Estas son las recomendaciones de la semana:
1. The Cap: The Price of a Life
Roman Frister
Ni El hombre en busca de sentido ni los libros de Primo Levi me han estremecido tanto como esta memoria de Roman Frister sobre el avance nazi sobre Polonia y la vida dentro y fuera de los campos de concentración.
Desde sus primeras experiencias sexuales hasta su completa falta de escrúpulos en la Unión Soviética, Frister se expone al escrutinio del lector sin miedo ni vergüenza ni filtros.
Aun así, o por eso mismo, resulta imposible no involucrarse a un nivel profundamente humano.
En los extremos suele apreciarse mejor el Factor X, y este libro está hasta el gorro de personajes y experiencias extremas.
Además, está escrito con un arte que ya quisiera más de un escritor superventas.
Para muestra basta un botón:
Even those Germans who were not born sadists became them. They were in a panic of productivity, as if the slightest delay might decide the war against them. A defeat, they knew, meant the end of the Nazi dream of a Volkswagen for every pure Aryan. I could see my father’s strength giving out. He slipped and fell even without being struck. “Stop smoking,” I scolded. I knew he was secretly exchanging his daily bread ration for roaches of cigarettes and shreds of low-grade tobacco. If he didn’t want the bread, why not give it to me? I couldn’t bear having to listen to his smiling apologies that he needed the nicotine to live. I was less ashamed of his addiction, or even of wanting the bread myself, than of his need to justify himself. Today I would say that this was the last straw of his paternal authority. Morally, I was on my own long before he breathed his last. Without knowing how or when it happened, I had stopped looking up to him. My only god was the god of survival.
2. ¡Ajá! Paradojas que te hacen pensar
Martin Gardner
A menudo busco desafiar mi intuición y sentido común. Y para ello encuentro que exponerse sistemáticamente a lo que Douglas Hofstadter llama serious snags, es decir un obstáculo que parecece insalvable o un callejón sin salida, es un muy buen ejercicio.
Gardner es conocido por sus libros de matemagia que influenciaron a generaciones de nerds y frikis.
En Argentina, por ejemplo, desde hace unos diez años se organiza una quedada anual llamada Festival del ingenio, que es nuestra versión de la conferencia Gathering for Gardner donde un grupo de hardcore nerds se juntan para hablar de juegos, metajuego, acertijos y matemagia, y es lo más parecido al paraíso.
Si eres la persona correcta, los libros de Gardner también son paradisíacos aunque incluyan uma plétora de cul de sacs lógicos y paradojas infernales.
"No existen pruebas de que el espacio de nuestro universo esté rizado como una banda de Möbius, pero a los cosmólogos les gusta inventar diversos modelos de cosmos, y en algunos de estos modelos suyos el universo, además de curvatura, tiene torsión. Para comprender cómo el planilandés podría sufrir una simetría respecto de un eje —quedando convertido en su imagen especular— tras cerrar un círculo alrededor de una banda de Möbius, es importante tener en cuenta que la banda tiene espesor nulo. Un modelo hecho de papel es en realidad un cuerpo sólido, porque el papel sí tiene espesor. Es preciso admitir que la banda de Möbius no tiene grosor. Al trazar sobre una banda de Möbius una figura plana, lo que sucede viene a ser que la tinta traspasa el papel: la figura no está dibujada sobre una cara, sino «embebida» en la superficie. No es posible hacerla deslizar por un «lado» sin hacerla al mismo tiempo deslizar por el otro. Cuando esta figura describa un circuito en torno a la banda, al retornar al punto de partida se encuentra «vuelta del otro lado», transformada en su simétrica. Como es natural, un segundo circuito en torno a la banda la devolverá a su forma primitiva. Análogamente, si un astronauta recorriera a través de un cosmos con torsión un circuito semejante, podría sufrir en el proceso una «reversión» como la explicada, si bien un segundo recorrido lo dejaría como antes. Si las paradójicas propiedades de la banda de Möbius le han intrigado, seguramente le agrade explorar otras dos superficies no menos paradójicas: la botella de Klein y el plano proyectivo. Lo mismo que la banda de Möbius, son superficies de una sola cara, pero a diferencia de ésta, no tienen borde. Ambas son cerradas, como la superficie de una esfera. La botella de Klein está emparentada con la banda de Möbius, porque convenientemente cortada en dos, forma dos bandas; una, imagen de la otra por reflexión en el espejo. Un planilandés «embebido» en una botella de Klein, o un plano proyectivo, puede convertirse en copia simétrica de sí mismo sin más que realizar un viaje en torno a la superficie.
