andreweverett360 Art, Book Review

The Zen of Seeing


The Zen of Seeing: Seeing/Drawing as Meditation
by Frederick Franck (1909-2006)

In our time of overstimulation and shrinking attention span, Franck’s message is even more relevant now than when the book was published in 1973: “We do a lot of looking: we look through lenses, telescopes, television tubes… Our looking is perfected every day—but we see less and less. Never has it been more urgent to speak of SEEING.”

“Drawing is the discipline by which I constantly rediscover the world. I have learned that what I have not drawn I have never really seen, and that when I start drawing an ordinary thing I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle: the branching of a tree, the structure of a dandelion’s seed puff.”

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Career

From Networking to Boundary Spanning: How You Can Get Results Inside Large Organizations


From Networking to Boundary Spanning: How You Can Get Results Inside Large Organizations
by Kitty Wooley

At its essence, this is advice to early-career employees from a retired U.S. federal government employee who rose through the ranks by taking initiative, making connections beyond her workgroup, and establishing herself as a go-to person to get things done. On another level, this is a call-to-action to shake up the organizational culture of large bureaucracies to make them more effective—and more fulfilling to work in.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

The Green Banana Papers: Marketing Secrets for Technology Entrepreneurs


The Green Banana Papers: Marketing Secrets for Technology Entrepreneurs
by Chris Coleman

Written primarily for CEOs of technology startups, the concepts in this book are more widely applicable in business-to-business marketing (B2B). Chris Coleman founded the technology marketing firm Folio Z in 1986 and sold it in 2000.

“Marketing is everything you do to influence a positive buying decision—both now and a hundred years from now.”

My favorite line from the book is: “Never imitate you competitors. They don’t know what they’re doing either.”

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Management

Bottom Line Tales


Bottom Line Tales: 30 Lesser-known Ways to Build Sales, Profits, and Cash Flow
by Alastair Thomson

This book reads like practical advice from a mentor. Alastair Thomson is a board-level executive with experience as a CEO and CFO in a variety of industries. In 30 chapters, he shares his wisdom about such topics as fixing operational bottlenecks, improving customer service, and minimizing bureaucracy. He shares a story of a company that grew revenues rapidly by making unprofitable deals. In a counter example, another company turned down profitable business below an arbitrary minimum order. He observes that companies claiming to be data-driven often make decisions without understanding what the numbers mean. He also shares his views on AI and semi-skimmed milk.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, economics

The Skyscraper Curse


The Skyscraper Curse: And How Austrian Economics Predicted Every Major Economic Crisis of the Last Century
by Mark Thornton

This book covers three primary topics: Austrian Business Cycle Theory, Cantillon Effects, and the Skyscraper Curse. The common thread is the economic havoc caused by artificially low interest rates, including price inflation and greater economic inequality.

The author also sheds light on the dominating force funding economics research in the United States, presumably controlling the narrative and suppressing dissenting analysis.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Finance

Quality of Earnings


Quality of Earnings: The Investor’s Guide to How Much Money a Company is Really Making
by Thornton L. O’Glove

Thornton “Ted” O’Glove published the Quality of Earnings Report from 1969 through the 1980s, identifying red flags in financial statements for institutional investors. He wrote this book in 1987 to share his due diligence methods with individual investors.

“Often the stock can go north while the quality of earnings goes south, and vice versa.”

For example, the author provides examples of how reported net earnings growth can mask a decline in operating income — or even an operating loss.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Nonprofit

Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World


Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World
by Charles Koch with Brian Hooks

“This book… calls for all of us to move away from a top-down approach to solving the really big problems in society toward an approach that focuses on empowering people from the bottom up to act on their unique gifts and contribute to the lives of others.”

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andreweverett360 Book Review, economics

Entrepreneurship


Entrepreneurship: A Primer
by Eamonn Butler

“Entrepreneurship is the unseen factor of production. Land, labor, and capital produce nothing until they are actively put to work. They need to be directed and focused by some human mind—an entrepreneurial mind that realizes how they can be used to create value.”

“British philosopher and economist John Stuart Milll (1806-1873) identified entrepreneurs as people who assume both the risk and the management of a business. Today, economists focus on the role of entrepreneurs as innovators or in spotting opportunities or taking risks in a world of future uncertainty.”

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andreweverett360 Book Review, critical thinking

How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Stats in the News


How to Read Numbers:
A Guide to Stats in the News
(and Knowing When to Trust Them)
by Tom Chivers and David Chivers

News stories often cite misleading statistics. This book seeks to inform news consumers how to critically examine the claims. It also includes a “statistical style guide” to help journalists report numbers more responsibly.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Nonprofit

Agency


Agency: The Four Point Plan (F.R.E.E.) for All Children to Overcome the Victimhood Narrative and Discover Their Pathway to Power
by Ian V. Rowe

Neil Postman posed this question about public schools: “What kind of public does it create?” Ian Rowe addresses that pertinent question, arguing they are doing a disservice both to students and society, and offers a vision for getting back on track.

The author’s background will provide some context. Rowe immigrated to the United States from Jamaica with his parents and brother in 1968. He attended public schools in New York City, then earned an engineering degree from Cornell and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He worked on postsecondary education philanthropy at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and was an executive in charge of public service campaigns for MTV. He then served as CEO of charter elementary schools in the South Bronx for 10 years before cofounding Vertex Partnership Academies charter high schools.

WHAT IS AGENCY? “My short definition is that it is the force of your free will guided by moral discernment. It is the force that closes the delta between… what is and what ought to be. It is the conviction that we are active players in our own story… Agency is learning to see ourselves not as victims of our circumstances, but rather as architects of our own better futures, and to do so even in the face of real obstacles.”

“However—and this is key—no human being acts alone. Agency is individually practiced, yet socially empowered.”

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