Review: South vs North: India’s Great Divide

South vs North: India’s Great Divide by Nilakantan RS
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Hooter: A statistics based approach to the positives of the federalism approach of the Indian Union

"One tshirt size truly doesn't fit all" is the summary the author takes to by setting the baseline using 1/3 of the book to read the statistics across various indicators of education, health and economy to showcase how wide a chasm that exists across the different states of India which haven't converged after 75 years of Independence. With Tamil Nadu getting a special mention in each graph, its neighbour Kerala not too far behind , the author has them representative of South India. He then highlights how the standardisation across the nation actually hurts those who are ahead on the curve as it incentivises them to be complacent so that the laggards can catch up.

This goes back to the debate of equity v/s equality in terms of approaches that we usually hear in DEI conversations, but applied at a state level. Not sure if its me but a lot of the book has this heavy tinge of why we Tamilians are paying the price of the rest of the country being unable to catch up hypothesis.

So whilst the statistics make for an interesting reading and baseline framework towards developmental politics, I was hoping for a more forward looking constructive set of examples on how to push the boundaries for everyone to move forward on this developmental front rather than stop at showcasing whose ahead and who isn't and engaging in thought experiments.

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Review: Nice Girls Still Don't Get the Corner Office: Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers

Nice Girls Still Don't Get the Corner Office: Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers by Lois P. Frankel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: 101 mistakes the author feels women make in a patriarchy leaning workplace.

Whilst it is a very click baity title, with a couple of eyeballs staring at me with quizzical looks at the cafe, the mistakes whilst stereotypically associated with women from a patriarchical lens, they are gender agnostic. Rather than a book you sit and read through, this feels like an encyclopedia with handy tips on specific issues and lots of follow up reading resources. If you are becoming a career coach, this is a handy book to have to direct folks to follow up reading.

This is a good refresher for everyone to be aware of mistakes that they make and others also make around you. Some key learnings are around mentors/sponsors, networking in terms of building deeper relationships, just because you can multitask doesn't mean you have to, reluctance to negotiate and numerous other simple behaviorial tips to engage further in the workplace.


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Review: Doglapan: The Hard Truth about Life and Start-Ups

Doglapan: The Hard Truth about Life and Start-Ups by Ashneer Grover
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hooter: Yeh book bhi doglapan hai - his autobiography of life so far

Post Shark Tank India S1, BharatPe controversy and Kotak controversy, what does a PR team bail out its client? Writing a justification or my side of the story and releasing it as a book on life and start-ups from my personal experience seems like a solid idea. The book shares his insights and the thought process around what he saw and what he built which is no doubt spectacular and straight forward without mincing of words. His frankness and honesty when stating facts and chronological order in his life makes it very relatable. His justification and how the world around him was always wrong does bring up questions since life and interactions are never black and white. Seeing his personality from Shark Tank India, it does make sense that he can rub people off the wrong way and maybe that constant friction might be the reason why he feels he gets the short end of the stick with people around him. Credit where due as he does have unique insights on day to day affairs of the world from his single minded focus of running a profitable business.

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Review: Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know About the World

Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know About the World by Vaclav Smil
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Hooter: A view of the world through statistics

Remember the "this meeting could have been an email" series? This "book could have been an article" is the analogy. Each chapter tries to throw numbers at you and brush a broad stroke to what it implies without any deeper details or correlations (I am thinking Freakonomics here).

Whilst he covers a wide breadth of ideas, the lack of depth put me off.

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