to lure the best researchers to PARC from the network he had created (and funded) while at ARPA.
   
   Taylor created a flat organization, in which CSL members reported directly - and only - to him. This placed him at the heart of the laboratory, aware of what everyone was doing, what they hoped to accomplish, and where they needed to improve. While he directed research with clear end goals in mind, Taylor operated largely as a mediator of ideas, trusting team members to devise the optimal combination of solutions to a given problem or goal; he knew that they were far better qualified than he was to address the various technical challenges. In his view, by helping his researchers to communicate with each other and understand the gestalt of CSL's evolving technologies, he would ensure that the pieces of each project would fit together into a concrete product that would be able to function. It was, in Hiltzik's words, as if CSL "worked like orchestra members, composing and rehearsing a symphony at the same time."
   
   The atmosphere of CSL was freewheeling and personable, full of excitment. They formed a peer group of pioneers, a self-conscious elite that resembled a cult. Taylor's team eventually totaled between 40 and 50 members, by some measures fully two-thirds of the best computer researchers then alive. And they knew it.
   
   Over the next three years, CSL created the Alto, the first programmable personal computer that was user friendy: with mouse, a graphics-oriented monitor, with "icons" and overlapping "pages", an object-oriented programming language and even an ethernet capabilty.
   
   Unfortunately, few at Xerox headquarters understood the importance of these developments. From its beginning, many executives at Xerox headquarters viewed PARC as a kind of uncontrollable island of insolence and arrogance. For their part, PARC researchers viewed headquarters with open disdain at the leadership's inability to understand what PARC was doing. The mutual distrust between headquarters and its Palo Alto lab neither encouraged Xerox executives to learn about how PARC's inventions might fit into the modern office nor enabled PARC's managers to sell their inventions to the company's manufacturing units.
   
   Perhaps worst of all, at this time - mid 70s - Japanese copier manufacturers executed a stunning strategy that succeeded in turning Xerox's supposed comparative advantages (its sales forces and repair facilities and its reliance on patented bits of technology) into liabilities. The Japanese copiers were easier to install, much much cheaper (to buy outright rather than lease and then pay for individual copies), and far less costly to fix. The company was thus suddenly in a fight for its life, after more than a decade as an unchallenged monopoly that had grown flabby.
   
   As a result, PARC's incredibly fecund inventions never got the attention of top Xerox managers, who were too busy studying the TQM methods of the Japanese (an effort that did eventually pay off). As such, it was Apple and MS and IBM who used their ideas to dominate the emerging industry for affordable PCs. (That there were really so few inventions that have created the driving force of Silicon Valley is another story, but also a sign of how over-hyped its accomplishments have been in my humble opinion. In just about every sense, the Alto was the basic prototype of the personal computer of today - it has been refined and incrementally improved, but hardly changed in any fundamental way since 1973.)
   
   Finally, the author does add a lot as a reporter, including an interesting interpretation of Jobs' mythic visit to PARC in 1979: rather than the entrepreneurial epiphany it was touted as, Hiltzik argues that Jobs and his team knew exactly what they were looking for and used PARC's inventions less as an inspiration than as a confirmation of what Apple was plannng to do. This chapter alone is worth the price of admission. THere can be no doubt that Hiltzik is a thoughtful observer who pounded the pavement: he gets the basics right and unearths many details that will be of use to academics.
   
   This is a fascinating tale, but much of this book gets lost in the details of software development, arcana that only true geeks or technology historians should care to look at such a level of minutia. Unfortunately, Hiltzik tries to make it into something far more heroic and dramatic than I think it should be, complete with endless - in my view needlessly romanticized - characterizations of the geeks that did it. Thus, this often lost me, even though I found it extremely useful and informative for a writing project on PARC. While this perspective is personal, and I do not mean to demean the audiences that it would please, I am tryng to warn general non-specialist readers (like me) that it is in certain respects too detailed and in my opinion over-reaching.
   
   Recommended with these caveats in mind. It is a great reference book, but not always that fun a read. I would give this 3.5 stars.



3. DEVOID OF INSIGHT OR ORIGINAL THOUGHT HILTZIG CONTINES TO TAKE CREDIT FOR OTHER PEOPLES RESEARCH AND THEN STATES IN A MOST BORING NANNER.



