Sunday, February 28, 2010
Swimming
I stumbled into two different streams of thought a couple of weeks ago. Following each stream has gotten my head all a jumble with different ideas about this blog, my career, and various other topics. I like the idea of using this blog to help me work through some of these issue, but I'm not sure if I should keep the link to the resolutions or just focus on using the blog as a tool to help me organize my thinking and drop the resolution theme. I can keep the resolution theme, these new topics have prompted me to look at a couple of books, join the VCU library so I can check out books, and get even deeper into free resources online, but it feels like a gimmick that could start feeling forced. We'll see.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
This guy puts me to shame
I found a new blog via a Google Reader recommendation. The blog caught my attention because the writer is going to try to get up at 5 to increase his productivity. My wife recently started getting up at 4:45 am to go the gym. She has taken to the switch fairly smoothly (although she also never complains so she could be hating life and not telling me about it) so I'm curious to see how this guy handles the change. For what it's worth, I find that I'm more productive during the late night so I'm happy to stick with my current routine.
As I was going through the blogs, I noticed that he has set a goal to read 50 books this year. He's really trying to read one book a week, but that's till a mighty lofty ambition. Well, I guess the loftiness of the ambition is a function of what books you are trying to read. Linchpin came in the mail on Thursday. I could have finished it tonight (who knows, I still could), but I decided to ship (Godin's term) a blog post instead. That's a book in less than a week. I could have read Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion in less than a week if I had fewer commitments. If nothing else, I think his goal puts my resolution to read 16 books this year in the highly achievable category. I only need to read a book every three weeks or so to reach my goal. Once I finish Godin's book, I will be on schedule again.
As I was going through the blogs, I noticed that he has set a goal to read 50 books this year. He's really trying to read one book a week, but that's till a mighty lofty ambition. Well, I guess the loftiness of the ambition is a function of what books you are trying to read. Linchpin came in the mail on Thursday. I could have finished it tonight (who knows, I still could), but I decided to ship (Godin's term) a blog post instead. That's a book in less than a week. I could have read Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion in less than a week if I had fewer commitments. If nothing else, I think his goal puts my resolution to read 16 books this year in the highly achievable category. I only need to read a book every three weeks or so to reach my goal. Once I finish Godin's book, I will be on schedule again.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Books and Blogs
As my frequent mention of books suggests, I have a thing for books. When I say books, I don't just meaning reading material, I mean that I have a thing for the physical object that is a book. I'm not one of these crazy book collector types, but I like owning a book. I don't have a desire to get a Kindle or Nook, and until recently I was never really curious about blogs. My discovery of blogs started when my grad school adviser told me about In the Pipeline, a blog about the pharma industry. That blog prompted me to try Google Reader (I set up my Reader to give me the feed from the Journal of the American Chemical Society). My law school application process got me a little deeper into following blogs.
I have since discovered Seth Godin, Dan Pink, and some other interesting feeds. My cumulative reading of these blogs provides just as much (or more) insight and information than my beloved books. They are a nice compliment to books. They are free, informative, and extremely diverse.
I enjoy keeping my own blogs. I would love to write about things that relate more closely to my career, but most of my day to day stuff is proprietary so I can't just start blogging about it. It's just as well, who really wants to hear about the struggles of a pharmaceutical industry product development scientist trying to figure out how to do chemometrics analysis or the challenges of validating new HPLC methods. Probably just as many people who want to read about my New Year's Resolutions.
I have since discovered Seth Godin, Dan Pink, and some other interesting feeds. My cumulative reading of these blogs provides just as much (or more) insight and information than my beloved books. They are a nice compliment to books. They are free, informative, and extremely diverse.
I enjoy keeping my own blogs. I would love to write about things that relate more closely to my career, but most of my day to day stuff is proprietary so I can't just start blogging about it. It's just as well, who really wants to hear about the struggles of a pharmaceutical industry product development scientist trying to figure out how to do chemometrics analysis or the challenges of validating new HPLC methods. Probably just as many people who want to read about my New Year's Resolutions.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Book List
I will update this post with my purchased and read books.
