Life and Fate - Vasily Grossman
Vasily Grossman was a reporter embedded with he Russian Army during WWII. He spent a significant amount of his time in Stalingrad. He uses this experience to write an epic saga similar to the style of War and Peace following several families through the war.
This book gives great insight as to the Russian mind - how collectivism and the purges of 1937 influenced how Russians thought. Stalin was fully in control and had the ability to influence the masses through a trip to a work camp in Siberia or a chance phone call.
If you enjoy Russian history or have an interest in this period then this book is a great read. For anyone that doesn't have an interest in Russia the book might be dry.
You walk away feeling for the Russian citizen. For the most part they are a victim of a situation out of their control.
From Stalingrad... "The Germans were simply unable to believe that all their attacks were being borne by a handful of men. They thought the Soviet reserves were being brought up in order to reinforce the defence. The true strategists of the Soviet offensive were the soldiers with their backs to the Volga (who would have been shot if they ran) who fought off Paulus's divisions. The remorseless cunning of History, however, lay still more deeply hidden. Freedom engendered the Russian victory. Freedom was the apparent aim of the war. But the sly fingers of History changed this: freedom became simply a way of waging the war, a means to an end."
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Decision Points - George W. Bush
Picked this book up during a dirty Santa party - traded it for a Justin Beiber book believe it or not.
My opinions were mixed for president Bush (43). He struck me as a man of integrity but he often came across as intellectually lazy. After reading this book a few things struck me:
1. He was overwhelmed with significant events - often with some overlapping.
2. He had more events of reaching across the aisle than I remembered - especially early in his presidency.
3. His integrity did not waiver throughout his decision making process - true leadership. His explanations and final outcome of stem cell research is riveting.
4. He could have placed the prior and post presidents in a negative light and chose to show them in a positive light.
5. My thoughts that he surrounded himself with some bad advisers was proven true but not to the extent I suspected. I still don't believe vp Cheney and Rumsfeld gave him the advice that he needed. I place the issues in Iraq after the initial invasion on Rumsfeld and his desire to show a soft military footprint. I believe Cheney presented a harder edge to the communication out of presidency than was necessary.
Something else struck me that I had not thought of previously. President Bush was first a business person. He peppers this autobiography with accountability and metrics - this is unusual in politics. Situation after situation shows he relied on information that could be measured and people who would stand up and be accountable for their areas of responsibility. The No Child Left Behind program is a perfect example of this type of thinking.
Before I read the book I was a skeptic of his presidency - after reading it I think maybe time will shine a positive light on his tenure.
My opinions were mixed for president Bush (43). He struck me as a man of integrity but he often came across as intellectually lazy. After reading this book a few things struck me:
1. He was overwhelmed with significant events - often with some overlapping.
2. He had more events of reaching across the aisle than I remembered - especially early in his presidency.
3. His integrity did not waiver throughout his decision making process - true leadership. His explanations and final outcome of stem cell research is riveting.
4. He could have placed the prior and post presidents in a negative light and chose to show them in a positive light.
5. My thoughts that he surrounded himself with some bad advisers was proven true but not to the extent I suspected. I still don't believe vp Cheney and Rumsfeld gave him the advice that he needed. I place the issues in Iraq after the initial invasion on Rumsfeld and his desire to show a soft military footprint. I believe Cheney presented a harder edge to the communication out of presidency than was necessary.
Something else struck me that I had not thought of previously. President Bush was first a business person. He peppers this autobiography with accountability and metrics - this is unusual in politics. Situation after situation shows he relied on information that could be measured and people who would stand up and be accountable for their areas of responsibility. The No Child Left Behind program is a perfect example of this type of thinking.
Before I read the book I was a skeptic of his presidency - after reading it I think maybe time will shine a positive light on his tenure.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Out of Africa - wish I could have stayed
Out of Africa (Modern Library)
by Isak Dinesen
Great read. Hemingway said it was one of the best books written on Africa. I can't attest to that but it was a great read. Isak puts the charm in charming with her direct writing style. You wish you could spend a month with her and just enjoy her life. This book was written from a different time than the modern world.
This book makes me want to rent the movie again.
by Isak Dinesen
Great read. Hemingway said it was one of the best books written on Africa. I can't attest to that but it was a great read. Isak puts the charm in charming with her direct writing style. You wish you could spend a month with her and just enjoy her life. This book was written from a different time than the modern world.