3. The Creating Brain
Nancy Andreasen
¿Cómo crea el cerebro humano?
Es la pregunta central de este libro de divulgación de neurociencia de la creatividad y, en particular, de la investigación de Nancy Andreasen, una neurocientista pero también psiquiatra pero también doctora en Literatura Inglesa del Renacimiento (liminal spaces anyone?) que allá por los años 90, en el inicio de las tomografías por emisión de positrones, descubrió que el estado de reposo del cerebro no tenía nada de pasivo sino que era el estado más activo, fuente de muchos de los procesos que nos hacen humanos.
Entre ellos la creatividad.
La investigación de Andreasen tiene dos vertientes: la actividad creadora de la corteza asociativa y la relación entre creatividad e insanidad mental.
Andreasen viene trabajando y publicando sus descubrimientos en el campo de la salud mental desde los 70s, y se ha convertido con los años en una de las mayores expertas mundiales en esquizofrenia.
Con este libro se ha propuesto relacionar sus dos líneas de investigación y ver qué hay de mito y de realidad en el tópico del genio loco.
Aquí va una muestra:
We have seen how creative ideas arise in the brain—that violent and energetic process so well described in Kubla Khan: And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced: Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail: And ‘mid these dancing rocks at once and ever It flung up momently the sacred river. And we have seen how creative ideas probably occur as part of a potentially dangerous mental process, when associations in the brain are flying freely during unconscious mental states—how thoughts must become momentarily disorganized prior to organizing. Such a process is very similar to that which occurs during psychotic states of mania, depression, or schizophrenia. In fact, the great Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, who gave schizophrenia its name, described a “loosening of associations” as its most characteristic feature: “Of the thousands of associative threads that guide our thinking, this disease seems to interrupt, quite haphazardly, sometimes single threads, sometimes a whole group, and sometimes whole segments of them.” When the associations flying through the brain self-organize to form a new idea, the result is creativity. But if they either fail to self-organize, or if they self-organize to create an erroneous idea, the result is psychosis. Sometimes both occur in the same person, and the result is a creative person who is also psychotic, as John Nash was for many years. As Nash once said: “the ideas I have about supernatural beings came to me the same way that my mathematical ideas did, so I took them seriously.” Delusions—fixed false beliefs—are a very common symptom of psychosis. Typically delusions involve misinterpretations or misperceptions about things going on around a person. For example, a person may believe that a neighbor is transmitting messages into his brain or that a family member is poisoning his food. Somehow, in a delusionally psychotic person, the associations around the neighbor have become misconnected, so that a neutral or benign person is perceived to be malevolent. Or the associations with the family member and food become erroneously confused and misunderstood. Sometimes delusions begin vaguely and then become quite specific and fixed. There is a term for this in psychiatry: the delusions are said to “crystallize.” The process may be much like those flashes of insight that lead to a creative outcome, but in this instance the result is instead a serious symptom of mental illness.
4. I Am Alive and You Are Dead: A Journey into the Mind of Philip K. Dick
Emmanuel Carrère
Hablando de creatividad y salud mental...
Philik K. Dick fue un escritor brillante con una mente caótica.
Esta es una biografía que no se centra en el artista sino justamente en ese sistema complejo primigenio gone wrong.
Su relación con el I Ching, el libro de los cambios, su paranoia, la droga y la práctica de la escritura en medio del caos.
En un hilo sobre el insight y la creatividad, César Astudillo se marca una magnífica disertación sobre el tema y en ella señala que:
"El insight también es hermano de leche de la apofanía, la segunda fase de la fenomenología del brote esquizofrénico tal como fue descrito por Klaus Conrad. La creatividad ocupa un espacio del espíritu contiguo al delirio."
