INTHEBLACK December 2021 - Magazine - Page 14
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POWER PLAY
NOTHING IS TOO
BIG TO FAIL
Cal Newport
Tim Higgins
Kerry Killinger and
Linda Killinger
Cal Newport is a professor of computer
science who has written extensively about
communications technology. In this book,
he takes a deep dive into the way that email
has taken over so much of our life and time,
creating a “hyperactive hive-mind workflow”.
Newport readily acknowledges that, when
it first appeared in the 1990s, email was more
productive than paper memos, but now
the sheer volume of information circulated
by email systems has become a problem.
Work has become a web of unscheduled
communication threads, while much of the
information transmitted by email is, when
considered, irrelevant to our actual duties.
Responding to emails requires a constant
shifting of cognitive mindset, leading to
exhaustion and muddled thinking.
There are software packages that can
help to control the flow of emails, but the real
answer to the problem is company policies to
combat the overload. Does a message really
need to be copied to everyone, or sent at all?
Can there be a schedule for particular types
of information? Is there a better method of
collaboration than strings of fragmentary
emails? In other words, Newport says, think
before you send.
Some of Newport’s proposals might be
easier to talk about than implement, but
nevertheless he provides a new way of
looking at an important workplace issue.
The idea seemed obvious – why not use
lithium-ion batteries, already powering
a host of digital devices, in cars? The
simple answer is, because large lithium-ion
batteries can dangerously overheat.
Tim Higgins takes readers through
the timeline of engineers wrestling with
this problem for years, until Elon Musk
finally came up with a reliable cooling
system, making electric cars viable. Musk
became a major investor in electric vehicle
manufacturer Tesla in 2004, becoming
CEO in 2008. As a hard-driving leader with
sound tech skills, he propelled the company
into the international spotlight, and electric
cars eventually hit the road.
Even though we have much to thank him
for, Musk is a hard person to like. Known
for a mercurial temper, on-the-spot firings
and astonishing propensity towards selfaggrandisement, in Higgins’ portrayal Musk
comes across as an entrepreneurial genius
with a streak of temperamental eccentric –
or maybe it is the other way around.
It is not easy to separate the stories of
the electric car, Tesla and Musk, but Higgins
manages to keep the narrative streams
organised. The book makes for fascinating
reading and, in the end, love him or loathe
him, Musk’s contribution cannot be denied.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic,
the US financial system was developing
dangerous cracks, according to the
authors of Nothing Is Too Big To Fail. As
senior bankers with experience on the
regulatory side, they study the financial
meltdown of 2008 for lessons.
While regulators have done much to
strengthen the banking system, there has
been an alarming growth in the “shadow”
finance system of pension funds,
disintermediated loan providers and even
technology corporates. The outcome has
been a worrying increase in debt, built
around speculative bubbles in the stock
market and the real estate sector.
The authors also point to issues thrown
up by the US Government’s spending on
social issues and tax cuts. In an appendix
to the book, they discuss the stimulus
packages connected to the pandemic,
which might have been necessary, but
which made the US economy even more
leveraged and fragile.
Addressing these challenges, the
authors say, will involve hard decisions,
with an emphasis on paying down debt
at all levels and extending regulatory
oversight further into the non-bank
finance sector.
Penguin
14 ITB December 2021
Penguin
Simon & Schuster