This book makes me want to rent the movie again.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Red Plenty - Wow!
Just finished Red Plenty by Francis Spufford. This book focuses on the Soviet dreams from 1940 to 1970. Leaders span Stalin, Krushchev and Brezhnev. Why did I read this book? It addresses the economy of the Soviet Union and is an insightful read into Russian history during this period. I like economics and history so it fits. Not a lot of finance insight but this was to be expected.
The large picture nugget that was given to me from this book is the insight that Marx did not intend for the the Revolution to occur in a backwards society - as Russia was at the time of their revolution. Marx referred to a revolution in a developed industrial society similar to England, Germany or the United States. The workers would simply take over the machine and out the intellectuals that were stealing labor (this makes Atlas Shrugs such an interesting read). The result is Russia took on a very complex problem. How to build a socialist society from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy. As the book reads through you see this was a significant oversight by the initial instigators.
To further complicate the ability to transition, Stalin removed the liberal arts (and related instructors to the gulags) from the universities creating vocational engineering and science programs at the universities to focus on developing industry. A brain drain ensued pushing the theoretical modeling abilities back a generation.
Linear programming was introduce to centralized planning giving the hope that supply an demand could be attacked through computer programming iterations. True supply and demand is not as simple as algebraic applications and requires calculus to determine optimization. While the Soviets were trying to pin down supply and demand through algebra, the West allowed for natural optimization through open markets. Red Plenty tracks how the system used paper folders to determine the demand and available supply of over 300 commodities required to run the economy - to the extent there was one man in a room wheeling between folders updating each for a change in resource requirements.
The book then goes into the black market and how it operated. An example was given of a factory that could not meet its demands and determined if they had an upgraded piece of equipment they could meet the demand. There was not a possibility of ordering a new piece of equipment since they already had one that was an older version. They decided to run a bulldozer through the plant as an accident causing an emergency need for the new piece of equipment - vs. just letting the authorities know that modeled demand was not deliverable with the older version of the equipment. Meanwhile, the black market operators stole key pieces that put together the machinery that was needed to fill demand from another factory trying to increase its production. Etc, etc.
So what's the take away from all of this. Human nature doesn't change regardless of political or economic structure. The key is how does information become transparent as soon as possible allowing markets to react efficiently. A free market allows for the quickest exchange of information between rational investors. As people, we are not necessarily better than others - we are just in a market that allows for a more transparent exchange of information.
We have had our share of failures in the West. While Stalin was murdering millions and causing millions more to suffer in severe poverty, the United States was in a great depression with millions suffering severe poverty. We have recently seen Wall Street deal makers and trusted investment managers hiding information from regulatory oversight. The result is millions at the age of retirement seeing their wealth reduced or wiped out. Transparency of information is critical to the success of any organization - large or small.
Let's ask ourselves about our own organizations. Do we allow information to flow freely? Is accountability transparent? Can executives really see what is going on in their organizations? Challenge yourself. We are only as good as what we know. While we smirk when we think of the planned economy, we may be sitting on our own little fantasy.
The large picture nugget that was given to me from this book is the insight that Marx did not intend for the the Revolution to occur in a backwards society - as Russia was at the time of their revolution. Marx referred to a revolution in a developed industrial society similar to England, Germany or the United States. The workers would simply take over the machine and out the intellectuals that were stealing labor (this makes Atlas Shrugs such an interesting read). The result is Russia took on a very complex problem. How to build a socialist society from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy. As the book reads through you see this was a significant oversight by the initial instigators.
To further complicate the ability to transition, Stalin removed the liberal arts (and related instructors to the gulags) from the universities creating vocational engineering and science programs at the universities to focus on developing industry. A brain drain ensued pushing the theoretical modeling abilities back a generation.
Linear programming was introduce to centralized planning giving the hope that supply an demand could be attacked through computer programming iterations. True supply and demand is not as simple as algebraic applications and requires calculus to determine optimization. While the Soviets were trying to pin down supply and demand through algebra, the West allowed for natural optimization through open markets. Red Plenty tracks how the system used paper folders to determine the demand and available supply of over 300 commodities required to run the economy - to the extent there was one man in a room wheeling between folders updating each for a change in resource requirements.
