Books read in 2021: Final Part

In the final favoured reads during 2021, the contributors are Daryl Inniss of OFS, Vladimir Kozlov of LightCounting Market Research, and Gazettabyte’s editor.

Daryl Inniss, Director, Business Development at OFS

Four thousand weeks is the average human lifetime.

A book by Oliver Burkeman: Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management For Mortals is a guide to using the finite duration of our lives.

Burkeman argues that by ignoring the reality of our limited lifetime, we fill our lives with busyness and distractions and fail to achieve the very fullness that we seek.

While sobering, Burkeman presents thought-provoking and amusing examples and stories while transitioning them into positive action.

An example is his argument that our lives are insignificant and that, regardless of our accomplishments, the universe continues unperturbed. Setting unrealistic goals is one consequence of our attempt to achieve greatness.

On the other hand, recognising our inability to transform the world should give us enormous freedom to focus on the things we can accomplish.

We can jettison that meaningless job, be fearless in the face of pandemics given that they come and go throughout history, and lower our stresses on financial concerns given they are transitory. What is then left is the freedom to spend time on things that do matter to us.

Defining what’s important is an individual thing. It need not be curing cancer or solving world peace - two of my favourites. It can be something as simple as making a most delicious cookie that your kids enjoy.

It is up to each of us to find those items that make us feel good and make a difference. Burkeman guides us to pursue a level of discomfort as we seek these goals.

I found this book profound and valuable as I enter the final stage of my life.

I continue to search for ways to fulfil my life. This book helps me to reflect and consider how to use my finite time.

Vladimir Kozlov, CEO and Founder of LightCounting Market Research

Intelligence is a fascinating topic. The artificial kind is making all the headlines but alien minds created by nature have yet to be explored.

One of the most bizarre among these is the distributed mind of the octopus. “Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea and the Deep Origins of Consciousness, by Peter Godfery-Smith, is a perfect introduction to the subject. 

The Overstory: A Novel, by Richard Powers takes the concept of alien minds to a new, more emotional level. It is a heavy read. The number of characters rivals that of War and Peace while the density matches the style of Dostoevsky. Yet, it is impossible not to finish the book, even if it takes several months.

It concerns the conflict of "alien minds". The majority of the aliens are humans, cast from the distant fringes of our world. The trees emerge as a unifying force that keeps the book and the planet together. It is an unforgettable drama.

I have not cut a live tree since reading the book. I can not stop thinking about just how shallow our understanding of the world is.

The intelligence created by nature is more puzzling than dark matter yet it is shuffled into the ‘Does-not-matter’ drawer of our alien minds.

Roy Rubenstein, Gazettabyte’s editor

Ten per cent of my contacts changed jobs in 2021, according to LinkedIn.

Of these, how many quit their careers after 32 years at one firm? And deliberately downgraded their salaries?

That is what Kate Kellaway did. The celebrated Financial Times journalist quit her job to become a school teacher.

Kellaway is also a co-founder of Now Teach, a non-profit organisation that helps turn experienced workers in such professions as banking and the law into teachers.

In her book, Re-educated: How I Changed My Job, My Home and My Hair, Kellaway reflects on her career as a journalist and on her life. She notes how privileged she has been in the support she received that helped her correct for mistakes and fulfill her career; something that isn’t available to many of her students.

She also highlights the many challenges of teaching. In one chapter she describes a class and the exchanges with her students that captures this magnificently.

Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.

A book I reread after many years was Arthur Miller’s autobiography, Timebends: A Life.

In the mid-1980s on a trip to the UK to promote his book, Miller visited the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. There, I got a signed copy of his book which I prize.

The book starts with his early years in New York, surrounded by eccentric Jewish relatives.

Miller also discusses the political atmosphere during the 1950s, resulting in his being summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee. The first time I read this, that turbulent period seemed very much a part of history. This time, the reading felt less alien.

Miller is fascinating when explaining the origins of his plays. He also had an acute understanding of human nature, as you would expect of a playwright.

The book I most enjoyed in 2021 is The Power of Strangers: The Benefits of Connecting in a Suspicious World, by Joe Keohane.

The book explores talking to strangers and highlights a variety of people going about it in original ways.

Keohane describes his many interactions that include an immersive 3-day course on how to talk to strangers, held in London, and a train journey between Chicago and Los Angeles; the thinking being that, during a 42-hour trip, what else would you do but interact with strangers.

Keohane learns that, as he improves, there is something infectious about the skill: people start to strike up conversations with him.

The book conveys how interacting with strangers can be life-enriching and can dismantle long-seated fears and preconceptions.

He describes an organisation that gets Republican and Democrat supporters to talk. At the end of one event, an attendee says: “We’re all relieved that we can actually talk to each other. And we can actually convince the other side to look at something a different way on some subjects.”

If reading novels can be viewed as broadening one’s experiences through the stories of others, then talking to strangers is the non-fiction equivalent.

I loved the book.