Review: Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble

Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble by Dan Lyons
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read Dan Lyon’s LinkedIn post about his book two years back, and have been curious to read his book – especially since some people in Hubspot actually tried to obtain a copy and indulged in coercion to stop the book. I also read co-founder Dharmesh Shah’s mature response (on behalf of him as well as Brian Halligan), also on LinkedIn, though he does not address all the issues in Dan’s book.

Somehow, got to reading it only now. This is an especially interesting read on Tech Startups and does offer lessons such companies would be better off considering. And yet, some of Dan’s criticism does also come across as whining and bitterness as a result of his personal experience.

At over 50 years of age, Dan decides to enter the world of Tech Startup by joining Hubspot – a Boston based company with a product for Inbound marketing. He has been in the media industry for long and realizes it will take some effort to fit in to a new industry. He has kids and his wife recently left her job, which adds to the pressure to get back to work as quickly as possible. His initial days and weeks are frustrating with no direction on what is expected of him, very little dialogue with seniors, and a frat house culture gone berserk. His work assignments are mostly around writing lame blogs. Most of the Hubspot employees are fresh out of college and have little or no real coaching. In order to keep them motivated, they are offered a fun place to work – bright colors, bean bags, beer on the job etc. At times such as Halloween and Freaky Fridays, employees can come in wearing costumes of their choice. Employees are told that they are actually making the world a better place. Employees who leave or are fired (which happens quite often) are announced as graduating with an informally worded mail doing the rounds. The culture code presentation with the “HEART” acronym comes across as full of fluff. Dan sticks out as an odd person – struggling to fit in and also makes detractors with his frankness. Here, Dan’s criticism is on solid ground and this is certainly a culture where older employees, as also many personality types, and those who value authenticity would struggle to fit in.

As part of his narrative Dan also suggests that Hubspot has a poor product, and has to spend a lot on marketing to sell it, as also to retain customers. While it is difficult to know if that is case, Hubspot has seen very strong growth and indicates that this cannot be entirely true. He also takes aim at startups in general and the trends they back. Eg: he takes aim at Software-as-a-Service companies, which is completely off the mark. Even going by his own account, there is an indication that Dan did not try very hard to fit in either, nor did he offer suggestions constructively. Brian Halligan was once quoted as saying that experience was largely overvalued, prompting a bitter Facebook post by Dan, which he acknowledges might not have been the best approach.

While he uses pseudo names for a few people in the book, he names Chief Marketing Officer Mike Volpe and Head of Content Joe Chernov (his supervisor for part of the duration) in the Epilogue who had to leave as a result of the FBI investigation (though no charges were pressed). After he gets another job, Dan resigns giving a 6 week notice but is asked to leave the very next day.

There are good lessons from the book on – the need for diversity, valuing experience, promoting time tested values of respect, openness, trust, transparency, authenticity, fairness rather than a cult-like behavior and make believe.

A book I certainly recommend reading.

My rating: 3.5 / 5.


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Review: Salvation of a Saint

Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read Keigo Higashino’s “The Devotion of Suspect X” on a recommendation from a friend sometime back and really liked. Since then, I read “Malice” and now “Salvation of a Saint”. The strength is in the depth of the story and the characters. They are all great crime novels with no fluff or unnecessary drama.

Salvation of a Saint is another great story if you like crime/mysteries. It is not as crisply written as the other two books mentioned above, but a very good read nevertheless.

Yoshitaka and his wife Ayane are about to separate from their marriage. As Ayane is visiting her parents, Yoshitaka dies mysteriously – as a result of drinking coffee laced with poison. Yoshitaka has not been exactly faithful, and based on that it seems that his wife has the strongest motive to kill him, but she is away during that period. Ayane’s work colleague Hiromi is the last to have seen Yoshitaka.

Police detective Kusanagi and his assistant Utsumi investigate the case. It is puzzling as it is unclear where the poison came from. Utsumi turns to Professor Yukawa for help. It seems to be the perfect crime – with no evidence to lead anywhere.

The reasoning of the police and Professor Yukawa is a delight to read, as they persevere with testing one hypothesis after the other. In many ways, I suppose this is how great mysteries are really solved – one step at a time.


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Review: Calling Sehmat

Calling Sehmat by Harinder Sikka
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of those very few instances where I saw the movie, based on the book, before reading the book. The movie “Raazi” is a very good adaptation of the book.

The story is excellent – and being based on a real story of a young lady who takes huge risks for her country, it is also inspiring. That said – the book slips up in its narrative in many instances – the pace is not tight enough, the characters other than Sehmat do not develop well and some critical portions needed further emphasis.

The story unfolds with the love story of Sehmat’s parents – Tej and Hidayat Khan. Tej visits Kashmir and is charmed by Hidayat. The story then picks up when Sehmat is in college and very gifted. Hidayat as part of his trade connections has contacts in Pakistan, and supplies crucial information to Indian Intelligence. He falls greviously ill, at the time when tensions between India and Pakistan are rising in 1971. The situation in East Pakistan is grim and troublesome for Pakistan, and they are keen to launch a pre-emptive attack on India. Hidayat comes to conclusion that there is no alternative except for Sehmat to take his place.

Sehmat has to sacrifice her love for Abhinav and instead marry Iqbal, son of an influential officer in the Pakistani armed forces. She runs into a number of stressful situations but emerges as a splendid source of information for Indian Intelligence.

