Cold, Comfy, and Reading
When it was 10 and 14 degrees below zero last week, I spent a lot of time curled up under my comforter reading. I finished John McPhee's Uncommon Carriers. I particularly liked the section about the coal train. I fell in love with trains all over again.
I finished Chip Heath's Made to Stick. It provided lots of food for thought in regards to teaching my investing classes. I've decided that Investing is getting your savings to bring home a paycheck.
I read The Faith Club which is a great book about three women, a Muslim, a Christian, and a Jew, and their conversations and search for understanding. I found it touching and informative. I concluded that death could be thought of as a destination.
I quickly read Muhammad Yunus's book Creating a World Without Poverty. I had read his Banker to the Poor. I am always in awe of people who have visions backed with missions that are successfully implemented. I was interested in how the Grameen and Danone joint venture company was set up as a social business enterprise (not the same as a socially responsible corporation) to bring nutritious food and jobs to a community in Bangladesh. A grand, practicle vision and meticulous organization!
Reduce poverty:
Upstream: involving local suppliers (farmers) and helping them to improve their practices;
Production: involve local population via a low cost-labor intensive manufacturing model;
Downstream: contributing to the creation of jobs through the distribution model.
I thought the following statement from his discussion about IT sums up the work world for the coming generation:
Borders and distances will mean almost nothing; knowledge, talent, and ability will mean everything.
I'm currently reading Tom Clancy's nonfiction book Battle Ready which chronicles the career of Marine General Tony Zinni and the change in the military missions from Vietnam through the use of the military for refugee relief (Kurds), to Somalia, and peace keeping missions. What changes the military has undergone and is still undergoing! It has prompted me to order Dereliction of Duty and Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice.
I finish one book and add two more to the stack!
9:13:48 AM 
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