The Canvs Team Celebrates: World Book Day
April 23rd marks the International Day of the Book or World Book and Copyright Day, a yearly event organised by UNESCO to promote reading, global literacy and intellectual property protection for authors and poets. The Canvs team, being the avid bunch of readers that we are, find ourselves relatively excited on this day. So without further ado, let’s jump into the world of reading our coworkers find themselves in along with some thoughts on why they read what they read.
Debprotim Roy:
1. Beginning of Infinity (2011)
Author: David Deutsch
The beginning of Infinity is a groundbreaking book written by a physicist and thinker David Deutsch and revered and loved by many. This book establishes early, the existence of a beginning for certain infinities and explains how we are living in one. Our infinity is that of progress driven by science that started by an era of Enlightenment around the 18th century when scientific pursuits and critical thinking took over Empiricism as a benchmark and started to lay bare parochial assumptions as general non-truths.
David Deutsch with critical reasoning goes on to explain many natural phenomena, our place in them and busts myths, both like our assumed anthropocentrism and the pointlessness of our existence. He argues with good reasons, why both these models of understanding the universe are flawed.
I started reading this because it came heavily recommended and seemed to bring together exactly the subjects that deeply interest me.
2. Gödel, Escher, Bach (G.E.B.): an Eternal Golden Braid (1979)
Author: Douglas Hofstadter
This has been a tough one. Haven’t finished this, and probably will just keep re-reading some parts of the book just to brush things up from time to time. GEB is a super heavy read, to be honest. To put it unfairly, it deals with common aspects from the lives of mathematician Kurt Godel, artist MC Escher, and composer Johann Sebastian Bach, all geniuses in their own fields. The common thread discussed in this book is that of self-referential (recursive) loops found in the work of each of these geniuses. A good portion of the book talks about these self-referential loops like Bach’s ever-rising canon, or Escher’s impossible geometries or the discussion of Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem.
Douglas Hofstadter explains how these loops behave, how they are perceived and explains many such phenomena with the help of intermittent puzzles.
The book deals with principles lying in the foundation of intelligence, mathematics, symmetry and logic. Some often consider going through the entire book as a challenge which was one of the reasons I picked it up. Perhaps I will be able to finish it someday. The book is fat.
3. The Plot to Get Bill Gates (1999)
Author: Gary Rivlin
This is a worthy mention given my childhood worship of the main man Gates. I had picked this book unassumingly off a library about a decade and a half ago and it served as my stepping stone to being an entrepreneur. The book is no literary classic, and in fact, is quite hard to get your hands on, but I tracked it and got a hard copy for myself very recently.
Written around the turn of this century the book deals with the life of Bill Gates and his battle to build Microsoft to the monopoly it had become during the late 90s. From themes of envy to competition to genius, it pens down the entire Gatesian era of Microsoft very well. It describes the envy MS had invited during its prime years along with the full band of hostiles it had created (with good reason) on its way to becoming the monopoly of the computers market during the 90s.
I keep going back to this book time and again.
Here’s from its foreword:
“The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of a failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism, and self interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the qualities of the first they love the produce of the second.”
Rovin Cutinho:
1. Flash Boys
Author: Michael Lewis
This is a story of a small group of people working on, or connected with Wall Street, who identify a problem whereby the markets were colluding to work against the interest of their clients and customers. I have heard and read about the negative impact of HFT on stock market. This book shed more light on the same. The explanation is in one sense simple, although complex at the same time. I suspect some will find it a bit too technical while it also might be a bit too basic for the ones who are in-between the action. The story clearly sheds light of how important having a moral compass is in any form of business.
With having worked on some of these setups and having interacted with some of the firms named in the book, the book kept me hooked on the start of electronic trading, and what it meant for early movers to get an edge over the competition at all means. Everything was about speed wars or speed arbitrage. Though it also shows how some take it upon on themselves to understand what is going around in the industry and not just reacting to it.
The world clings to its old mental picture of the stock market because it’s comforting; because it’s so hard to draw a picture of what has replaced it; and because the few people able to draw it for you have no interest in doing so.
Every systemic market injustice arose from some loophole in a regulation created to correct some prior injustice.
Shining a light creates shadows
A man got to have a code. — Omar Little
2. Designing Your Life: Build the Perfect Career, Step by Step
Author: Bill Burnett
This book introduces you to apply design thinking to life planning, with an emphasis on careers. It is full of practical tools to organise and better plan your lives is a truly consistent way based on ones personal values and hidden passions. Another good highlight the book makes is that it isn’t of utmost importance for you to know your passion just to start with designing your life. Passion is the result of a good life design, not the cause.
I am not a person who generally sits back and contemplates on life, but this book does help you stop, think, and hopefully find a direction that will make you happy and fulfilled.
