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Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited by Steve Krug is one of those books at the top of a web designers reading list. I read the latest Revisited edition published in 2014, which includes updates for mobile. He updated the book once in 2006 to make more money on royalties. This time he updated the book to reflect the changes to the web since then, which is mainly mobile. This is a good quick read for anyone who builds websites. Definition of Usability
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This week’s book is Evil by Design. The premise of the book is that for designing for humans, we should start with the seven deadly sins, which are fundamental human traits. Each chapter deals with a deadly sin and gives examples of how those sins are being used to manipulate you. After reading the book, I see evil all around me. It is the devil’s work! The Seven Deadly Sins
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The last book I read was about the power of habits. This book is about how to create habits in mostly the context of Internet companies. How to build products that cause users to have cravings like a drug addict. We all can’t sell drugs, so they next best thing is to peddle internet products. Each chapter ends with a summary, so you can get a quick read do the book just by reading a one pager for each chapter. You’re probably better off doing that. The Hook Model
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There are few of copies of The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg (Harvard MBA) around my workplace, so I decided to pick it up and read it. The book is separated into 3 parts: habits of individuals, habits of organizations and habits of societies. This was a good read. Habit Loop 
The central concept of the book is the habit loop, how it works, how you can change it and how it affects individuals, organizations and societies. The habit loop starts with a cue that makes you follow your routine until you get rewarded. That reward reinforces the loop, so that the next time you see the cue, you’ll be triggered again. This reminds me of Pavlov’s dog experiment where he conditioned dogs salivate when a bells rings by associating the bell with food then removing the food later with the dogs still salivating with no food present. Instead of dogs, this book focuses on people, organizations and societies. The Habits of Individuals Do you know why you use toothpaste? It’s because an advertiser programmed this habit into you. Toothpaste doesn’t really work. The tinglingly minty fresh taste is your reward. Toothpaste doesn’t need to do that, but it sells more when it does. Shampoo doesn’t have to lather to clean effectively, but they add stuff to make suds, because it sells more. Habits are powerful, because they create neurological cravings. Sometimes the brain reacts like it has gotten the reward already from only seeing the cue like Pavlov’s dogs. Cravings make it easier to form new habits. The Golden Rule of Habit Change
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This is another origin story book about Patagonia, a privately held clothing company that specializes in climbing equipment. The previous origin story books focused a lot of the founders, but this one focuses more on the company rather then the founder, Yvon Chouinard. The book describes how everything started from a metal shop making climbing hardware into the large clothing company it is today. Beginnings Many founders get there start by solving their own problems. Yvon liked to go climbing, but he needed equipment for it. As climbers grew dissatisfied with existing equipment, they innovated, made improvements to satisfy their own urges. They worked only as much to fund their next adventure. Selling extra hardware to friends turned into hiring friends to make more hardware. Eventually they branched out into clothing and spun out the hardware divisions. After seeing the damage their climbing equipment was doing to the rock face, they developed new pieces that were non-destructive. They quickly phased out pitons and educated customers about other ways to climb. They were unafraid to take a loss and cannibalize existing sales in order to develop something new and innovative. This started the road to trying to be a business while staying as environmentally self-conscious as possible even if it meant lower profits. Going Global
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Just for Fun is the origin story of Linux. I like technology origin stories, because they have entertaining characters and I know the ending already. Linux started out as a pet project to read email with a dial up modem as a way for Linus to learn about the 386 processor. It now runs most websites on the internet. It is best to start out and do one thing well and grow organically from there. Meaning of Life The origin story is sandwiched between two chapters on the meaning of life, which appear in the beginning and end of the book. The meaning of life is:
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The authors of Freakonomics and Think Like a Freak turned their blog into a book called When to Rob a Bank. There seems to be a trend of turning blogs into books. I also listen to their podcast. One thing I noticed is that all the their books have deckle edges, where edges of the pages aren’t cut clean. The book feels like they are milking a cow. It is an easy book to pick up and put down without retaining any big ideas. That said, I still read it. Proof of Purchase Insurance In India and San Francisco, you purchase a ticket and get on the train. Your ticket may or may not be inspected while you’re on the train. If you don’t have a ticket when you’re inspected, you get a fine. If they never inspect you, you didn’t to buy the ticket in the first place. In India there is an associated of ticketless travelers.
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Man’s Search for Meaning was written by Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist who survived The Holocaust. The first part of the book is an account of his experiences in concentration camps and the second part of the book explains logotheraphy, which was another branch of psychotheraphy developed by Viktor. The concentration camps section reminded me of Schindler’s List.
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Since I didn’t want to pay $130 for a ticket for 2 beers, the cookbook and a plate of barbecue at the San Francisco pop-up event, I decided to read the Franklin Barbecue book instead. Even if I did want to pay for the tickets, they were sold out in seconds. This book is about Central Texas barbecue which is focused on beef brisket with no sauce. There aren’t many recipes in the book, because this book is about the process of making good barbecue. Fire + Smoke I was reminded of Alan Ada’s flame challenge when I read the Fire + Smoke chapter, where Aaron explains what happens when wood burns. It is hard to follow a recipe exactly and wind up with great barbecue. There are a lot of variables that go into making fire, especially when you are using a wood fire instead of gas. The skill lies in managing the fire. When to stoke the coals, how to select and arrange the wood and when to add more wood to the wire. Ideally, you want a lot of air for clean and efficient combustion that results in good smoke. Efficient car engines products less pollutants. You want your fire to be efficient. I wouldn’t want to operate a BBQ joint, because barbecue is a lot of work and you smell like smoke all the time.
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The Pumpkin Plan is geared toward entrepreneurs (small business and lifestyle) who can’t scale their business, because they say yes to everything. They spend lots of time and effort working while realizing minimal returns. The Pumpkin Plan uses an analogy to giant pumpkin farmers to help entrepreneurs prune their patch in order to make their pumpkins grow. Pumpkin Growing Process
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This week I skimmed through The Four Pillars of Investing by William J. Bernstein. There are summaries at the end of each chapter, so it is easy to skim through. This is a good book for people who want to invest. If you already have an index fund portfolio spread among different asset classes, you can skip this book. If you don’t, then after you read this book, you’ll will. The Four Pillars From the back page.