Purchased:
1. Hyperion
2. Linchpin
3. Flashman #11
4. The Essential Peter Drucker
5. Searching for Excellence
6. Scientific Genius: A Psychology of Science
7. Flow
8. Darwin's Century
9. We All Went to Paris
10. The Scientist as Rebel
11. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
12. L.A. Confidential
13. The First Tycoon
14. The Purpose of History
15. Introduction to Communication Theory
16. Early Retirement Extreme
17. The Towers of Midnight (Wheel of Time *13)
Read:
1. Hyperion
2. The Fall of Hyperion
3. Linchpin (23Feb)
4. Complexity and Management (9Mar)
5. Thermopylae (21Mar)
6. Madame Bovary (29Mar)
7. Notes on the Synthesis of Form (3Apr)
8. The American (24Apr)
9. Flow (29Apr)
10. Rise of the Creative Class (9May)
11. Anatomy of a Trend (15May)
12. The Black Dahlia (20May)
13. Scientific Genius: A Psychology of Science (24May)
14. Geeks and Geezers (6Jun)
15. The Scientist as Rebel (8Jun)
16. We All Went to Paris (14Jun)
17. Creativity in Science (22Jun)
18. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (7Jul)
19. Digital Barbarism (18Aug)
20. Nicholas Nickleby (my Dickens book for 2010) (28Aug)
21. The Black Swan (1Oct)
22. Sticky Wisdom (2Nov)
23. How to Become CEO (1Dec)
24. Towers of Midnight (4Dec)
25. A Game of Thrones (23Dec)
Purchased:
1. Hyperion
2. Linchpin
3. Flashman #11
4. The Essential Peter Drucker
5. Searching for Excellence
6. Scientific Genius: A Psychology of Science
7. Flow
8. Darwin's Century
9. We All Went to Paris
10. The Scientist as Rebel
11. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
12. L.A. Confidential
13. The First Tycoon
14. The Purpose of History
15. Introduction to Communication Theory
16. Early Retirement Extreme
17. The Towers of Midnight (Wheel of Time *13)
Read:
1. Hyperion
2. The Fall of Hyperion
3. Linchpin (23Feb)
4. Complexity and Management (9Mar)
5. Thermopylae (21Mar)
6. Madame Bovary (29Mar)
7. Notes on the Synthesis of Form (3Apr)
8. The American (24Apr)
9. Flow (29Apr)
10. Rise of the Creative Class (9May)
11. Anatomy of a Trend (15May)
12. The Black Dahlia (20May)
13. Scientific Genius: A Psychology of Science (24May)
14. Geeks and Geezers (6Jun)
15. The Scientist as Rebel (8Jun)
16. We All Went to Paris (14Jun)
17. Creativity in Science (22Jun)
18. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (7Jul)
19. Digital Barbarism (18Aug)
20. Nicholas Nickleby (my Dickens book for 2010) (28Aug)
21. The Black Swan (1Oct)
22. Sticky Wisdom (2Nov)
23. How to Become CEO (1Dec)
24. Towers of Midnight (4Dec)
25. A Game of Thrones (23Dec)
Monday, February 15, 2010
Fashion = Pharma
I was reading a few pages from my fifth book purchase of the year (Searching for Excellence) earlier tonight. The few pages that I read started a chain of thinking that ended up at the unexpected title of this post. The introduction of SoE details how the authors started thinking about the organizational issues facing large companies back in the late '70's. A few of their observations reminded me of some of the stuff that I deal with on a semi-regular basis in my own employment for a large multi-national corporation. The intro started talking about how these good companies focused on the employees rather than putting all of their energy into complex organizations.
My first thought was that people matter more than a fancy structure. (A useful corrollary, making yourself a good employee will guarantee you employment. I think Godin gets to that in his new book so I'll save that thought for later.) That thought got me thinking to my own company's current reoraganization effort. I was optimistic when they first announced the reorg because I thought a new structure might lead to a new approach to how we do our work, but it looks like it's just going to be more of the same with a new org chart posted on some page on our impossible to navigate intranet. Why can't they just find a way to let people do the job that needs to be done with as little bureaucratic meddling as possible?
Isn't that what the fashion industry does? These designers go out and do their thing, bring it to the rest of the industry, and it is either bought or ignored. Fashion designers and chemists are more alike than either group probably realizes. Both make things using simpler starting materials, both need to understand a few basic principles to design their products, and both need training to make their visions a reality. Both groups need to be innovative in how they think about their product and they need to find new ways solve old problems. Chemistry is a very creative endeavor. Yes, you are bound by the laws of physics, but finding ways to circumvent those obstacles is part of the challenge.
