Book List

The Life of Mahatma Gandhi – Louis Fischer (1950)

I have just finished reading Mahatma Gandhi’s biography by Louis Fischer (published in 1950). Since we all grew up learning about the Mahatma through hagiographies, it was fascinating to read this version by someone who actually spent time with him which tends to give a more balanced view unbiased by the weight of the hindsight of history. And since Fischer was neither Indian nor British (he was American), he didn’t have to deal with any baggage and ended up taking a more objective, critical approach. Although he ended up admitting that he came out of this as an ardent admirer. Some of that maybe natural when you actually interact with someone who is demonstrably a better version of our individual selves and opens our minds to what is possible.

In any case, my motivation: when we look at people who have had truly transformational impact and managed to bend the arc of history, is it the power of the individual that creates the circumstances or is it all pre-destined and certain individuals just happen to be there? Clearly there is no objectively binary answer, but does go into the question of free will vs. destiny. But I digress (!) – here’s what I took away from the book to the question of ‘Why did Mahatma Gandhi create such an impact?’

1/ Start with the ‘Why’: Freedom or even social justice questions have usually been framed as ‘How do we get the desired outcome’ (Tilak and to a large extent, Gokhale led that). Gandhi reframed that into a ‘Why should India get freedom?’ which then led to ‘What does freedom mean?’ But then again, asking difficult questions is often the easy part – how do you swim against the tide (the Congress and almost all the political leaders were usually frustrated with Gandhi). This gets into other facets of the individual.

2/ Thinking from First Principles: Gandhi was never afraid of doing this – the biggest one being how he completely mixed religion with politics. Counter-intuitive in early 20th century, when socialism, separation of state and church were the dominant thoughts the world over. But then again, espousing first principles is exhausting in itself, and not clear whether that alone is good enough to actually effect change.

3/ Stubbornness: Gandhi was stubborn in his ways (frustratingly to everyone around him) –  Fischer called this out several times. His fasts are the most famous examples of this – even the people closest to him couldn’t move him once he made up his mind. Persistence may pay off over time – but when it comes from stubborn self-belief, it creates a whole new dynamic, as just about everyone around him found out (both personally and of course, politically)

4/ Dive deep: I thought this was the most fascinating dimension. At different points, he would dive deep into issues – which often seemed like rabbit holes at that point, often turning out to be momentous decisions on hindsight. Champaran being the most famous example, but another example (not so well known) was his attempt to start a nature cure movement in 1946. Amidst all the political parleys etc., he took off to a small village near Pune to start a Nature Cure Center and stayed there for a few days as the first self-styled ‘doctor’. One of the many side-experiments that started off as diversions. But they did serve an extremely important purpose that brought his entire life’s work together – get a deep understanding of the country’s psychology. Despite all their frustrations, the British government and the Congress party kept going to him because he had built that connect with the country, built over the years with many such exercises of diving deep into specific issues. All of these came with trade-offs, often deprioritizing much bigger issues – and he always maintained that he ‘just followed his instinct’.

There were other traits too, especially his mental and physical discipline, his work ethic and perhaps most importantly, his complete absorption in the philosophy of Karma Yoga. He was not given to half-measures and carried it through with complete aversion to power (he never held any political office) and minimal material possessions (no wealth or income, completely stripped down personal effects). This must not have been easy and in fact, he talked about the struggles  throughout his life but at the same time, liberating.

What is remarkable is that he didn’t have a whole lot of characteristics that seem to be pre-requisites for a successful public figure: looks (he was definitely not good-looking) sense of style (dress sense, less said the better) and not even public speaking (he apparently had a squeaky voice, nervous on stage and a poor speaker). 

Finally back to the original question: did circumstances matter? Of course, they were critical – he was perhaps in the right place at the right time (South Africa and then India). Many would say that if he were around in this day and age, he would be completely ineffective, but I am not so sure. 

2021 Holiday book list (what I read over the holidays/spilled over to 2022)

1. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir : Sci-fi with a lot of problem-solving/engineering situations, fun-read; raises questions of what survival means for human species and how far will we go to ensure that 
2. Musical Brain by Cesar Aira: Collection of short stories, massively creative; he calls it a ‘flight forward’ style where you are not bound to linear narratives; brilliant execution which makes it a great read; makes you think about how we sometimes weigh our own lives down in a ‘past projection’ mindset. Imagine the possibilities if we took a more ‘flight forward’ mindset
3. Power Play by Tim Higgins: The story of Tesla and Elon Musk; a great combination of corporate masala, engineering innovation and Elon Musk hacking Tesla into a massive success
4. Liftoff by Eric Berger: The story of SpaceX and Elon Musk; again the hacker mindset/solving really hard problems 
5. [Currently reading] American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins: a tough book on immigration through the lens of a Mexican mother/son; stirred some controversy when it came out
6. [Currently reading] Bhakti Yoga by Edward Bryant: as a huge fan of Indian classical music, have often felt music taking you to a different state. Which is what led me to this book – trying to understand how/where music (or formally, ‘kirtana’) fits into the overall bhakti framework. Interesting read