4. I loved to read this book. It's interesting. It shows you how the thing that we use today, like the GUIs, laser printers, ethernet, and more were developed in XEROX PARC. Who were the people that had the vision to make these things live. They changed everything and ironically were misunderstood in their time. I really enjoyed reading this book,



5. I read this book years ago and I frequently find myself reflecting on the different challenges faced by the group at the Palo Alto Research Center. Reading about such smart and creative people working together, overcoming obstacles, and creating things that were revolutionary at the time really inspires me.
   
   I've bought the book twice now (someone borrowed my first copy and never returned it) and I will buy it again should someone "borrow" this copy.
   
   I wish my paperback edition had pictures of the people and the things they created.

No comments about The Portable MBA in Economics: Insights from the Experts at the Best Business Schools : Shows How to Apply Economics to Business Decision Making (Portable Mba Series).

5 comments about The Secrets of Power Negotiating.

1. Advance your as-yet undeveloped negotiating skills! Easy to read, incredibly well laid out and covers many real-life negotiating situations - you'll catch yourself smiling as you build your gambit toolbox which will allow you to deftly navigate your way through ANY situation requiring a negotiation. If its any testament, this book was critical in providing me the perspective and confidence required to become a commercial real estate broker.



2. This is the first book that I've felt strongly enough about to write a review and the real world techniques covered are outstanding. It will pay for itself the first time you negotiate anything. His techniques are simple & straight forward and can be easily put into practice. I recommend the audio version so you can pop it in anytime for a refresher while driving prior to any negotiation.



3. I made a $9,000 concession after only reading 45 pages...
   I think it is safe to say the book has paid for itself.



4. Good and insightful techniques for negotiation and great book for beginners. If you are not aware of these techniques then there are chances that you will fall victim of them by an expert who knows it all
   
   I strongly recommend this book to all who find themselves as a victim in negotiation and power game



5. This book is so good. It gives you insights in how to use the various techniques to get what you want out of a deal.
   
   If you use this plan you will be a better negotiator, no doubt about it. There are a couple of things in the book that are a little bit over the top, as in almost every book. The main ideas that Roger Dawson tries to convey to the reader are repeated a couple times throughout the course of the book just so that the reader can really understand what needs to be done to negotiate well.
   
   I've used these techniques many times in my daily routine with small things so I can practice the skills. After a while I'll start using them with more important deals. Very helpful book. Not boring at all. You get your money's worth for it and you learn a lot from it.

3 comments about Six Sigma Simplified.

1. It's so refreshing to review a six sigma publication that doesn't pretend to be "rocket science", I particularly enjoyed the extremely simple application of the six sigma methodology and the de- mystifying of the six sigma methodology that tends to be extremely mystified in the majority of six sigma publications. This publication would be an excellent addition to any internal training initiative endeavouring to educate and inform employees of the intentions of this quality tool in a non intelectual way that allows for the integration of more complex mathematical methods of data collection, the clear way that the selection and use of control charts were presented was even understood by my colleauges who admit to being affraid of math. All in all this publication is a practical handbook for breaking the uninitiated into the six sigma philosophy.



2. The author skillfully manages to make learning relatively advanced statistics easy through stories, examples and anecdotes. Where the skills comes in is the wide range of complex topics that are introduced and clearly explained. To a highly technical reader this may come across as either condescending. However, the fact is that all of the important details and techniques are covered in great detail, and are wrapped in friendly prose. This ensures that hard-to-learn concepts need not be hard to learn, nor the learning process intimidating.

   What I like is the systematic coverage of key concepts and knowledge areas, each of which builds upon the preceding topic. The book starts with compelling business reasons for embarking on a 6-Sigma initiative, and what 6-Sigma entails. It them introduces an approach for reducing cycle time and improving quality in a 2- and 4-step process. After establishing that framework, the book shows how to sustain the improvements using key indicators for process stability and capability, and how to effectively employ statistical process controls to proactively track them.

