Apr 16On “The Dawn of Everything”The late David Wengrow and David Graeber have written a breakthrough book that upends simplistic notions of human history; they also take to task renowned figures like Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes, and more recent ones like Jared Diamond, Francis Fukuyama, and Yuval Noah Harari. According to the two Davids…24 min read
Feb 19On “The Age of AI”Bookshelves are groaning from the weight of many volumes dissecting the emergence of AI. Some like Kaifu Lee’s AI Superpowers have already been summarized and critiqued by me. (Looi, 2020) However, The Age of AI features a lead author, Henry A. Kissinger, who appears unlikely to pen such a study…AI28 min read
Jan 19For Software Outsourcing, Nearshore Beats Offshore!By Mark Looi and Marc Szepan (University of Oxford). Summary Companies use two popular strategies to develop software: outsourcing to offshore locations and Agile development. These strategies are often used together and assumed to deliver similar results to that of software development teams working in the same company at a single…Software Development16 min read
Jan 15The Story of Life, from Molecules to SpeciesWhat forms “life”? This article summarizes a series of briefs in The Economist that explain life from molecular building blocks up. …Economist16 min read
Jan 5On Ron Chernow’s “Alexander Hamilton”Ron Chernow, acclaimed biographer, wrote a compelling biography of Alexander Hamilton, one of the most brilliant and important men in early America. It is the story of one who shaped an emerging nation and set it on a course to greatness. Chernow writes a detailed and exciting account of the…Hamilton13 min read
Dec 21, 2021On “The Platform Delusion” by Jonathan KneeJonathan Knee has written a iconoclastic yet worthwhile book debunking modern-day business myths about network effects, platforms, and technology companies in the brave new digital world. Knee explains why not all digital businesses are made equal even though they may appear to enjoy very similar business models — for example…Digital25 min read
Nov 24, 2021On “Jane Eyre”, “Mansfield Park”, and “Wuthering Heights”England in the 19th century was in the throes of great ferment and upheaval, driven by economic and cultural change. That change was indirectly reflected in its literature, for example in the work of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, and Emily Brontë. …8 min read
Oct 2, 2021On “Einstein” by IsaacsonAlbert Einstein has been the subject of a number of biographies; Walter Isaacson, the biographer of Steve Jobs and Jennifer Doudna, wrote an updated account of the famous physicists’ life in 2007 that steers clear of hero-worship but is generous in his accounting. He describes the unlikely and fascinating arc…Einstein19 min read
Jul 19, 2021Summary and Commentary on “Moscow 1941”Roderic Braithwaite, British Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Russia from 1988 to 1992, has written an important book for English readers about the titanic battle between Germany and Russia in 1941. He embellishes his account with mini-biographies and stories about minor celebrities of the Soviet past, from partisans to…Wwii24 min read
Jun 8, 2021Dystopia Imagined: “Brave New World” and “Nineteen Eighty-four”Aldous Huxley and George Orwell wrote two of the greatest books of the twentieth century to take up the theme of a dystopian future. They were different in many respects and it has been sport for commentators to assess how well each of them prognosticated. Both books are impressive works…198415 min read
