Ehud Shavit

Clearing your mind for clear thinking

Revisado: 12-30-24

Of the 3 books Goldratt wrote that I read, I loved this the most.
It is a short and simple philosophy of life book.
Highly recommended for any person who would like to be able to solve seemingly complex problems.

Also, I would like to provide some insight for those unfamiliar with Hebrew. This book was either translated from Hebrew and not in a perfect way or may have been written in English by a Hebrew native. The example that repeats hundreds of times is that the person telling the story, Efrat, calls her father just "Father," not "my father" or some other common English term. The reason is that in Hebrew, you commonly call your parents "ABBA" (Father) or "IMMA" (Mother) without the need to distinguish it as "my father." One more example is that at some point, Goldratt is going abroad to his office in the Netherlands. In Hebrew, the Netherlands is called "HOLLAND," which is precisely the name used in the book (of course, Holland is a region in the Netherlands, but what they referred to in the book was the whole country).
For me, those mistakes just made the book more authentic.

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Overview of the dynamics of the video games ind.

Revisado: 09-07-23

I don't play video games regularly - it's not my hobby, and I am not part of this industry.
The subject interested me as an innovation consultant, as some of my clients are considering developing different kinds of digital games. I wanted to understand more how it is done. In this sense, this was a good book for me.

The book is built as a set of stories, each on the development of one game. The thing is, though the book is said to describe the challenges and how hard it is, almost all efforts ended fantastically. Where I come from, it is called "An American Movie"; there is always a "happy end." Real life is not like that, and most development efforts fail. I am sure there is much to learn from successes (crunch, crunch, crunch - be in work 18 hours a day for 6 months). But reviewing some failures may also give some insights if you are describing such a problematic industry.

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The Art of the Ad Agency Pitch

Revisado: 08-24-23

My title is not entirely accurate - this book is about presentations as a concept, and this is a general concept. Still, ALL the examples in the book come directly from Peter Coughter's life in the ad agency he was one of the founders of.

If I can summarize the takeaways of this book in a few sentences, these would be:

1. Presentation is not about the tools you use (e.g., MS-PowerPoint). It is about the way you present - tools are the background.

2. Be yourself. Do not imitate anyone. Be authentic. Do not be over-polished and over-professional.

3. Never memorize your presentation other than very short parts. You should know the material and speak from your knowledge.

4. Rehearse a lot. If a team is presenting, they must rehearse together. Record yourself in a video and watch to learn more.

5. Learn, really learn, who you are presenting to, and build your presentation accordingly.

6. Audience can't tell if you are afraid or enthusiastic - physical signs are similar. If your hands shake - don't hold a paper as it shows the shaking.

7. Use humor, but don't tell jokes.

8. Plan in advance, specifically original and bold parts of the presentation.

9. Do your best even if the odds are small or nonexistent - you never know

And now, in four words: be ready - be you!

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The most helpful resource for Dyslexia

Revisado: 08-19-23

Sally Shaywitz did an unbelievable job of making the most updated and helpful scientific knowledge and know-how about Dyslexia available to everyone involved. I believe I finished listening to this book about six months ago - there is not a week I am not using what I learned here for my children and myself. Shaywitz gave me an insightful understanding of Dyslexia which I will probably appreciate forever.

If you or your child have Dyslexia or difficulty reading or writing, or if you are a teacher or caregiver for children and students of any age, having this knowledge is essential. It must be understood that about 5% of people in any society have Dyslexia - that's one in twenty. Hence, you probably have at least one in your class or kindergarten. And it may be diagnosed early, and as soon as it is diagnosed and assisted - the better.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Helpful, though a bit repetitive

Revisado: 08-19-23

A few points:
1. This is a very American book. It deals with a typical American home and American life. For those who are not American, some parts will probably not fit.
2. The ideas are mostly relatively simple and repeated in many details, which sometimes becomes tedious. I suggest jumping and skipping when you feel you got the point - you will not miss anything significant.

Key points:
KISS - Keep It Stupid Simple. For the ADHD person, you should prioritize operational simplicity over esthetics. Do not overstock anything. Minimize keeping stuff for nostalgic reasons. Purge what you do not use (for example, cloth you did not use for a year). Purge efficiently to the garbage or one charity that can take most things. In most cases, an ADHD person is resourceful and creative, and s/he will be able to do with less. This is true not only for physical stuff but also for keeping documents, books, or links just in case you need them in the future when you can fetch them again using search tools when needed. Thoughtfully adapt the facilities to the way they are really/frequently used.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Tedious and worthily narrated

Revisado: 08-26-22

Pam Ward should be outlawed. This is the second book I listen to her narration (by pure coincidence), and I really hope I will not make this mistake again.

The book itself comes from a lot of experience and is insightful, but it is written as a set of to‐do lists. This a tedious and awkward way to plant ideas into a thinking, experienced and creative mind. It may be good for second year students, not for savvy marketers or entrepreneurs. In many chapters I just skipped several minutes forward in those lists, not feeling I missed anything.

I would by far prefer a book that would shortly explain the idea and then tell me stories about real world examples of implementations that would ignite my thinking and creativity.

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Lean Startup - the unpolished version

Revisado: 08-25-22

If you got to this book you probably know Steve Blank is the person who actually developed the ideas and methods later called "The Lean Startup" and popularised by his student Eric Ries.
Now, the thing is, all the basic ideas of "The Lean Startup" were already detailed in this book years before; why then was "The Lean Startup" needed? Because of the awkward way this book was constructed. In "The Lean Startup", Ries generally describes an idea and then tells several stories of how this basic idea was implemented in different instances. IMHO, this is a great way to ignite learning and thinking with intelligent and experienced people. On the contrary, this book is built mostly as a set of to-do lists explaining exactly how to implement those same ideas in every possible instance (sort of an algorithm). Only a small part of the book is real-life examples. And, a to-do list is not very interesting, it is not thought-provoking or creativity-igniting.

Hence, if you already read "The Lean Startup" and would like to somewhat complete your view of the theory, this book would be of great help. If you didn't, I suggest reading "The Lean Startup" first.

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Concise course which should be great for designers

Revisado: 06-25-22

I am working a lot with colors from their physical aspects (spectrum, wavelengths, etc...). In this sense this course said nothing. It did not even deeply explain what colors are. I am fine with that - just wanted this to be clear.
However, its explanations about the semantic interpretation of colors in our brain in different settings were all new to me and I believe they are indispensable for any designer who needs to work with colors.

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Heinen's Story

Revisado: 06-25-22

I think the title I gave this review better suits the book than "Grocery".
This is not a book about "The Buying and Selling of Food in America". It is a book about "The Buying and Selling of Food at Heinen's". Which is great and interesting, but it is one small size chain, with very specific characteristics, and it does not cover or even make any attempt to cover "The Buying and Selling of Food in America".
In this sense, it is more like "Becoming Trader Joe" than like "The Secret Life of Groceries", which took a real effort to cover groceries retail business from multiple directions.
Now, that you know what to expect, it is a party good book, except for the parts where the author repeatedly and in length spoke about himself and about his family, which I sometimes tried to skip forward.

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Candid, Balnced, Educational

Revisado: 06-25-22

I never set a foot in Traders-Joe (I live in Israel). I got to this book following Lorr's "The Secret Life of Groceries" as part of my retail self-education journey.
However, I found the story highly interesting for any entrepreneur or business manager. This did not come as surprise as Lorr already described this intelligent, deep, and clear-looking mind of Joe Coulombe. This was like learning a dozen MBA case studies in one book.

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