   The foregoing alone would make this an excellent introductory book on 5-Sigma, but the author goes on to tackle advanced topics such as design of experiments, quality function deployment and benchmarking. These are certainly integral components of a complete 6-Sigma initiative, but I didn't expect to find them covered in an introductory book. I also liked the complete coverage of basic TQM tools and techniques at the end of the book.

   If you need to either learn the fundamentals of 6-Sigma or train a non-technical workforce this is an ideal book. If you are going to teach or facilitate a 6-Sigma workshop you'll also want the author's "Six Sigma Instructor Guide" (ISBN 1884180140), which provides a syllabus and learning objectives that use this book as the student text.




3. As I was reading this book, I felt like I was at a sales presentation. Lots of razzmatazz and little substance. It just skimmed over everything and didn't really explain anything. Then I got to the back of the book and found all the pages of products for sale by the author's company and realized that it was a sales presentation.

5 comments about Getting Started in Stocks (Wiley Audio).

1. This book was an easy read to learn the basic terminology. And it's a nice reference book with a good "stock" glossary at the back of the book. After this, you'll be ready to read something a little for philosophical like Peter Lynch's masterpiece "One Up On Wall Street".



2. I loved this book. It talked about every facet of the stock market, but didn't go overboard with jargon. I knew absolutely nothing about stocks and after reading this book I am ready to learn more. It was well written, interesting, and, unlike some investing books, the author was not trying to sell anything. This is the perfect book for anyone who wants to invest but has no knowledge of the subject. I really enjoyed this book.



3. This book is highly reccomended for all beginners. This book will give you the basis for everyting you want to know about the stock market. Period!



4. A MUST READ for any beginner. If you're looking for your first book on Stocks, look no more, just buy this one.



5. Reading this book provided me with good basic information about investing in the stock market. Some of the information is now outdated - the resources the author mentions as newspaper subscriptions are now available online, such as the Pink Sheets, the information bible about penny stocks. However, the basic information is still relevant, and I do recommend this book for other people who are thinking about investing in stocks for the first time.

4 comments about Internal Frontier: Creating the Personal Transformations That Lead to Success.

1. Morrie Shechtman is a futurist who focuses on how information and change impact individual performance. Peak performance, personally, professionally, and financially, is achieved by understanding who you are, and why you are the way you are. Shechtman examines how self-information and an internal focus removes the barriers to tremendous personal achievment. Shechtman's material is hard-hitting ,and forces the reader to examine his or her own "internal frontier." Shechtman's first book,Working without a Net,discussed living and working in a high risk culture and economy. The Internal Frontier looks at what you know (your "familiar") and examines how your decision making is affected by your natural inclination to gravitate to the your familiar. The book is filled with useful information with which to make substantial changes in how you see yourself and make your decisions. The book uses numerous real life examples to illustrate how people have achieved great success by understanding their "familiar" and breaking the patterns which have kept them from achieving their full potential.



2. For those who are truly motivated to pursue their dreams, whether personal or professional, this book is essential. Shechtman's premise is that we all have underlying emotional patterns - our "familiar," as he refers to it - that keep us stuck. To get un-stuck, he offers a six-step process for creating new "familiars" which are in line with our goals. He also stresses the importance of creating accountability groups to help us follow through with our actions steps. I have taken a number of positive - and uncomfortable - action steps as a direct result of the book. Very well written. Full of "beef."



3. Started listening to the audio version of THE INTERNAL FRONTIER each morning on my way into work. Boy, did it make a difference in my day! It really made me take a look at myself and it helped me to see that some of the stuff I do really gets in my own way. At the same time, though, the author gives hope and help to make a change so I don't have to keep doing the "same-old-same-old". 1999 is going to be a better year, thanks to this book!



4. Very insightful toward the elements of the mind that allow one to continue on their familiar path, over and over again, like the eveready bunny! The path that gets you where you have always been. This book does a fine job in communicating breakthrough technology that can allow real change in our abilty to set goals and not repeat the familiar. By understanding past events one can see where there habits and decisions have come from and then, hopefully move on to a higher level. Great book for sales people and people looking for a way to access their next challenge!

5 comments about The Leader in You (Cassette).

1. This little book is recommended reading in the company I currently work for and unlike some of the other recommendations, Fish and Moving My Cheese for instance, this has some value.
   