These are all gravity problems — meaning they are not real problems. Why? Because in life design, if it’s not actionable, it’s not a problem. Let’s repeat that. If it’s not actionable, it’s not a problem. It’s a situation, a circumstance, a fact of life. It may be a drag (so to speak), but, like gravity, it’s not a problem that can be solved. Here
Dysfunctional Belief: Happiness is having it all. Reframe: Happiness is letting go of what you don’t need.
A well-designed life is a life that is generative — it is constantly creative, productive, changing, evolving, and there is always the possibility of surprise. You get out of it more than you put in. There is a lot more than “lather, rinse, repeat” in a well-designed life.
3. Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
Author: Robert C. Martin
This book is as relevant today as it was when it was first released. With having spent close to a decade now with the book, I feel it definitely is still a good place to start for people having anything to do with product development. It emphasises above all that writing good code is not defined by whether the code functions or by how complex a problem it solves, it is though defined by how easy it for other to read.
Even bad code can function. But if code isn’t clean, it can bring a development organisation to its knees. Every year, countless hours and significant resources are lost because of poorly written code. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If we stick to making code easy to read for others to understand automatically we will have a profound effect on all the changes that will ever be made to it in the future.
Truth can only be found in one place: the code.
It is not enough for code to work.
Clean code always looks like it was written by someone who cares.
Clean code is simple and direct. Clean code reads like well-written prose. Clean code never obscures the designer’s intent but rather is full of crisp abstractions and straightforward lines of control.
Grady Booch author of Object Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications
Premankan Seal:
1. The Art of Looking Sideways (2001)
Author: Alan Fletcher
The Art of Looking sideways by legendary British designer Alan Fletcher is a book that’s hard to categorize. It doesn’t fit into a genre or emulates a style. It’s a mine of anecdotes, quotations, images, curious facts and useless trivia, oddities, serious science, jokes and memories, all concerned with the interplay between the verbal and the visual, and the limitless resources of the human mind.
The book does not attempt to teach lessons, but within its loosely arranged 72 chapters, is a lifetime of wisdom and insight, presented in an explosion of type, space, color & imagery.
I first read the book about 15 years ago, and since then each time I’ve flipped through the pages, I come out more inspired and a tiny little bit wiser than I was before. I’d argue it is arguably the best coffee table book that has ever been printed, if not one of the best books. Period.
2. Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All (2013)
Author: David Kelley & Tom Kelley
Across their storied careers at IDEO, David and Tom Kelley have led global design and innovation projects across countries working with some of the world’s most successful companies. In Creative Confidence, they shatter the myth of the prodigy — born a creative genius. Relying on stories from their projects at IDEO and their personal experiences practising design and leading global teams of designers, the book provides a roadmap to cultivating a design mindset and unleashing creative potential.
Every time I feel the dread of impostor syndrome, this is a book I turn to pull me out of the funk and find a way forward with a creative purpose. Many such books do that trick for me, but something about the tone and style here just hits home.
3. Piranesi (2020)
Author: Susanna Clarke
Clocking in at just over 200 pages, Piranesi a deceptively dense and complex masterpiece. It’s not an easy book to get into — it takes mental and intellectual energy to engage with the story. But it couldn’t have released at a better time. Smack in the midst of the global pandemic, with the coronavirus lockdowns sweeping across the globe, that ever-present sense of isolation in Piranesi could not have been more relevant and relatable.
It’s a very short book, far shorter than the ones I usually end up reading, but it took a lot more mental energy to get through its many, many layers and complex metaphysics. With its imaginative reach and gothic intricacy, it presents a fantastical alternate universe that I, locked in and isolated, really, really enjoyed.
Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.
Aalhad Joshi:
1. Timequake (1997)
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
An underrated, self-referential masterpiece by Vonnegut on a novel (this book itself) that he found himself having a tough time finishing. In fact, he had such a hard time writing this novel that he skipped publishing it in its original avatar ‘Timequake 1’ and skipped straight to ‘Timequake 2’ when it was published in 1997. The book goes through an asynchronous tale of his ever so familiar protagonist Kilgore Trout, who finds himself in a universe post an apocalyptic event called the ‘Timequake’ soon after which the world loses all free will. The hilarious reasoning Vonnegut provides for this loss in free will is that the universe had, “suffered a crisis in self-confidence.”
“I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, ‘The Beatles did’.”
2. They Eat Puppies, Don’t They? (2013)
Author: Christopher Buckley
The title refers to the supposed culinary propensities of the Chinese, but as this novel makes clear, it’s said with more than a twist of irony. A scathing analysis of American media, politics and military. ‘They Eat Puppies, Don’t They?’ is about an arms industry lobbyist/failed novelist, “Bird” McIntyre and his shambolic work with industrialist (and love interest, for lack of higher sensibilities) Angel Templeton in pushing a huge arms deal by spreading a rumour that the Chinese secret service is working to assassinate the Dalai Lama. If you wanted to get an idea of the kind of satire this book is going for, look no further than the name of the institution Angel works in: The Institute for Continuing Conflict.