Aquí puedes leer la master class de César al completo:
Master class sobre insights o perspectemas
Dick ocupaba esos espacios de una manera rotunda.
No es una lectura fácil, sobre todo si los temas de salud mental te tocan de alguna manera personal, pero es una lectura que merece la pena para recordarnos lo raro y maravilloso que es una mente equilibrada, y lo atrozmente complejo que puede llegar a ser el factor humano.
5. Rebel Without a Crew
Robert Rodriguez
Este es el diario de rodaje de El Mariachi, el primer largometraje del cineasta Robert Rodriguez.
La filosofía de Rodriguez como artista es alucinante y una con la que me identifico plenamente.
Este libro captura ese espíritu de echar a andar con un plan y estar abierto a que cada accidente del camino informe tu viaje. El fuego que se alimenta de todo lo que arrojas sobre él que menciona Marco Aurelio.
Es un libro del que se aprende a cuestionar los supuestos, a perderle el respeto a los planteos, a usar todo lo que tienes a tu disposición y no tener miedo a descartarlo todo si es necesario, a ver todo cuanto sucede como una oportunidad.
Es un excelente manual para cualquier aspirante a CPSer y ver a alguien rodar su primera película con una cámara que no capturaba el sonido y siete mil dólares en 1992, respondiendo a cada problema con inventiva única y después ir a vendérselo con descaro a los grandes estudios e impresionar a cada ejecutivo con un largometraje que costó mucho menos que lo que ellos se gastaban en un trailer, es una cátedra impagable.
Recomiendo acompañar con 10 Minute Film School (está en Youtube), el documental de cómo Robert hizo que El Mariachi pareciera de alto presupuesto.
Every time someone talks about shooting movies don't they say the same thing? They say "it's the waiting ... the waiting." Everyone waits. I’m telling you, waiting is bad. Waiting is your enemy. Waiting will kill your creativity, and it will kill your energy. So, how do you shoot fast? Rehearse it until you think you’ve got it, shoot it, then forget it. Move on. Keep in mind that your movie will be made up of many parts, and pouring a lot of detail and painful retakes into each tiny moment is a waste of your time and money. It's the overall effect you’re looking for. Get used to the idea that you’ll have to live with the first or second take and make it work later in the editing room. If you’ve planned your shots carefully you'll find you’ll have all you need when you get to the cutting stage. Again, follow your instincts. The great thing about operating your own camera is that you know when you’ve got the shot. By looking into the lens while the action is going you are seeing what your movie will look like on the screen.
6. Finding Your Element
Ken Robinson
Este es uno de esos libros que ayudan a tomar perspectiva sobre tu vida. Sí, es autoayuda, pero con la garantía de que el "facilitador" no es otro que Sir Ken Robinson, una eminencia en temas de educación para la creatividad.
Se basa en un libro anterior, The Element, donde presenta el concepto. Finding the Element vendría a ser la puesta en práctica de aquellos principios. Yo me he salteado The Element en favor de este enfoque más práctico y es lo que recomiendo si lo que buscas es una guía para hacer una introspección y salir con algunas respuestas esenciales sobre tu vida.
Si estás en un momento de reinvención personal, o de soul searching, o considerando darle un giro a tu carrera profesional, este libro posiblemente pueda ayudarte.
Personalmente, es un libro que releo cada año y que me ha ayudado a ganar claridad sobre mis talentos y pasiones, y a poner mis prioridades en orden, cosa que muchas veces no es fácil de hacer sin alguna clase de input externo.
As the political activist Antonio Gramsci once said, “The man who does not want to act says that he cannot.” But if you are inclined to act, self-belief and determination are a match for the most unpromising beginnings and the most challenging circumstances. How you respond to the world around you deeply affects how the world responds to you. If you act differently in the world, you may find that new people come into your life, and that the ones you know already reframe you. New opportunities turn up. If you take them, you effect changes in other people’s lives as well as your own. This is how the organic nature of human life evolves. Whether and how you become part of that process is a question of attitude. Some questions to consider: How much do you want to be in your Element? How hard are you willing to work to get there? Do you believe you deserve to find your Element? What can you do to raise your belief in yourself? How is your temperament affecting your pursuits? What can you do to change the attitudes of those around you?"