The book then goes into the black market and how it operated. An example was given of a factory that could not meet its demands and determined if they had an upgraded piece of equipment they could meet the demand. There was not a possibility of ordering a new piece of equipment since they already had one that was an older version. They decided to run a bulldozer through the plant as an accident causing an emergency need for the new piece of equipment - vs. just letting the authorities know that modeled demand was not deliverable with the older version of the equipment. Meanwhile, the black market operators stole key pieces that put together the machinery that was needed to fill demand from another factory trying to increase its production. Etc, etc.
So what's the take away from all of this. Human nature doesn't change regardless of political or economic structure. The key is how does information become transparent as soon as possible allowing markets to react efficiently. A free market allows for the quickest exchange of information between rational investors. As people, we are not necessarily better than others - we are just in a market that allows for a more transparent exchange of information.
We have had our share of failures in the West. While Stalin was murdering millions and causing millions more to suffer in severe poverty, the United States was in a great depression with millions suffering severe poverty. We have recently seen Wall Street deal makers and trusted investment managers hiding information from regulatory oversight. The result is millions at the age of retirement seeing their wealth reduced or wiped out. Transparency of information is critical to the success of any organization - large or small.
Let's ask ourselves about our own organizations. Do we allow information to flow freely? Is accountability transparent? Can executives really see what is going on in their organizations? Challenge yourself. We are only as good as what we know. While we smirk when we think of the planned economy, we may be sitting on our own little fantasy.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
A Farewell to Arms
Just finished Hemingway's first book - "A Farewell to Arms". Hemingway taps into his experience as an ambulance driver to create a story of one on the Italian front. "The Lieutenant" gets hit by a trench mortar and sent to a hospital in the rear wear he meets his girl (Catherine). She is a nurse that takes care of him. They fall in love but he has to go back to the front. Shortly after arriving the Italian army is forced to retreat. During the retreat the Lieutenant gets cut off from the main retreat and is behind enemy lines. Eventually he is able to find his way back to the main body of the retreat but finds out the Italians are shooting all of the officers. The Lieutenant jumps into the river to escape being shot in the head - Farewell to Arms.
The Lieutenant finds his girl (who is with child) back in Milan. He knows he will be reported so he and Catherine row a boat across a great lake to Switzerland where they are politely arrested but allowed to live freely in the country. They spend a winter in romantic wonder awaiting the birth of their child. The story ends with the child being stillborn and Catherine losing her life shortly after the birth - a different Farewell to Arms.
The books is a great read. It gives you a unique insight into the war during that time and is a great romance - guy romance.
My next book is a Hemingway suggestion - "Out of Africa". I will tell you of the hills outside of Mombasa.
The Lieutenant finds his girl (who is with child) back in Milan. He knows he will be reported so he and Catherine row a boat across a great lake to Switzerland where they are politely arrested but allowed to live freely in the country. They spend a winter in romantic wonder awaiting the birth of their child. The story ends with the child being stillborn and Catherine losing her life shortly after the birth - a different Farewell to Arms.
The books is a great read. It gives you a unique insight into the war during that time and is a great romance - guy romance.
My next book is a Hemingway suggestion - "Out of Africa". I will tell you of the hills outside of Mombasa.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Red Plenty
Ran across this book review in the Economist this week. "Red Plenty" is an interesting economic survey inside the Soviet Union. One might ask me why I would want to read about the Soviet economy post collapse?? The author posed an interesting thought. It is difficult to understand things clearly when you are inside the model. If the economic model is all you know then all your thoughts and attempts to solutions become framed by your situation.
It is going to be interesting to read this book and see how thousands of people thrashed about trying to resolve economic issues inside of this static framework. Is our workplace often such a closed economic system? Do you have a Nikita Khrushchev in the corner office?
This reminds me of a story about Stalin and the building of the Kremlin. When I visited Red Square the gentlemen showing me around mentioned that Stalin had several architects work on the plans for the main building. Two architects presented their different plans to Stalin at the same time. One building design was on one side of the desk and another building design was on the other side. Stalin said to go build it. Everyone was afraid to tell him it was two different buildings. So if you look at the building today, they built one building with one elevation on the left and another elevation on the right.
I will give you a full report when I am finished. As a side note - I found very few copies of this book in United States.