   It is, in essence, an updated version of How to Win Friends and Influence People, adapted for the present day and readers who have read the former work will gain little from this except some familiarity with more contemporary case studies.
   
   What struck me as I was going over it was how central the basic messages are to most of the useful management books on the market today. Certainly among the more academic books you will findmore material which is inherently useful to higher level managers and professionals but in the context of middle and line management, the central tenents hold true. To name just two, good listening skills, and trying to see things from the perspectives of others are golden rules from which none of use should deviate.
   
   Indeed, one is almost tempted to say that these are the sort of things that should be taught in schools as components of civics classes except that I am sure many others would agree, schools should concentrate on getting basic skills right before they release students into the world of work.
   
   The leader in you is a useful book to read. It is an easy read and one that shoul not take too long to work through and the simple down to earth homily approach works well with most people.
   
   While not the be all and end all of all management books, this slim little volume contains some simple lessons that all managers would do well to digest and apply in all their dealings with other people and I can think of a few who need to rediscover this book right now.



2. I found this book (I listened to the audio version) to be a major disappointment. The tips offered by Carnegie may have appeared insightful and provocative to assembly line supervisors back in the 1930s, but in the more enlightened 21st century a lot of his "good advice" comes across as irritatingly simplistic and sometimes even downright condescending and offensive. It's so easy and straightforward: Be nice to people, remember their first names, always be positive and you will instantly be liked by everyone. Overly obvious and trite - hardly the kind of stuff that would find its way into today's Harvard Business Review. Adding to the sense of irritation is the voice of the reader who tries to sound upbeat and optimistic, giving the whole performance the hollow feel of amateurish propaganda better suited to "Pleasantville" than to "Wall Street".
   
   For more insightful, relevant and up-to-date advice, I recommend "How to become CEO" by Jeffrey J. Fox.



3. Stuart Levine and Michael Crom of Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc. discuss their perspectives on the principles that Dale outlined earlier.
   
   1. Be yourself, identify your strengths.
   
   2. Be open, create an environment conducive to trust, see things from other person's point of view, listen well, and communicate tirelessly
   
   3. Express genuine interest in others, recognize a job well done.
   
   4. Teams: create a shared purpose, invite participation, share the glory and accept the blame, build team's confidence, be and stay involved.
   
   5. Be quick to admit mistakes, slow to criticize. Be constructive.
   
   6. Set goals that are clear, challeging and obtainable.
   
   7. Focus, discipline, tenacity.
   
   8. Balance work and leisure.
   
   9. Positive mental attitude.
   
   10. Reduce worry - focus on present, work out the odds of the event happening, accept the inevitable, keep problems in perspective, action.
   
   11. Develop enthusiasm.
   
   Reading the book will help you identify and act on several improvements.



4. I am a big fan of dale Carnegie's books, but its disappointing that the publishers would like to cream the public their money by re-printing mostly the same stuff with different titles.
   
   "How to win friends and influence people" and "how to stop worrying and start living" covers most of the content described in this book. i felt cheated when i bought and read this book. Looks like the publishers haven't read any of these 2 great books and gained some wisdom from them.



5. I am always leery when an organization uses the namesake of a best selling author in an attempt to recreate his/her prior success. The Leader in You did little to quell this feeling as it adds no new content and is without any of the masterful skill of articulation that Carnegie was so well known for.
   
   The Leader in You is not without its value as many of the innovative principles Carnegie produced in his original works are evident within this book. However, why would one choose a secondary attempt by less qualified authors when the opportunity to read from the originals is available? I highly recommend picking up Carnegie's "How to Win Friends & Influence People" and passing on this particular book.

5 comments about How to Sell Anything to Anybody.

1. This book is called "How to Sell Anything to Anybody," but it should be called, "How to Sell Cars." All the examples and all the author's experience is related to selling cars. I know there are a lot of similarities between selling cars and selling other things, but this book centered on a lot of things that are only relevent to the auto industry. The title is definitely deceiving!



2. If you are looking for a big on tips, tricks and tactics for improving your sales then this may not be the best for you.
   
   If on the other hand you believe that some basic fundamentals, executed continuously and well is the road to success, then read on.
   
