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The Signal and The Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't by Nate Silver
BATB score: 3.14/10 Dear Bill Gates, this recommended book of yours resembles more of a doctorate research paper in conditional probability and flawed predictions. π§ Best for: anyone pursuing a PhD in Probability Theory Best as: it's a research paper with over 450-page explanation on Bayes' Theorem about prediction and probability split into 13 life examples/chapters. Best to: you know how some things you've learnt at school does not make any difference in your life? Before


The New One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard PhD and Spencer Johnson MD
BATB score: 10/10 βοΈ Best Management Bible Ever! βοΈ Spencer Johnson's style of storytelling as in Who Moved My Cheese series: concise and crisp (without the π§ maze) Best for: any manager who cares about being a better people manager. As for those who believe he/she is already the best manager ever, go love yourself. π€¬ Best to: be reminded of goal-alignment, sincere praising, and constructive feedback with any human being. Best as: a departure gift for those result-only-orie


How Not To Be Wrong: The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life by Jordan Ellenberg
BATB score: 4/10 This book is way smarter than my brain-grade. #BillGatesReco #GatesNotes π§ I am like an aspiring junior highschool A-class sweetheart vs a suited-up PhD who spent his whole life understanding the complexity of p-values doubting his meaning of life (at times) but yet 8 years too late for any career shift. #yepyou Laffer curve, utils - law of diminishing returns, Bayesian inference, Condorcet paradox, xxx, yyy, zzz. Best for: number lovers who get a sensual ki


How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
BATB score: 9/10 Miss Universe prep-book: smile, strategic remembrance of names, lavish appreciative statements, always demonstrate tact, and wave. THIS BOOK IS LEGIT β£οΈ *yet (1) you need a lot of EQ bandwidth to put these principles into practice and never ever slip #BeyondHuman (2) 1/4 of the principles are not mutually exclusive collectively exhaustive #MECE Best for: insecure beauty queens or charismatic novices who 100% cares about how others think of them π #thatme Bes


Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
BATB score: 7.5/10 This book moved my heart, brain, and feet. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett agrees. Best to: read the book from cover to cover in one sitting then go buy yourself some NIKE shoes and NKE stocks Best as: a reminder that doing something out of pure passion always wins #ShoeDog is a person dedicated to designing and fabricating shoesβand selling them π Best for: I honestly could care less about shoes but now NIKE deeply speaks to me; a book that would impact you


Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel
BATB score: 0/10 Zero to None* itβs so bad it hurts. Unfinished random thoughts of uncle Thiel that failed to convey any meaning. Fragmented paragraphs and loosely described concepts, itβs like heβs sleep-talking π€ social distancing with every sentence β Best for: Uncle Peter Thiel and Uncle Peter Thiel alone #tablefor1 Best to: live like this book never exists #unforgivable #bookstagram Best as: proof that not all successful business founders are great writers (Thiel co-fou


The 24 Hour Woman by Sheryl Liew-Chng
BATB score: 2.4/10 Dear middle-aged, high-achieving, stressed-out women #yesyou, this 1-2-3 step workbook may overwhelm you even more. You know that one friend that kept bragging about herself and you keep a friendly smile but deeply you want to kick her in the face? This book is her. 5 Pillars, 5-Do's 5-Don't, 7 Focus Areas, 7 Days 24 Hours #byeworld #icannotanymore Best to: skip to the signpost exercises of each chapter and complete them. Your legacy, growth friends, and li


Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
BATB Score: 1/10 The book cover is misleading #fakenews You kind of expect Malcolm's behavioral economics and techniques to talk to strangers when it's more of documentary anecdotes on how we don't know the people around us. #strangersassemble Best for: those who spark joy from the CIA fooled, the pedophile getting lucky, the innocent arrested, and just on and on case studies. Best as: a Netflix 45 minutes documentary #TBC #bookstagram Best to: watch the Netflix documentary i


High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove
BATB score: i5-9600K / 10 Classic old-school management book with all time favourite Maslow's hierarchy, mid-year appraisal-review, and 1-1s. #booksince1983 #stilltrue Best for: any one of Andy Grove's children or ex-colleague to rewrite this book. Good stuff definitely but wordy, unstructured with outdated anecdotes. Best as: a sacred original to all management books that had follow suit Best to: read Powerful by Patty McCord and/or Trillion Dollar Coach instead Fun Fact: An


To Obama, With Love, Joy, Anger, and Hope by Jeanne Marie Laskas
BATB score: 8.88/10 for the 8 years that you've served us. I had too, we kinda owe him... Note to self: always practice self-PR and to engage in every self-PR opportunity. #smilewave #sellyourself Seriously, it's a book about how disciplined, genuine, and dedicated Obama was to his country and his people. "10LADs" - Obama reads 10 Letters a Day and reply to them; for god's sake, I don't even read my mails. Best to: squint. Obama's handwritten replies are really difficult to r