“Well, as we say around here, an ounce of preemption is worth a pound of enriched uranium.”
3. Horse Walks into a Bar (2016)
Author: David Grossman
This book gives an intimate and often extremely uncomfortable look into the lives of two people, seemingly on the polar ends of life. One a comedian, the other a district court judge. The story is set in a comedy bar as Dovaleh, the comedian performs a gripping and uncomfortable set almost singularly to Avishai (the narrator and aforementioned judge) while the crowd in the bar fades into the background. As the night progresses, their relationship has more light shed upon it as the reader progressively is navigated through the trauma and grief that they (unequally) share.
“You, who promised, when you asked for my hand, to look at me always with kind eyes. The eyes of a loving witness, you said. And no one has ever said anything lovelier to me.”
Abin Rajan:
1. The Martian (2011)
Author: Andy Weir
It’s a classic tale of survival against very huge odds. Each day brings in new challenges and the book details how the main protagonist has to battle with them for survival and keep going, one day at a time. Oh, seems relatable? Life.
The novel is also impressive in the way of how well researched a piece it is. Kudos to the author to have put in all the fine details and also connecting the dots effortlessly. By the end of it, don’t be surprised if you apply for a position at the JPL.
This can also be a good read for someone starting to inculcate a reading habit. The chapters are short and gripping and it gives a sense of completion as you move along keeping you hooked to the book.
Oh, might I add, it’s even more interesting to read this book if you’ve already watched the movie — The Martian, which is based on this book.
“I guess you could call it a “failure”, but I prefer the term “learning experience.”
2. Shoe Dog (2016)
Author: Phil Knight
It’s a story of Nike and its evolution to the brand behemoth that it is today in the words of its co-founder Phil Knight. Often when I looked at brands and businesses that are popular, the only thing I often thought was how fortunate they might be to enjoy this position they are in now. This book opened a new dimension for me as to what goes behind the scenes and how it’s neither fortunate, lucky nor easy.
Phil goes through a detailed timeline of events as to how and what transpired through his journey, what kept him going and how he made Nike the brand it is today. It is also an inspiring story of how teamwork, trust and diligence always deliver in the end.
“When you see only problems, you’re not seeing clearly.”
3. Man’s Search For Meaning (1946)
Author: Viktor E Frankl
Well, the title about sums it up. It’s based on first-hand experiences by the author, Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s and his patients of life in Nazi death camps. The irony. The book gives a perspective of how difficult things could get in life and the stories of the brave and perseverant who lived through the torment to tell the tales.
In the second half of the book, the author, a psychiatrist by profession, connects the thought process and life decisions by him and his patients (at the Nazi camps) with the psychological aspects and gives reason as to why humans think the way we do. It’s a book that implores you to consciously live as meaningful a life as possible and to focus on the journey and not just the destination.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Paridhi Agrawal:
1. Show Your Work! (2014)
Author: Austin Kleon
It is a quick and rich overview of ways and insights on how one can share one work with the world. This book changes how you view your creative work and how you share it. The author dives deep into ten straightforward guidelines for sharing a small piece of work consistently, telling good stories, learning how to take a punch, being “findable”, and influencing and being influenced by those around you. It also talks about leveraging the network instead of wasting time building the network. As a content creator myself, I found this book a great read since my work involves creating an online presence, building an audience, getting discovered, and most importantly, “sticking around”.
“An alternative, if you will, to self-promotion. I’m going to try to teach you how to think about your work as a never-ending process, how to share your process in a way that attracts people who might be interested in what you do, and how to deal with the ups and downs of putting yourself and your work out in the world.”
2. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011)
Author: Yuval Noah Harari
If you’re anything like me, your worldview will change drastically after Sapiens. Yuval’s methodical treatise that explores the origin behind elements of modern civilization offers a glimpse into the animalistic tendencies that inform our worldview and practices. After reading this, you shall recognize more often than not the emotions of the jungle within all of us.
“Culture tends to argue that it forbids only that which is unnatural. But from a biological perspective, nothing is unnatural. Whatever is possible is by definition also natural. A truly unnatural behaviour, one that goes against the laws of nature, simply cannot exist, so it would need no prohibition.”
3. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (2018)
Author: James Clear
This is a book that you must absorb as much as possible, and your life shall change for the better. Too often, we’re to our whims and fancies and do not get anything done. Atomic Habits is all about the systems and practices to create long-standing good habits and break bad ones. If you implement even a fraction of the advice in this book, I imagine it’ll pay huge dividends.
“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.”
We hope this collection of our personal lists enriches yours. For what is a good book if it isn’t shared with the people around you.
Here’s some ‘food’ for thought:
“I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The Canvs Editorial team comprises of: Editorial Writer and Researcher- Paridhi Agrawal, the Editor’s Desk- Aalhad Joshi and Debprotim Roy, and Content Operations- Abin Rajan
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