BOOK PEEK Quick look at a few books

Deliver us from temptation

The prayer with which Damian Thompson

closes ‘The Fix’ (Harper) is ‘Deliver us from

temptation.’ Without trying to sound

moralistic, he urges us to rediscover the

vigilance that protected our hunter-gatherer

ancestors.

“The quicker we are to spot the technological

tricks that manipulate our ‘wanting’ impulse,

the greater will be our chance of resisting

them,” reasons the author. Ruing that the

modern consumer economy is partly

fashioned around our inability to exercise

willpower, he notes that the economy preys

on us but also rewards us, since we are part

of it and depend for our livelihoods on other people’s vulnerability to

temptation.

The book cites the article of Paul Graham, titled ‘The Acceleration of

Addictiveness,’ for the view that the world is more addictive than it was 40

years ago, be it about food, drink, drugs, television, or computers; and that,

as a result, we have got into the habit of liking things too much. Thompson

would, however, want to replace the notion of liking things too much with

that of wanting them too much. “It’s not the experience of pleasure that is

accelerating in the modern world: it’s the experience of desire, prompted by

environmental cues that continue to tantalise us even when the pleasant

feelings arising from consumption have evaporated.”

An important sociological insight in the book is that the sense of entitlement

to pleasure dovetails nicely with the business plans of the providers of

pleasure, especially for ‘a generation for whom an unlimited choice of

hedonic experiences is as natural as an unlimited choice of downloaded

music – and for whom novel fixes are an indispensable part of life.’ Reminds

Thompson that people born in the 1980s and 90s have access to a range of

mood-fixing tools that is vastly greater than anything available to their

parents, and that, in all likelihood, their children will have even more

choices laid out in front of them.

A book that sees a role for reasserting one’s will.

Find your passion

Fathers can make a difference, reassures

‘Daddy’s Logic’ by Anthony A. Rose (TMH),

through a whole lot of examples.

Take, for instance, the story about Lisa Ryan,

senior vice president and managing director

of Heyman Associates, New York, who

recounts how in 1984, she interviewed for a

special events position for a major company

travelling all over the country. “My father

prepped me by putting me through mock

interviews and asking me every possible

question,” Ryan adds. But, post-interview,

when she knew she was not going to get the

job, Ryan called her father and said she was

never going to get another job in my life. What was his response? “Follow

your passion and the rest will come.”

Reminisces Ryan that, deep down, she knew this was not the right position

for her, but she had tried. “Instead, I forged ahead and found a new

position. Till today, I hear my father’s voice telling me I can do anything I

want to do. My father died 27 years ago and he had the greatest impact on

my life, and I thank him for helping me find my passion in life.”

And Ryan puts that into practice when meeting potential candidates during

the course of executive search. She asks them flat out, ‘What is your

passion?’ Many people are taken aback, reports Ryan; “but I just sit back

and let them think about it.” Contrary to what many people think – that the

conversation is about skills – it is all about the intangibles, clarifies Ryan.

“Of course, you need the skills, but at some point you know you can do the

job; it’s more about ‘Is this where I want to be?’ It is about passion and

chemistry.”

To women, Ryan’s advice is simple: Try different things, you can be in

senior-level positions. Starting out in college admissions, she narrates how

the high school seniors, when talking about the future, did not know what

they wanted. “But I told them to take a variety of classes and eventually

they’d realise their strengths and move towards it.”

Inspiring collection of essays.

Workplace woes

The first myth in ‘101 Myths & Realities @ the

Office’ by Utkarsh Rai (Penguin) is that a

colleague has been promoted over you. When

an employee comes to know that a co-

worker, whom he does not consider as

possessing better skills, has been promoted

over him, he starts feeling that he has been

victimised, describes Rai. “He might view this

move as the triumph of a co-worker’s

sycophancy or as an act of managerial

favouritism. There are also those who think

that a person has got promotion only

because he threatened to leave the

organisation.”

While advising the management to ensure that there is no entitlement

culture building up around the promotion issue and that clear criteria be

set for determining eligibility, the author counsels the affected employees to

find out the criteria of the next job level and have a discussion with the

manager for identifying any gaps in experience. “Work out a plan with the

support of the manager and the HR department to fill in those gaps. This

plan should be reviewed periodically to ascertain whether you are moving in

the right direction.”

A section in the book devoted to ‘Colleagues’ begins by stating that

competitiveness among peers is better than jealousy. And the first myth in

this section is, “My colleagues have stolen my idea and presented it as their

own.” The reality, as Rai puts it, is: “You have not projected the idea as your

own to the management.”

He acknowledges that at the workplace many discussions take place, some

of which might give some people an idea which they can pursue to make it

realisable. Adding that it takes creativity, effort and time to convert an idea

into reality, Rai underlines that most of the time, during the process of

converting the idea into a working solution, the original idea gets

transformed significantly. “The person who takes an idea to its logical

conclusion is the one who can claim its ownership.”

Crisp treatment of the varied woes at the workplace.

You can change

Habit is often blamed for what seems to tie

you down. But it can also help in driving the

change, says Charles Duhigg in ‘The Power of

Habit’ (Landmark). If you believe you can

change – if you make it a habit – the change

becomes real, he assures. “This is the real

power of habit: the insight that your habits

are what you choose them to be. Once that

choice occurs – and becomes automatic – it’s

not only real, it starts to seem inevitable…”

Habits are not as simple as they seem, the

book highlights. “Hundreds of habits

influence our days – they guide how we get

dressed in the morning, talk to our kids, and

fall asleep at night; they impact what we eat for lunch, how we do business,

and whether we exercise or have a beer after work.”

Yet, every habit, no matter its complexity, is malleable, Duhigg declares.

Everything we about habits, from neurologists studying amnesiacs and

organisational experts remaking companies, is that any of the habits can be

changed, he informs. “The most addicted alcoholics can become sober. The

most dysfunctional companies can transform themselves. A high school

dropout can become a successful manager.”

What is most important, though, is that you must decide to change the

habit. You must consciously accept the hard work of identifying the cues

and rewards that drive the habits’ routines, and find alternatives, guides

Duhigg. You must know you have control and be self-conscious enough to

use it, he goads. “Once you understand that habits can be rebuilt, the

power of habit becomes easier to grasp, and the only option left is to get to

work.”

A chapter titled ‘The golden rule of habit change’ has a helpful tip on how

you can replace – not eradicate – a habit. “Find an alternative routine, and

your odds of success go up dramatically when you commit to changing as

part of a group. Belief is essential, and it grows out of a communal

experience, even if that community is only as large as two people.”

Empowering read.

Forthcoming in Book Peek

Published by: Shrinikethan, Chennai http://bit.ly/ShriMap

Edited by: D. Murali http://bit.ly/dMurali http://bit.ly/TopTalk

September 20, 2012