The book adds more context to the college life of Sehmat, her love life, her hopes, as also what happens after she completes her assignment, as compared to the movie. If you have watched the movie “Raazi”, the book does not add too much which the movie does not cover.

My rating: 3.5 / 4.

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Review: Bombay Heights

Bombay Heights by Adite Banerjie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The story centres around Sanjana Kale who moves away from her family in Nagpur to Mumbai, and her work and relationships. This is a cute story, and yet entirely predictable & with no specific differentiating storyline.

Sanjana’s workplace is stressful with her immediate boss being intimidating and trying to put her down all the time. She has to team up with Ashwin Deo who is a video game designer and also her neighbour. She finds him brash initially and difficult to deal with, but gradually finds it difficult to resist his charm. She has just moved away from a relationship with Chethan who still hopes the relationship can be mended. And there is also pressure from the family – her parents & sisters.

How she faces the work pressures, and what on the relationship side is what the story is all about. If you would like to relax with a book which moves fast, this is a book you could read - you will not find much to remember it for though.


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Review: The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity—and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race

The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity—and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race by Daniel Z. Lieberman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a very interesting book on how just one chemical – Dopamine influences so much of our behaviour. The undue influence Dopamine exerts is amazing considering the fraction the Dopamine circuit occupies in our brains. This is a well written book and very informative as well.

The crux of our behaviour boils down to two outlooks we humans have – here & now matters (which the authors refer to as the H&N circuit) and the future (our desires and actions). Dopamine is largely what determines how we approach the future – high dopamine defining the drive. Dopamine circuits are in two categories – ones which determine our desires and the other which exerts control over our actions.

Responsible action is a delicate balance – excessive dopamine activity can become impractical and is speculated at times even lead to mental illnesses. The influence of Dopamine on politics, sex, relationships, emotions, political affiliations, religion and business is all discussed in a good amount of detail.

This is a book I certainly recommend, though it could have been crisper in the early and middle portions.

My rating: 4.5 / 5.

I got a free ecopy of this book from NetGalley for an honest review.


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Review: The Midnight Line

The Midnight Line by Lee Child
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jack Reacher novels are always great to relax with. He is character who keeps the book going quickly – however implausible some of the stuff he does is. This book follows the trend, though I personally found the story to be somewhat weak in comparison to many other Jack Reacher novels.

Jack Reacher is wandering around the country – with nothing except a toothbrush, as he always does. He comes a West Point ring with the initials S.R.S engraved. A ring obtained after much effort and achievement – why would anyone give it. Reacher aborts his journey and decides he will follow the trail – if the owner is ok, the search ends.

He follows the trail which leads him to suspected drug dealers. He runs into Arthur Scorpio who is already under observation by the local cops – one Gloria Nakamura. The trail then leads him to Mule Crossing, Wyoming – a place very sparsely populated. He discovers that the owner of the ring is one of twin sisters. Her twin is worried as well and has engaged a private investigator – Terrence Bramall, and all of them meet in Wyoming.

The story then moves to Reacher searching for the twin sister Rose Sanderson and finding out what has happened to her.

While I am a Jack Reacher fan, have to say that the story had far greater potential. It is still a good read - as all Jack Reacher novels are.

My rating: 3.5 / 5


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Review: Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams

Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sleep has been a big mystery for long, as it has been unclear what purpose it serves, and why natural selection did not weed it out. After all, in earlier times, the period of sleep must have been one of considerable danger for humans (and even now for many animals and birds). And yet, sleep is a common requirement across the animal kingdom as well. In fact, birds and some sea creatures have the remarkable ability to sleep half a brain at a time.

Matthew Walker is a sleep scientist and does an exceptional job in this book of explaining what sleep achieves for us. In fact, sleep deprivation is extremely dangerous and there is not enough awareness of this. Modern lifestyle has dealt a blow to both our duration and quality of sleep, and the effects are already quite apparent.

While sleep has not completely revealed all its mysteries to us, a lot is now known after painstaking research over several years. Our sleep shuffles between NREM, Light and REM sleep – and all of them have their purpose. NREM sleep fortifies our memory helping in longer term recall, while REM sleep & dreams lend emotional balance and help us get to the big picture. The book discusses a large number of experiments detailing what happens when we skip sleep. Depending on the sleep cycle and the quantum of deprivation, the ill effects are nothing short of disastrous – lower immunity, failing memory, loss of emotional balance, pre-disposition to serious diseases such as diabetes, dementia and even cancer. Getting adequate sleep (~8 hours) on the other hand makes people more creative & productive other than being healthy.

Somehow, our cultures today do not emphasise the importance of sleep, as much as we do exercise and diet. So much so, that sleeping less is mistakenly regarded as a confirmation of working hard and being more ambitious. The assumption that each of us can do with varying periods of sleep is largely a myth as well. While a genetic mutation allows a few to function effectively with around 6 hours of sleep, this is extremely rare. Almost all of us do need ~8 hours of sleep. There are tips on improving sleep quantity as well as quality all through the book, such as regulating caffeine in the later part of the day.

Most of us are guilty of not according sleep the importance it deserves, and this book is an eye opener. This is a book everyone should read. There are very important points of note for individuals, educational institutions, hospitals, organisations and even governments.


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