It is going to be interesting to read this book and see how thousands of people thrashed about trying to resolve economic issues inside of this static framework. Is our workplace often such a closed economic system? Do you have a Nikita Khrushchev in the corner office?
This reminds me of a story about Stalin and the building of the Kremlin. When I visited Red Square the gentlemen showing me around mentioned that Stalin had several architects work on the plans for the main building. Two architects presented their different plans to Stalin at the same time. One building design was on one side of the desk and another building design was on the other side. Stalin said to go build it. Everyone was afraid to tell him it was two different buildings. So if you look at the building today, they built one building with one elevation on the left and another elevation on the right.
I will give you a full report when I am finished. As a side note - I found very few copies of this book in United States.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
A Different Time
Those who know me well know I enjoy reading Ernest Hemingway. I am going through a reread cycle on his books and decided to start with "A Moveable Feast". Why did I pick this first? I believe to really understand Hemingway you have to read this book. It is a collection of short stories about his time in Paris during the 1920's. The stories introduce different people that he spent time with during this part of his life. It can be off color at times so don't read it if you are easily offended.
I think the overarching thing I like about reading during this period of time is how slow everything was. Life was simple yet fulfilling. In our time it seems like we are constantly trying to cram everything into every second or we don't feel like we are fulfilled - not Hemingway in the 1920's.
The stories focus on the life of Ernest and his first wife Hadley. They live a simple life in one of the poor quarters of Paris. They actually lived on top of a saw mill. Ernest's days consist of rising, walking to a cafe through the city, writing through the morning, taking a relaxed lunch and then spending an early evening with friends in the cafe's. There is a lot of drinking, but, it is Ernest Hemingway.
The people in this book influenced Hemingway's young life and the experiences produced his first book "The Sun Also Rises" (which I am reading now). "The Sun Also Rises" captures this generation known as the lost generation. Hemingway spent a lot of time in the mountains in the winter and in Spain in the summer. The trips to Spain are highlighted in "The Sun Also Rises". The trips in the mountains are used in "Farewell to Arms" which is a love story set in the Italian Front where Hemingway served as an ambulance driver.
The best story in "A Moveable Feast" is the story about F. Scott Fitzgerald (Great Gatsby). Scott was a piece of work and was adversely affected by alcohol. Hemingway writes of a trip the two of them made from Lyon to Paris bringing Scott's Renault back. The Renault had been left in Lyon because his wife (later certified insane) didn't like the top so she had it sawed off. The rains started so Scott and his wife left the vehicle in Lyon and took the train to Paris. Hemingway and Scott went back down to retrieve it. The adventure back up to Paris is classic and gives great insight to the tragic personal phobias Scott had.
If you enjoy and easy read and have an interest in Paris during the 20's - read this book.
I think the overarching thing I like about reading during this period of time is how slow everything was. Life was simple yet fulfilling. In our time it seems like we are constantly trying to cram everything into every second or we don't feel like we are fulfilled - not Hemingway in the 1920's.
The stories focus on the life of Ernest and his first wife Hadley. They live a simple life in one of the poor quarters of Paris. They actually lived on top of a saw mill. Ernest's days consist of rising, walking to a cafe through the city, writing through the morning, taking a relaxed lunch and then spending an early evening with friends in the cafe's. There is a lot of drinking, but, it is Ernest Hemingway.
The people in this book influenced Hemingway's young life and the experiences produced his first book "The Sun Also Rises" (which I am reading now). "The Sun Also Rises" captures this generation known as the lost generation. Hemingway spent a lot of time in the mountains in the winter and in Spain in the summer. The trips to Spain are highlighted in "The Sun Also Rises". The trips in the mountains are used in "Farewell to Arms" which is a love story set in the Italian Front where Hemingway served as an ambulance driver.
The best story in "A Moveable Feast" is the story about F. Scott Fitzgerald (Great Gatsby). Scott was a piece of work and was adversely affected by alcohol. Hemingway writes of a trip the two of them made from Lyon to Paris bringing Scott's Renault back. The Renault had been left in Lyon because his wife (later certified insane) didn't like the top so she had it sawed off. The rains started so Scott and his wife left the vehicle in Lyon and took the train to Paris. Hemingway and Scott went back down to retrieve it. The adventure back up to Paris is classic and gives great insight to the tragic personal phobias Scott had.
If you enjoy and easy read and have an interest in Paris during the 20's - read this book.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)