Good reference book about living in Tokyo

Although quite pricey, I would recommend the book about living in Tokyo titled Tokyo: Here and How: An Expat’s Guide to Finding Your Path in the City and Beyond. Handbook and Directory by Tokyo American Club Women’s Group, 2007, published by Alexandra Press.

If you are a member of the Tokyo American Club (don’t ask [...]

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Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Other Die

Complementary to Malcolm Gladwell’s best-selling “The Tipping Point“, the authors, brothers Chip and Dan Heath, offer a very practical guide to effective communication that is different from the other mainstream views.  The 6 critical elements to make ideas stick (called “stickiness” which Gladwell first coined in his book) are:

Simplicity
Unexpectedness
Concreteness
Credibility
Emotions
Stories

The initial letters spell out [...]

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Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by the brothers Ori and Rom Brafman tries to describe and explain why we all make irrational or poor decisions because of a number of hidden currents or tendencies that “sway” our judgement such as:

Loss aversion – our tendency to go at great lengths to avoid possible [...]

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A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink

On a recommendation by an IBM colleague, I read Daniel’s Pink book titled “A Whole New Mind“.

It is a short and very easy read – I finished the book in 2 days. The author succinctly diagnoses the major problems the Western countries are facing: Abundance, Asia, and Automation. Note that Asia is [...]

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The World Is Flat

One of the business books I have been recommending for the past year is “The World Is Flat” by Tom Friedman, which is about globalization and I think is still on many non-fiction best sellers lists.

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