The chapter on Europe is also a mish mash of opinion and observation untethered from serious analysis. Not exactly wrong, but unprovable.
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Phil in SF rated Echo Burning: 3 stars
Echo Burning by Lee Child
Ex-military cop Jack Reacher returns in this latest in the award-winning series critics call "spectacular" (The Seattle Times), "relentless" (Denver …
Phil in SF rated Persuader: 3 stars
Phil in SF <p>started reading</p>
Still Life by Louise Penny
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene …
Phil in SF <p>stopped reading</p>
Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
All leaders are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Yes, to understand world …
Phil in SF commented on Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
All leaders are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and …
Not recommended
3 stars
Best when it covers the basic nuts & bolts of conducting 1-1s, reviews, etc.
Gets very hand-wavy when it covers office politics or networking.
This was a book that was recommended on Rands Leadership Slack, and I don't know why.
Phil in SF commented on Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
All leaders are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and …
Russia is sorta a prisoner of it's geography on that it lacks warm water ports. But China, the subject of chapter 2 is hardly trapped. Nothing particularly insightful about geography in this chapter. The important part is that Chona is expanding its navy, but that's more industrial and military policy, not really geography.
Phil in SF commented on Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
All leaders are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and …
Author Peter Marshall attempts to explain the geo politics of Russia by going over how it's flat to the west, and therefore it was forced to occupy Crimea when the Ukrainian people overthrew the pro-Russian Yanukovich in 2014.
And while it's true that Russia is hard-pressed to have a workable warm water port and the land is flat, the statement that Russia is forced to do anything is not backed up by any kind of analysis in the book that takes into account other ways of existing.
Particularly telling of the lack of analysis is the author's statement that Russia would have no difficulty occupying and holding Ukrainian territory to the Dnieper river. Just a few years after being written, Marshall really underestimated Ukrainian nationalism.
Phil in SF commented on Dead Reckoning by Diane Vaughan
Vaughan unveils the complicated and high-pressure world of air traffic controllers as they navigate technology …
This might end up being too "academic" for me, but I'm giving it a go. Because I work in satellites, i want to better understand complex systems. Air traffic control has been a very successful complex system.
However, this thing is 1700 pages by my e-reader 's count. The introduction was 45 pages. We'll see how well I manage.
Phil in SF <p>started reading</p>
Dead Reckoning by Diane Vaughan
Vaughan unveils the complicated and high-pressure world of air traffic controllers as they navigate technology and political and public climates, …
Phil in SF <p>started reading</p>
Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
All leaders are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Yes, to understand world …
Phil in SF rated Without fail: 3 stars
Without fail by Lee Child
Skilled, cautious, and anonymous, Jack Reacher is perfect for the job: to assassinate the vice president of the United States. …
Phil in SF <p>finished reading</p>
Without fail by Lee Child
Skilled, cautious, and anonymous, Jack Reacher is perfect for the job: to assassinate the vice president of the United States. …
Phil in SF reviewed Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman
Then. Twenty-something writer Chani Horowitz is stuck. While her former MFA classmates are nabbing high-profile …
Can a regular person and a celebrity fall in love?
4 stars
A romance that does a good job exploring what it means to be a celebrity (the love interest) and what it's like to have one's life dependent on celebrity (the main character). Chani Horowitz is a writer who specializes in celebrity puff pieces. Gabe Parker is the celebrity she's had a crush on since she was young. Chani is assigned to interview Gabe. At that point in her life she's a decent writer but not really a good interviewer, and the interview itself goes sideways. However, she manages to pull out a decent article based on a weekend spent with Gabe. Because Gabe is, of course, smitten with Chani.
The book jumps between that interview, the piece Chani wrote, and a second interview 10 years later, after Chani's career has taken off and Gabe's has taken a downturn. The parts 10 years later are much more interesting to read. By …
A romance that does a good job exploring what it means to be a celebrity (the love interest) and what it's like to have one's life dependent on celebrity (the main character). Chani Horowitz is a writer who specializes in celebrity puff pieces. Gabe Parker is the celebrity she's had a crush on since she was young. Chani is assigned to interview Gabe. At that point in her life she's a decent writer but not really a good interviewer, and the interview itself goes sideways. However, she manages to pull out a decent article based on a weekend spent with Gabe. Because Gabe is, of course, smitten with Chani.
The book jumps between that interview, the piece Chani wrote, and a second interview 10 years later, after Chani's career has taken off and Gabe's has taken a downturn. The parts 10 years later are much more interesting to read. By then, Chani has a personality besides "has imposter syndrome" and "has a crush on Gabe Parker".