The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
BATB score: 9/10 for Lale's 9 lives #areyouacat My heart hurts for his series of unfortunate events where one's deliberate life goals (a scholar, a good citizen, a millionaire) were reduce to a mere 'to stay alive' within 24 hours. Best for: me to just die from day 1 at the camp - I can not Best as: a reminder that the scariest living thing is us humans and the most horrible things are from what us humans can do and chose to do to us humans #AllLifeMatters Best to: I don't kn


Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance
BATB score: 7.654321 / 10 π Best as: today's real life Iron Man, with a bullied childhood, insane dreams - Mission to Mars, deep pockets, an arrogant attitude, trophy wives, and twins, triplets, and X Γ A-12 Best to: get ready for super detailed pages of Zip2, X dot-com aka Paypal, SolarCity, SpaceX, and Tesla - Harvard Business School equivalent cases #IAmAnEngineerNow Best to: save the human race from self-imposed or accidental annihilation π½πΎπ€ Fun Fact: 149.9B, 85B, 79


Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioural Economics by Richard H. Thaler
BATB score: 2.34/10 Extremely difficult to finish cover-to-cover. 2 years+ of owning this book, trying to give it a 2nd, 3rd, 4th ready-set-read; enough is enough. Best for: "Walk Away" - Dia Frampton to sing the chorus for this book Best as: you better run away, run away, run away~ Best to: no matter what you say, what you say, what you say~ Note: Go read other behavioural economic books instead -check out the freakonomics series or Dan Ariely combos


The Secret by Rhonda Byme
BATB score: 3.33/10 PSA: The Secret disciples, please turn away. Spoiler alert: skeptic review below. The original self-help book in its perfect lame definition: one abstract concept "positive thoughts, positive life" repeated redundantly throughout the book. Best to: know that The Secret is no longer a secret - it's basically the concept of good karma; good thoughts, good deeds, good life. Best as: yet another self-help book where you puke rainbows; sure, I get it, mind-powe


Mindset: Changing the Way You Think to Fulfill Your Potential by Dr Carol S. Dweck
BATB score: 3.33 / 10 The book's first 3 chapters were GOLD π and it all just went downhill from there βοΈ . The key is "fixed vs growth mindset" yet redundantly explained with this-and-that anecdotes. Best to: Yes, I get it: pick growth > fixed mindset. I got it since your first chapter. Aha. Aha. Best for: Asians, who were spanked by their Asian parents to be perfect: A+, King Classroom, 4.00GPA, Ivy League, scholarship, lawyers/doctors/pilot - everything else is a disgrace


How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie
BATB score: 7.89/10 How to Self-Zen for Idiots #Legit #Practical Best for: nervous Nelly who panics for no obvious reason because you will do well anyways but you are still anxious that you'll fail #yesyou #thatme #sweatypalms Best as: 1-2-3 Self-Zen guidebook for worrywart with an acceptable amount of cheesy self-help repetition Best to: "Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday." - Dale Carnegie


Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
BATB score: 8.9/10 #legit π€ Best as: a book that summarizes other books' highlights from (1) Grit by Angela Duckworth, (2) Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, to (3) Mindset by Carol Dweck Best to: "One BOOK to rule them all, One BOOK to find them, One BOOK to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them" - said BATB Gandalf π§ββοΈ Best for: you who said you will read more but haven't read any and claim that you are so behind but you haven't really started on any one book;


Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
BATB score: 2/10 Panda eats shoots and leaves. πΌπΏπ³οΈβπ Panda eats, shoots and leaves. πΌπ«π΄ββ οΈ Best for: grammar Nazis; so is it ** Jesus' or Jesus's ** - if this bothers you then, congratulations! You are a grammar Nazi! Best to: skip it. the cover is tempting but the content is meh. An elementary grammar book is more concise and content. #Punctuations101 Best as: Let's eat Panda. π§ββοΈπ΄πΌ Let's eat, Panda. πββοΈππΌ Let's eat Panda's. πββοΈππΌπ Our English teachers w


Principles by Ray Dalio
BATB score: 3.14/10 yes, Ray Dalio, 18 billion USD net worth, richest hedge fund firm wrote, wrote this #Principles #RayDalio #bookstagram yes, Bill Gates recommends this #BillGates #GateNotes BUT NO, don't bother. It's like reading a bullet point with sub-bullet points with sub-sub-bullet points on and on. The bullet points are redundant and repetitive. A very torturing (book?) NASA manual to read. #DontLetAnyOneTellYouOtherwise Best for: the some good parts to be re-written


The Everything Store Jeff Bezos and The Age of Amazon by Brad Stone
BATB score: 8.9/10 π«π A+ insightful e-commerce blueprint. Mastermind's playbook on why Amazon.com stock price is 3000++ USD and why Jeff Bezos is the richest human in the world. Best for: #Shopee #Lazada #JDCentral #Tokopedia #Bukalapak senior management to read this; oh sorry, that's right you don't read #gutfeelsleadership Best to: deepdive into how Bezos foresees a challenger, quickly dumps shitload of money into a competing business model (which was not meant to last),
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