Tag: Non-Fiction Book

Nonfiction (also spelled non-fiction) is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide accurate information regarding a real-world topic. It is written to communicate facts or opinions about reality.
Nonfictional content may be presented either objectively or subjectively. Nonfiction is one of the fundamental divisions of narrative writing (specifically, prose) — in contrast to fiction, largely populated by imaginary characters and events, though sometimes ambiguous regarding its basis in reality.

A Walk in the Woods with a Side of Politics

Nick Offerman takes us on a journey where nature meets unburdened thoughts. 


Nick Offerman is known for his stoic, anti-government persona Ron Swanson. In the 2021 book “Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside”, he is a staunch advocate for agrarianism. In other words the social and political philosophy that advocates for a return to subsistence agriculture, family farming, widespread property ownership, and political decentralization. I read it with mixed emotions from relatable excitement about the great outdoors to sheer disagreement about historical facts. 

Where the Deer and the Antelope Play is a three part storyline that appears to be loosely connected in time. The first part centers around the great outdoors. The second part is about farming. The third part reminded me a wee bit of John Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charley In Search of America”. Offerman uses a clear and creative voice to lay out his themes which seem to start with the land and concludes in critique of societal and government use of it. While the accounts of getting a group of friends wandering into the wild to reset, rediscover, and enjoy mother nature are truly inspiring, I found it hard to read through the political commentary that weaved like an eel through every other sentence. It is undoubtedly difficult to take a political position when your line of business is entertainment. I admire his openness about his positions, but question his judgment to conflate them with storylines depicted in this book. Perhaps, it would have been more digestible if it were balanced across the political spectrum beyond Democrats and Republicans, because both sides are not a black and white chunk of failed or successful policies and there are more than those two major parties. 

A wonderful feature of this book is by far the longing it ignites to explore a remote location. Even if you can’t afford to travel to Yosemite and hike Glacier Point. Your closest ridge, hill, or mountain will do. Furthermore, Offerman makes insightful points about how we use our resources and what it really means to be a self-sustaining society. Lastly, my favorite part was simply talking shop – the thrill of working with wood; the blessing of boating a body of water; or, simply adoring mother nature and the beauty that we – as Americans of these United States – can find if we dare to venture outside. 

Where the Deer and the Antelope Play is a mixed bag. Although it can delight nature and adventure fans, its preachy moments can feel like being shouted at from a soapbox, leaving an unpleasant residue.

On a side note: the artwork on the dust jacket is beyond beautiful with color, font, and design outcompeting for the spotlight.

Measure What Matters

Glimpse into the world of OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), a framework that John Doerr—an experienced entrepreneur and venture capitalist—champions as a tool for business success. 


The book’s opening chapters lean heavily on Silicon Valley nostalgia, with Doerr recounting his experiences with industry giants like Google, the Gates Foundation, and others. The narrative suggests that because these influential figures embraced OKRs, the framework must hold the key to their success. However, beneath the surface of these sometimes dull anecdotes lies a collection of case studies so specific to the companies highlighted that they may feel distant and impractical for most readers. Moreover, it could be argued that Google’s success was due to sheer determination, personnel, and execution rather than the conformity value derived from OKRs.   

While the book attempts to convince the reader of OKRs’ power, it falls short of offering concrete evidence that OKRs were the true drivers of these companies’ achievements. Instead, the book often reads as a celebration of Silicon Valley’s luckiest moments rather than a practical guide. Doerr fails to discuss the downsides and shortcomings of OKRs, and when OKRs reach a point of draining value, he conveniently sees exceptions to the rules. Setting meaningful objectives, defining key results, and seeking alignment with the broader organizational goals are common managerial practices. Yet, for all the praise and excitement around OKRs, the book lacks the depth needed to explain how to consistently apply this framework in the real world. If you’re searching for a detailed, step-by-step guide to OKRs, this book might leave you wanting more. It’s an inspiring read, but more of a spark than a complete roadmap. Skip this one.

The Ride Of A Lifetime 

Robert Alan Iger chronicles his ascend to power from his beginnings in television to running the Disney entertainment conglomerate.


The Ride of a Lifetime is partitioned into ‘Learning’ and ‘Leading’. Each part contains seven chapters. While the subtitle implies an autobiography or account of leadership, it is written as a collection of stories that nearly all center around mergers and acquisitions. The historical order is somewhat chronological, but Iger often jumps ahead in time and references the outcome as he builds his storyline. Iger heavily relies on the interactions with Steve Jobs to capture the reader’s interest, but it frequently feels like a detractor from his own story. The detractions persist throughout the book. How did Disney Animations lose its creative edge? What management decisions attempted to prop up Disney Animations, but failed? Why was buying Pixar preferable over buying other (smaller) studios or making investments into proprietary creative labs?  