I like fashion's need to always be the next big thing. That big thing may be trendy and brief, but when I was looking for jobs after college, every other ad was for a combinatorial chemist. When is the last time one of those was hired? The need to find the next big thing, to need the next big thing to survive and remain relevant, unites fashion and pharma (and chemistry more generally). Who knows, maybe the pharma industry will evolve to something more fashion like, with small pharma companies (the designers) looking to sell their wares (new drugs) to the big department stores (Big Pharma). We are on that path now. I think that's where things will eventually end up.
My first thought was that people matter more than a fancy structure. (A useful corrollary, making yourself a good employee will guarantee you employment. I think Godin gets to that in his new book so I'll save that thought for later.) That thought got me thinking to my own company's current reoraganization effort. I was optimistic when they first announced the reorg because I thought a new structure might lead to a new approach to how we do our work, but it looks like it's just going to be more of the same with a new org chart posted on some page on our impossible to navigate intranet. Why can't they just find a way to let people do the job that needs to be done with as little bureaucratic meddling as possible?
Isn't that what the fashion industry does? These designers go out and do their thing, bring it to the rest of the industry, and it is either bought or ignored. Fashion designers and chemists are more alike than either group probably realizes. Both make things using simpler starting materials, both need to understand a few basic principles to design their products, and both need training to make their visions a reality. Both groups need to be innovative in how they think about their product and they need to find new ways solve old problems. Chemistry is a very creative endeavor. Yes, you are bound by the laws of physics, but finding ways to circumvent those obstacles is part of the challenge.
I like fashion's need to always be the next big thing. That big thing may be trendy and brief, but when I was looking for jobs after college, every other ad was for a combinatorial chemist. When is the last time one of those was hired? The need to find the next big thing, to need the next big thing to survive and remain relevant, unites fashion and pharma (and chemistry more generally). Who knows, maybe the pharma industry will evolve to something more fashion like, with small pharma companies (the designers) looking to sell their wares (new drugs) to the big department stores (Big Pharma). We are on that path now. I think that's where things will eventually end up.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Writing to learn
I took a look at an essay by Peter Drucker that I have in a collection of articles from the Harvard Business Review. I wanted to reassure myself that buying the Drucker book wasn't a poor selection in my year of limited book buying. I was reassured a few pages into the article. His clear, common-sense advice on how to manage a career felt appropriate and sound. I felt the same way reading The Effective Exective. I am happy with my decision to buy his book.
Buying the book has already had an unexpected return on my investment. Part of the article that I was reading was discussing different ways that people learn and how recognizing your learning style can allow you to better manage your career. One of the ways that he mentions people learning is by writing. I remember thinking that learning by writing was kind of unexpected the first time I read the essay a couple of years ago, but this time I really started to think about my own experience with writing.
I can still recall details about papers that I wrote more than a decade ago in college. The topics of those papers, The McDonaldization of Society, Medieval Cathedral Tympana, The Wide Sargasso Sea, the origins of Kandinsky's abstract style, are some of my most vivid recollections from college. I always thought that I remembered those papers because I put some much effort into writing them, but maybe this learning by writing thing applies to me. My graduate school experience with chemistry was much different than my undergrad battles. The big difference, I wrote about my work in graduate school, I didn't just learn things for an exam. Granted, I didn't start writing about my research until I had already done well in come classes, but doing chemistry problems is similar to writing in how you interact with and work through the various issues in a problem.
I kept a journal for years, mainly as a venue to write about an interesting magazine ariticle that I had read or comment on something else that I was thinking about at the time. The hour or so that I would spend working through whatever issue that topic brought to mind usually led me to some place that I did not plan on going. It was my way to discuss the topic and work through some of the challenges that it presented to me. I would still do that now, this blog is actually just another manifestation of that compulsion to have a place to think in writing, if it wasn't for my career, family, and working on getting my waist size down or some other goal that takes up my precious alone time.