"Years ago, Randy Parsons had no idea that he had a passion for making guitars. Now, he is one of the world’s great luthiers. For him, the moral is inescapable. “You gotta find that thing that you love so much that you’re gonna be the best at it. I didn’t care if I was going to be poor or rich—I was gonna do this no matter. This was what was calling me. This was what made me happy. When I was cutting pieces of wood in the basement, I really felt that there was something grabbing my hand and showing me how to do it. There was no doubt in my mind that I was going where I was supposed to be going.” If you’d asked Randy Parsons when he was seventeen what he truly loved, he probably would have told you that he loved playing guitar. However, Randy had a deeper passion, one he hadn’t fully explored when he was dreaming of being a rock star: he loved the physical artistry of the guitar itself. Once he uncovered this passion, he was able to create a lifestyle that allowed him to engage in this work every day. By being true to his passions, Randy Parsons was being true to himself, to his own spirit. So what is that exactly?"
7. A Spy's Guide to Thinking
John Braddock
Este es un librito que presenta un framework para pensar más efectivamente durante situaciones límite.
Es simple, ben trovato, se apoya en el método científico, en el método socrático y ofrece una versión del OODA loop de John Boyd que llama DADA: data, analysis, decision-making and action, y que puede adaptarse para un montón de situaciones de la vida profesional y personal.
Pero sobre todo es un primer sobre conciencia situacional que invita a preguntarse qué tipo de juego estamos jugando a cada momento (suma cero, suma positiva o negativa) y, esencialmente, si el juego ha cambiado.
"Whether spies take action or not, we always do the first part first. We go to foreign countries for secrets. We get them in the ways you see in movies. Using the occasional gadget. Then we send the secrets to the analysts. Analysis isn’t what they make movies about, but it’s important. It’s judging the credibility of the data. It’s asking where it came from. It’s understanding how close the source was to what they described. Whether the data can be trusted. Analysis is filtering. Sifting wheat from chaff. And analysis does something else: it combines new data with what we already know. In my time, the big question was Iraq. Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) or not? We had existing data on that. Some of it pointed to Saddam Hussein having WMD. Some of it said he didn’t. Some old data said his scientists had the capability to build WMD. Some old data said they didn’t. Then there was the new data. The Niger Yellowcake. A source named Curveball. The evidence Secretary Powell presented at the UN. Good analysis is the combination of old and new data. In a way that leads to a good decision. As in the Iraq situation, that’s not easy. Without good analysis, we can’t make good decisions. Without good analysis, we can’t even figure out what our options are"
"Thinking through the Data-Analysis-Decision-Action chain is an action-oriented version of another old tool you probably know: the scientific method. The scientific method says: Develop a hypothesis, Test it and observe the results. With results in hand, decide whether your hypothesis was correct. Albert Einstein had a hypothesis: The universe was expanding. He tested that hypothesis against the data of the day. Analyzing the data, he had a decision to make: Call his hypothesis true or false. The data said it was false, so he said it was false. The universe wasn’t expanding, he decided. Einstein later called it, “the greatest blunder of my life.” But the problem wasn’t with his process. It was a good process. Einstein had bad data. When Edwin Hubble got better data and tested Einstein’s hypothesis again, he found Einstein’s original hypothesis was right. The universe is expanding. Hubble developed a follow-up hypothesis: The universe is expanding at a constant rate. When more data came available, scientists tested Hubble’s hypothesis. They discovered that the universe is expanding, but not at a constant rate. The speed of the universe’s expansion is increasing. That’s how the scientific community thinks. A hypothesis is generated. The hypothesis is tested against data. It’s analyzed. A decision is made. When new data comes available, they test it again. Each loop in that process improves scientific knowledge. You’ll notice something interesting about the way scientists think: they don’t start with data. They start with a hypothesis. Then they go to the data. Good thinkers, including intelligence agencies, don’t start with data, either. They start with a decision."
8. Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10
Marcus Luttrell
¿Qué sucede cuando tu comando cae en una emboscada en medio de la montaña en Afganistán, atado por las reglas para entablar combate de la autoridad de tu país, y te enfrentas a un enemigo que no solo no respeta esas reglas sino para quien todo vale?
Esta es la pregunta que persigue a Luttrell durante todo el libro, el único sobreviviente de una operación malograda en pleno territorio talibán.
"I KNEW IT WAS a hell of a long way to the top, and I would have to move sideways like a delta crab if I was going to make it. It was also going to take me all night, but somehow I had to get up there, all the way to the top. I had two prime reasons for my strategy. First, it would be flat up there, so if it came down to another firefight, I would have a good chance. No guys firing down on me. Every SEAL likes his chances of winning a fight on flat ground. The second issue was calling in help. No helicopter ever built could land safely on these steep Afghan cliffs. The only place within the mountain range where an MH-47 could put down was in the flat bowl of the fields below, where the villagers raised crops. Dope, that is. And there was no way I was going to risk hanging out near a village. I was going up, to the upper flatlands, where a helo could get in and then get out. Also, my radio reception would be better up there. I could only hope the Americans were still scouring the mountains, looking for the missing Redwings. Meanwhile, I thought I might be dying of thirst, and my parched throat was driving me onward to water and perhaps safety. So I took my first steps, guessing I was probably going to climb around five hundred feet straight up. But I’d travel a whole lot farther on the zigzag course I’d have to make up the mountain. I began my climb, out there in the dark, by moving directly upward. I jammed my rifle into my belt so I had two hands to grip, but before I’d made the first twenty feet going slightly right, I slipped badly, which was a very scary experience. The gradient was almost sheer, straight down to the valley floor. In my condition I probably would not have survived the fall, and I somehow saved myself from falling any more than about ten feet. Then I picked it up again, clawing my way up, facing the mountain and grabbing hold of anything I could with a grip like a mechanical digger. You’d have needed a chain saw to pry me off that cliff face. All I knew was, if I fell, I’d probably plummet several hundred feet to my death. Which was good for the concentration. So I kept going, climbing mostly sideways, grabbing rocks, vines, or branches, anything for a grip. Every now and then I’d dislodge something or snap a branch that would not bear my weight. And I guess I must have made more noise than the Taliban army has ever made in mountain maneuvers. I’d been going for a couple of hours when I sensed I heard something behind me. I say sensed because when you are operating in absolute darkness, with no sight at all, everything else is heightened, all of your senses, particularly sound and smell. Not to mention the sixth one, same one a goat or an antelope or a zebra has, the one that warns vulnerable grazing animals of the presence of a predator. Now, I wasn’t that vulnerable. And I sure as hell wasn’t grazing. But right then I was in Predator Central. Those cutthroat tribal bastards were all over my case and, for all I knew, closing in on me."
9. The Talent Code
Daniel Coyle
El talento se cultiva, las canteras de talento son una realidad y la cultura es la fuerza que da forma al talento en bruto y transforma potencialidades en realidades efectivas.
Mis ejemplos preferidos del libro son el de las escuelas KIPP para jóvenes problemáticos y de bajos recursos, y los hotbed de jugadores en el fútbol brasileño, las pistas de futsal, o futebol de salão.
Un gran libro sobre cómo iniciar un semillero de talento donde aparecen cameos de Angela Duckworth (Grit) y Martin Seligman (indefensión aprendida) entre otros psicólogos con investigaciones interesantes para un CPSer.
"If we had to classify the primal cues the KIPP students received in those first few minutes, they would fall into three categories. You belong to a group. Your group is together in a strange and dangerous new world. That new world is shaped like a mountain, with the paradise of college at the top. These three signals might seem unique. But in fact they're identical to the primal cues that any young Brazilian soccer player or Russian tennis player might receive, if you replaced the word college with the words being Ronaldinho/Kournikova. Bereft of such naturally occurring aspirational figures, KIPP does the next best thing. It creates its own São Paolo, a signal-rich world so seamless that it creates new patterns of motivation and behavior—hence KIPP's Spielbergian insistence on timing, continuity, and plot. Like Frank Curiel Field in Curaçao, KIPP's physical environs radiate signals. Like a squadron of Tom Sawyers, KIPP's teachers fire cues rapidly and clearly. As Feinberg likes to say, “Everything is everything.” This sounds like new-age palaver, but what he's really talking about is KIPP's insistence on environmental coherency: the way every element of this world, from the painted stripes on the floor to the eyes of the teacher, to the angle with which students carry their binders, sends clear, constant signals of belonging and identity: you are at KIPP, you are a KIPPster."
10. Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business
Mark Robichaux
En los años 70s la empresa Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) se convirtió en el operador de cable más grande de Estados Unidos, absorbiendo a sus rivales con docenas de adquisiciones, haciendo los deals más rocambolescos y audaces, con la habilidad casi superhumana de evitar impuestos en la mayoría de las transacciones.
El propulsor del crecimiento fue John Malone, un ingeniero eléctrico que comenzó sus aventuras empresariales como consultor de McKinsey, cogiéndole el truco a la bestia en tiempo récord:
"Malone took a car to LaGuardia, flew to Montreal, and had lunch that day with his first CEO client. He ended up staying for six weeks, assessing the wisdom of Bell Canada's entry into microelectronics. At the first of many clients to follow, Malone interviewed everyone from the senior ranks to new hires. What works? What doesn't? How would you fix it? Over time, Malone found that if he interviewed 30 people ple or so and listened intently, themes would emerge. The best ideas were sometimes hidden, or they were lost on senior executives. By laying the patterns bare, studying in detail the disparate parts-not unlike disassembling a radio-he learned how big corporations don't work. It was not rocket science, Malone quickly realized. You simply take the best ideas from anyone who has them, polish them, and serve them up to the chairperson. While at McKinsey, he consulted for Bell New Jersey, IBM, Traveler's Insurance, and GE, all sectors that would affect his own company years later. His mind was like a spread of glue-it held fast any concept or pattern it encountered."
Uno de estos clientes había comprado un "pavo", una empresa en la que alguien, probablemente el CFO, había inflado los números antes de la venta.
Malone empezó a trabajar para este cliente, Shapiro, quien acabó convirtiéndose en un mentor para él:
"Between Shapiro's frequent obscenity-laden tirades, which Malone secretly found amusing, Shapiro spoke as a mentor to Malone and plied him with bits of Talmudic mudic wisdom. "Always ask the question, `If not?' " he often said. "If the deal doesn't go as planned, what are you left with?"
Malone pronto vio que había grandes oportunidades en el horizonte. Así que decidió apartarse de la teoría en McKinsey para pasar a la práctica bajando directamente a las trincheras del negocio de los sistemas de cable:
"Malone descended into the trenches, taking responsibility for 3,000 employees ees and $80 million a year in revenue. Immediately, he fired executives in construction operations at Jerrold, which built cable systems and supplied financing and, not coincidentally, had the largest financial discrepancies in Jerrold's cooked books.
He fired the entire purchasing department, too, en masse and brought in a clean guy.Then he set his sights on reducing manufacturing costs, moving assembly from Philadelphia to Mexico and turning to Asia for raw materials. Slowly, efficiencies of scale stretched out before him.
The bigger you are, the more parts you order. The more parts you order, the cheaper the parts. Before Malone arrived at Jerrold, the company paid 8 cents each for tiny connectors. Malone started buying them for 0.1 cent from a vendor in Asia.
By having the guts to make volume commitments, buying components by the barrel, not by the piece, he saved the company a small fortune.
Esta es una gran historia de cuán lejos te puede llevar la combinación guts & brains en los negocios.
Los assets que construyó Malone acabaron en manos de AT&T primero y más tarde pasaron a Comcast, pero su historia es digna de contarse y estudiarse, y este libro hace bien su trabajo.
Business acumen ftw!
Hasta aquí las recomendaciones de esta semana.
Si estás disfrutando de las recomendaciones te agradecería que le des Like y Restack a la publicación (el botón del corazón).
No toma más que dos segundos y me alegrarás el día 😀
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La próxima semana, otros 10 libros.
"La mente no es un recipiente a llenar sino un fuego a encender"
-Álvaro de Biblioteca CPS
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