To my surprise, very few sections in this book deal with personal crisis management, managing reports, and details about the grand strategy behind his actions. This conveys the notion that Iger and Iger alone created Disney as we know it today. Buying Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel, and Fox must have come with complex problems, power struggles, or setbacks. Yet, Iger presents a colorless, passionless account with few details on stalemate negotiations, stubborn opposition, and how the leadership team solved these situations. When he does mention a tricky situation (take the failed purchase of Twitter), he often resolves it by compromise or quitting. This might be the one, great lesson of Iger’s career as depicted in this book: his true career was not in leadership but in closing deals. Like a shark, Iger kept pushing forward, expanding, and growing Disney. The few leadership lessons he did outline are found in the appendix; they are often repetitive and to an extent obvious, which in summary leaves the reader a bit unsatisfied. To some readers, this book will feel like an insightful account of corporate consolidation; to other readers, this book will feel like a bland account of someone who is driven by ulterior motives with a lack of humility and integrity. To me, it felt like an interesting story that could have been great if it included more personal reflection, struggle, and failure. To anyone reading this book, it will show the power of corporate consolidation and the importance of quality connections to make deals happen.  

Embrace The Joy Of Being Wrong

Questioning our beliefs and value systems is hard, but regularly revisiting, reimagining, and reconsidering our established patterns, protocols, and perspectives may help us understand why we do what we do and why it is so important to us that we do it. To think again means to retain an open mind and invite opportunities to grow. 


Think Again surprised me with an incredibly clean writing style. With it, Adam Grant truly demonstrates rethinking in practice and how it makes the reading experience so much more captivating. Think Again is partitioned into individual, interpersonal, and collective rethinking. Among the many intriguing ideas in this book, his ideas around “modes” stand out. In essence, the author believes, we are all subject to four modes that govern or at least influence our actions. We are either preachers, politicians, prosecutors, or scientists. Sometimes we will find ourselves channeling a combination of different modes for no good reason other than to make a point. In the view of the author, however, we have an opportunity to grow if we keep the preacher, politician, and prosecutor in us at bay and leverage our inner scientists to test hypotheses, seek evidence, and revise our convictions. 

On its face, Think Again states the obvious. But I can’t remember a recent book that had a greater impact on my own modus operandi. As I write these lines, I can’t help but think about my protocol or approach to book reviews, social media, and blogging. How do I read books? What are my lessons? And am I carrying each lesson forward? What happens to my notes? Is this blog an excuse for taking fewer notes? Or engage in less reflection of the content? Grant acknowledges a state of paralysis or feelings of discomfort may be a side-effect of rethinking and unlearning. These feelings can quickly become unsettling and depressing. While he advocates for a metrics-based method to mitigate paralysis, basically measuring everything like a scientist would and comparing the before and after, we are not scientists in our daily, real lives – at least most of us. Moreover, we are fallible humans. Therefore his advice to simply break down processes, measure their components, and embrace the uncertainty that arises from rethinking isn’t convincing enough because it places us at the hands of discipline, for those of us who can summon it, or the subject of our whims, for those who can’t. 

This book will find a permanent home on my desk within reach. Even if it only serves as a reminder that our established protocols and patterns sometimes need adjustment or justification.

A Nudge Too Far

The premise for our decisions is often influenced by imperfect information. This leads us to make poor decisions. Yet even when we have access to perfect information, we tend to make poor decisions due to our reliance on mental shortcuts, false believes, and the influence of social interactions. Nudge, written by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein in 2008, attempts to improve our decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. [Note: a newer, final edition was published in 2021.]


This book centers around the concept of nudges, behavioral psychology and economics. Nudges are small, simple changes to the environment or choices presented to people to influence their decision without undermining their freedom of choice. In the words of Thaler and Sunstein:

“A nudge is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates. Putting fruit at eye level counts as a nudge. Banning junk food does not.”

Effective “nudges” are the result of what Thaler calls “choice architectures”: Instances in which people actively design menus, store layouts and other environments in which other people make decisions, such that design attributes “nudge” users’ decisions in certain directions. Free choice doesn’t necessarily lead to good decisions, according to Thaler, especially in cases with too many options. For example, in one large company’s health insurance package, employees were offered 48 possible plans, which led many to choose plans which were financially worse for them than the default plan. The book continues with a wealth of examples applicable to a plethora of social transactions. 

Thaler’s premise for choice architecture is the concept of liberal paternalism. In other words, private and public institutions are allowed and encouraged to affect citizen’s behavior while also respecting freedom of choice and the outcome of choice. There are obvious drawbacks to this concept namely lack of clear boundaries, distributive injustice, and to an extreme extend it poses an insult to (human) autonomy. 

In conclusion, I could have had the same learning experience by limiting my time to the first five chapters of part one and the last four chapters of part five of this book. Part two to four aren’t really new information but examples and justifications for their theory of libertarian paternalism and choice architecture. I recommend these parts for quick access to a specific situation for they can be consumed standalone out of context. For a casual drive or background listen, I found the Freakonomics episode on Nudging to be entertaining.