I have already thought of a few ways this I may be able to capitalize on this learning by writing idea. I kind of already do it at work, I just write presentations instead of papers. The medium is different, but I think about presentations the same way that I think about papers. What if I started jotting down a few ideas about the non-technical articles that I read? I already have a book where I collect interesting articles and such. What if I started to jot down a few of my ideas there? I did that a month or so ago and those thoughts are still accessible to me when my thinking gets on that track. I may be able to use this insight if I ever make it to law school too.
Wow, what insights will I get in a bigger book of Drucker's writing?
Buying the book has already had an unexpected return on my investment. Part of the article that I was reading was discussing different ways that people learn and how recognizing your learning style can allow you to better manage your career. One of the ways that he mentions people learning is by writing. I remember thinking that learning by writing was kind of unexpected the first time I read the essay a couple of years ago, but this time I really started to think about my own experience with writing.
I can still recall details about papers that I wrote more than a decade ago in college. The topics of those papers, The McDonaldization of Society, Medieval Cathedral Tympana, The Wide Sargasso Sea, the origins of Kandinsky's abstract style, are some of my most vivid recollections from college. I always thought that I remembered those papers because I put some much effort into writing them, but maybe this learning by writing thing applies to me. My graduate school experience with chemistry was much different than my undergrad battles. The big difference, I wrote about my work in graduate school, I didn't just learn things for an exam. Granted, I didn't start writing about my research until I had already done well in come classes, but doing chemistry problems is similar to writing in how you interact with and work through the various issues in a problem.
I kept a journal for years, mainly as a venue to write about an interesting magazine ariticle that I had read or comment on something else that I was thinking about at the time. The hour or so that I would spend working through whatever issue that topic brought to mind usually led me to some place that I did not plan on going. It was my way to discuss the topic and work through some of the challenges that it presented to me. I would still do that now, this blog is actually just another manifestation of that compulsion to have a place to think in writing, if it wasn't for my career, family, and working on getting my waist size down or some other goal that takes up my precious alone time.
I have already thought of a few ways this I may be able to capitalize on this learning by writing idea. I kind of already do it at work, I just write presentations instead of papers. The medium is different, but I think about presentations the same way that I think about papers. What if I started jotting down a few ideas about the non-technical articles that I read? I already have a book where I collect interesting articles and such. What if I started to jot down a few of my ideas there? I did that a month or so ago and those thoughts are still accessible to me when my thinking gets on that track. I may be able to use this insight if I ever make it to law school too.
Wow, what insights will I get in a bigger book of Drucker's writing?
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Four books bought by Vday
Rather than dropping the cash for Seth Godin's new book at Barnes and Noble, I decided to order it from Amazon for something like 60% off the cover price. To make the savings meaningful, I had to get $25 of stuff to get free shipping. I was about to just give up the few extra dollars to buy the book at a store rather than paying for more books (and eat away at my quota of book buying for the year), but I found one of the Flashman books on clearance. I just can't pass that up. I'm going to buy the book, I might as well get it cheap. So now I'm at something like $16. I need one more book. What to get? I looked at some of the popular business books of the moment. Drive, Switch, The War of Art, they all look interesting, but I get the feeling that the description of the book tells me pretty much all that I need to know about each one without reading the whole thing. I went to the personal MBA reading list to find something interesting. I ended up getting a collection of Peter Drucker's writing. I like what I've read by him in the past.
So that one order, plus my purchase of Hyperion back in January, brings me up to 4 titles purchased this year. I went several months without buying a book a couple of years ago when I decided that I was going to read 10 books that I already owned before I bought anything new. I guess I'll have to do that again. It wouldn't be so bad if I was finishing more books. I read Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion (which I bought at a library book sale years ago), but I haven't really made much progress on anything since finishing The Fall. Time to get moving before I fall too far behind the pace I need to keep to reach 16 (it won't take me long to make it through Godin's book).
So that one order, plus my purchase of Hyperion back in January, brings me up to 4 titles purchased this year. I went several months without buying a book a couple of years ago when I decided that I was going to read 10 books that I already owned before I bought anything new. I guess I'll have to do that again. It wouldn't be so bad if I was finishing more books. I read Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion (which I bought at a library book sale years ago), but I haven't really made much progress on anything since finishing The Fall. Time to get moving before I fall too far behind the pace I need to keep to reach 16 (it won't take me long to make it through Godin's book).
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