Graduate Admission Books

I recently stumbled upon some interesting books on the graduate application process. I know that for most of us, buying books simply for graduate applications might not be such a prudent investment but over the last 4 months, I have slowly come to the realization that it, in fact is very useful and more often than not, worth the money being spent!

These are the 5 books which gradschool recommends. Use the link below to check out the description and prices. I have not searched specifically for these on the internet but if there is sufficient demand, I will consider doing so!!

link: http://gradschool.about.com/od/admissionsadvice/tp/admissionbook.htm 

Weird ideas…for stagnating businesses….or stagnating minds!!!!!

I feel that what I am going to talk about today will be probably known by many. However, it was new to me and I felt like sharing it right away! I recently got hold of a copy of “Weird ideas that work” by Professor Robert Sutton. I believe that many of you, especially those with management on their minds, would definitely know him or his published works (which btw I am told, are more than 700 in number!!!)

The book forces the readers to come out of the ever binding shackles of contemporary common sense and makes him think anew! The ideas are actually pretty weird at the first glance but actually have been deliberately moulded in such fashion to shake the readers out of their rut. According to the author, the ideas are well grounded and proven through research! What’s unique is that each of the idea that he presents in the book is well supported by real life examples…..

Certain ideas are really counter-intuitive…..like the idea of rewarding success as well as failure (but yes…..to punish inaction) or to “Avoid, Distract, and Bore Customers, Critics, and Anyone Who Just Wants to Talk about Money”, which supposedly helps prevent the premature death of incubating business plans or ideas!!

The book came out of a course at Stanford for executives on harnessing creativity in business where he experimented with various ideas to jolt his audience out of their “been there-done that” mindset to get the research results across effectively!

What’s really funny is that the author himself says that he doesn’t necessarily believe in any of the ideas himself and therefore should not be mistaken for a promoter of sorts for these ideas….however he does have the ability to provide strong conceptual and statistical case in favour of these said ideas!!

Here is a list of all the 11.5 (or rather 12) ideas he proposes

· 1. Hire slow learners (of the organizational code).
· 1 ½. Hire people who make you feel uncomfortable, even those you dislike.
· 2. Hire people you (probably) don’t need.
· 3. Use job interviews to get new ideas, not to screen candidates.
· 4. Encourage people to ignore and defy superiors and peers.
· 5. Find some happy people, and get them to fight.
· 6. Reward success and failure, punish inaction.
· 7. Decide to do something that will probably fail, then convince yourself and everyone else that success is certain.
· 8. Think of some ridiculous or impractical things to do, and then plan to do them.
· 9. Avoid, distract, and bore customers, critics, and anyone who just wants to talk about money.
· 10. Don’t try to learn anything from people who seem to have solved the problem you face.
· 11. Forget the past, especially your company’s successes

The book came out in early 2002 and is a must read for any wannabe manager!!!

Other books by the author include:

1. The no asshole rule
2. Hard facts-Dangerous half truths and total non-sense
3. The knowing doing gap

Authors webpage: http://bobsutton.typepad.com/

The 10 Greatest Books to be ever written!!!!

Well, as the author of the article himself said, quantifying literature in any way is unjustifiable and unquestionably obscene. However, such obscenities can sometimes churn out really interesting results. But for all of us belonging to the “GRE” clique; such a list can be a treasure trove full of life saving information/material……………so here it goes…

1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
2. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
4. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
7. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
9. The Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
10. Middlemarch by George Eliot

friends; I can assure you that reading any single one of them could do wonders when it comes to your ability to tackle reading comprehensions or scripting out any issue topic…….a word of caution though, Please keep Websters by your side….:-)

source : http://www.time.com/