Author: Steve

Loved it. I guess it helped the author to have a subject that led such an eventful, action-packed  life. The author kept a nice balance  between too much and not  enough detail.  

Quincy was a man conflicted between the desire for a contemplative intellectual life and the rough-and-tumble world of politics. He never reconciled the two,  and a result was often unhappy.

This book was a bit of a snooze. As a man of words not action, his life just wasn’t that interesting.

As every schoolboy knows, reading classic works of literature is often a bore. Dirda suggests a large selections of works know as classics that are actually fun to read. I plan to a few, see how it goes. I tried “True History” by Lucian. Although it was interesting to find that a writer from the 2nd century had much the same sensibilities as a modern writer – sarcasm, wit, blasphemy, sex – I didn’t find it especially fun to read. I’ll keep trying.

When Toyota was a small company, its goal was to sell inexpensive cars in Japan. Because it was small, it couldn’t use economies of scale to compete. Instead, they develop a series of techniques to eliminate waste and speed-up development time. These techniques eventually were called “Lean”, and later where incorporated in the Agile software development methodology.

The thing that really struck me about this book is it’s economy and logical style. Little fluff, very clear, well thought-out.

Interesting story of Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s invention of Google, now one of the worlds most unusual and successful companies.

Finished this excellent biography of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin is a fascinating figure in American history. His rags-to-riches story is what I found most interesting about  Franklin.  Whereas the other founding fathers had at least some advantages from birth, Franklin did not. From nothing he became a prominent author, businessman, government official, diplomat, and scientist. Not to mention being essential  to the forming of the Constitution.