Wednesday, August 27, 2014

The Undercover Economist Strikes Back

Add this to the long list of books with corny titles that belie the quality of the rest of the product. I enjoyed Tim Harford's original The Undercover Economist, so I thought I'd give his new, Nate-Silver-recommended book, The Undercover Economist Strikes Back, a read and I was not disappointed.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

First Things First

As management field pioneer Peter Drucker liked to say, labour used to be about "doing things right", but today's knowledge workers are better served by "doing the right things". How do we know what those things are? I have spent considerable time over the last few months re-arranging how I work in order to utilize my main input constraint (time!) better. First Things First is a book meant for those who think along those lines.

Friday, August 15, 2014

Getting To Yes

You may not realize it, but you likely negotiate several times day. But what do you really know about negotiating? It's not something school boards have deemed worthy of being taught, so most of us go through life learning by observing. In Getting To Yes, Roger Fisher tells us how to be better negotiators.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

magicJack's Bag of Tricks

magicJack is a business in decline; and it's priced like it too! The shares fell to an ex-cash price-to-free-cash-flow ratio in the mid-single digits after-hours yesterday, as the company released quarterly results showing continued declines in sales of the company's hardware devices. However, I believe there is a protected downside along with some upside possibilities that are very compelling at the current price.

Friday, August 8, 2014

Business Adventures

Since Bill Gates recently called Business Adventures his favourite business book of all time, I had to give it a read. And I'm not the only one: it has become the #1 best seller in the commerce category at Amazon.

Monday, August 4, 2014

Global Value and Shareholder Yield

This is a 2-in-1 book review, not only because Global Value and Shareholder Yield were written by the same author, but also because you could read them both in an evening if you wanted to. It's not that either of these books is short on content; but they are short on fluff! I wish more books were as easy to read and as light on the rambling as these two.