A Promised Land: Barack Obama

Just finished reading this (much awaited, much hyped) book. First up, very impressed by Obama’s writing abilities – the style is very fluid and he has put together the story of his Presidency really well. And as expected, this book is less about finger-pointing and/or juicy details of the inner workings of the Presidential team, but more of an introspection his term in office with the benefit of hindsight. Which also makes it a bit self-righteous at times – every move, every act comes across as morally sound and ethically above board. Difficult to believe that anyone could rise so rapidly and have a dream political run for over 15 years, of which 8 years were the President of the United States without cutting down people who were in the way, bending a few rules along the way. Nevertheless, a good absorbing read.

Upstream: How to solve problems before they happen: Dan Heath

The premise is obvious once you start thinking about – there is greater value in solving problems upstream (earlier the better). The challenge is also obvious: finding problems early on is hard, difficult to measure and there is never a good feedback loop to figure out whether the solution is working. How then do you figure out how to solve problems upstream? Lots of vignettes in the book, but he stops short of presenting a solution framework. Having said that, good for a general read.

Enemy of all Mankind: Steven Johnson

Chanced upon this book and is turning out to be a fun read: the topic itself is odd – the story of the ‘first’ pirate in history; but the canvas with Steven Johnson is very broad: he connects the story of a rogue pirate with the decline of the Mughal empire and in some ways, the birth of modern capitalist ideas. If nothing else, it is a fun story, very well-written

Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom

Resuming my deep-dive into American history through biographies (great stories and learn about history). Here is an amazing, almost-difficult to believe story of a man who grew out of slavery into one of the best orators and activists in 19th century America. The struggle and the journey is amazing – reminds me of another leader who came out of nowhere : Alexander Hamilton

Range: Why generalists triumph in a specialized world

Fascinating book – basic premise is that the 10,000 hour rule (deep, sustained practice in one domain) works very well in ‘kind’ problem spaces where the domain is narrow; there is a method to mastery and feedback is structured and immediate. Golf and chess are two examples he takes. And then argues – step out into the real world of ‘wicked’ problems: domain is not well defined, problems are shifting and feedback is neither clear nor immediate. Navigating that world requires ‘breadth of training that predicts of transfer’. Looking from the lens of problem solving in the workplace today – you have to agree with this… great read.

Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaption :

I have always been fascinated by graphic novels. A very interesting adaptation of one of the most storied memoirs from WW-II. The artwork is stunning

AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley and the New World Order – Kai Fu-Lee

Fascinating book on the AI war is being fought right now between the US and China. This is one phase that many of us in this area will look back years from now.

Leadership in Turbulent Times – Doris Goodwin

The advantage of being a great historian is that you end up knowing so many stories that you can keep writing interesting views. This one is in that category – 4 Presidents and how they navigated through their careers. Leadership in action

21 Lessons for the 21st Century: Yuval Noah Harari

The chief prognosticator of our times – not much new in this set of essays, but still a good read.

One more Thing: Stories and Other Stories – BJ Novak 

Easily one of the most enjoyable book I read in the last few years – perfect holiday reading. This guy is very clever and can he write! And I thought of him as just one of the actors on ‘Office’.

The Ibis Trilogy – Amitav Ghosh

Enjoying some fiction for a change. Finally got down to the 3rd installment of Amitav Ghosh’s brilliant ‘The Ibis Trilogy’. This one is called the ‘Flood of Fire’. All 3 put together will be close to 2,000. Not for the faint hearted – but the storyline, the character development is top-notch. What is really fascinating to me is the larger economic canvas on which the trilogy is set – this is the 18th/19th century; the theater is Indo-China:  the world is changing dramatically, as international trade and imperialist ambitions (British Empire) are well and truly, accelerating change. Also, remember that this is the time when the fulcrum of global wealth and power was shifting from the East to the West. Fantastic writing. I have a feeling Amitav Ghosh will win the Nobel Prize in the next decade, if not sooner.

Measure what Matters: John Doerr

The idea is to learn about the famed OKR methods that was born in Intel and Google really made popular. Too many organization initiatives fail because of a lack of good measurement systems – even more in the knowledge economy, where unlike a physical factory, there is no immediate measurable output from say, a factory line. And more importantly, difficult to measure attributes like individual creativity, teamwork, a blending of art and science are becoming critical to success. In such a world, how do you create a framework for measurable Results that link to Objectives?

Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence

Finally, the economists have gotten into the mix! As AI continues to grow as a powerful factor in the modern enterprise, we need an economic framework to think about this. Do we need to question the fundamentals of the labor-capital relationship that have powered the economic thinking thus far?