   Joe Girard is in the Guiness Book of Worlds Records as the worlds greatest salesman. Working at a Detroit area Chevy dealership he has sold more cars than anyone, and it is really based on fundamentals.
   
   Focus on the customer, ask for the referral, word of mouth, and making a memorable impression. That may sound simplistic and there is much more to the book than these few things.
   
   Girard treats being a salesman as a calling and profession not just a job and his results speak for themselves.
   
   Read Girard, put it down for a time, then read it again and let it sink in, and the wisdom of his experience will come to light for you.
   
   Cheers!



3. I heard about this book years ago, but I never took time to read it. Actually, I thought the book was too old to be relevent. I saw the book in Charlotte recently and was suprised when I thumbed through it. First of all, the comments on the cover got my attention: "World's Greatest Salesman" and "The Guiness Book of Records." If that wasn't enough, his writing captured my interest immediately. Joe Girard is straight up and honest. I love his style. I have to admit, some of it is a little bitter to swallow because he tells the truth and hold no punches. He hits the soft spots of procrastination and fear of rejecton, however, most of his teaching goes down easily, tickling my funny bone in the process.
   
   Joe Girard knows what the everyday salesperson goes through and his teaching style easily reflects it. When he is in "teaching mode," I can easily imagine him standing in an auditorium, possibly pacing the floor with his wireless microphone on how to become a better salesperson. When he is in his "storytelling mode," I can picture him sitting beside me telling one of his great stories about what he went though on his way to the top. For example, he mentioned his very first car sale. He didn't remember his customer's name or even the name of the car he sold, but what he remembers was that the customer worked for Cocoa-Cola. He associated Cocoa-Cola with groceries because he had to make that sale so he could feed his kids! He was "hungry" for that sale in more ways than one. Every time I opened the book, his words would grab my attention, and every time I closed the book, his teaching points would stick with me. One of the most important parts of the book was the story about his dad. While Joe was young, Joe's father would beat and berate him constantly, telling Joe that he would never amount to anything. At the end of the story, he writes: "you're probably wondering what this has to do with how to sell. Well it has everything to do with how attitudes get planted in your head." That is deep.
   
   I am faced with many people how have a problem with getting over self-esteem issues and fear of failure. Selling is fun, especially with a product that you are passionate about. However, it has its stuggles too. Sometimes we are surrounded by those who have lost their own dream in life. It has been a struggle of my own, living in the South, seeing those who do not see beyong their own struggles in life, day to day, year to year. The point about his dad and overcoming those self-defeating attitutes was so deep I had to close the book and "digest that nugget for awhile." It is hard to see people with the potential to achieve greatness to give up on their dreams and quit. No, selling is not always easy, in is the process of working hard, treating people right, and working with integrity, we are in fact, achieving greatness, even if those riches have not yet manifested. That is one of the great keys in this book. I am a bit ashamed that I have not read it earlier. Kudos, Joe Girard. You knocked this one out the ballpark, and thus, I recommend this book to every salesperson.



4. If you've never managed salesmen you might not realize
   what a bunch of wimpy little girly-men a lot of them
   are... they have a big bluster about how great they
   are at selling but the truth is they are in general
   too craven, lazy, or lacking in real personal development
   or skill to go out and get the customers in the door.
   
   Girard pulls no punches. He never sat around waiting
   for the phone to ring. He didn't hang out bitching
   around the coffee machine... he was on the phone
   calling people, asking them to please come in and
   ask for Joe Girard. He got fired from his first job
   selling cars because he was making the other salesmen
   feel like losers.
   
   A great salesman gets out there and gets customers
   to walk in the door. A lazy salesman just hangs
   out on the floor.
   
   Which type would you rather have working for you?
   
   Yeah, it's dated. It's from the 1970s. the cars
   were big and ugly then... and so were the suits
   Girard wore. His customers were working class guys
   who would be impressed by a pinkie ring - so he
   dressed that way. Girard, he's a smart guy, he
   assesses the lay of the land - scoping out the
   territory, making friends, scmoozing.
   
   How the 'ell else do you think you get to the
   top of the game selling cars?



5. Great book. My husband is a car salesman and he thought it was very informative.

No comments about Secrets of Cleansing Your Heart, Mind, and Soul.