The Rise and Fall of Nations by Ruchir Sharma

I've never been interested in economy works but I always look for numbers, and how it can be interpreted to define a real time situation.

Hence, I picked this book. It was a pleasant switch between this, and the previous book which I was reading in parallel. And I must say this has expanded my horizon of understanding how the things lead to a particular result. We can see a lot of things happening around us, and the innovation is keep on adding the pace to our lives which leads to a lot of changes.

One thing which always gets my attention is how factual the book is. There are no crystal ball readings but some profound conclusions from the trends. Not all trends end in same way but they definitely gave us a fair idea of the direction the needle is moving to.

The book broadly gives the 10 rules of  identifying the political, social, economic changes which can predict how the country is going to perform in next five years. It is clearly said that anything beyond five years will be more like a guess work. The forecasts or trends should not be for really long duration. We can work on policies or the basic tenets of the policy but it is better to avoid a long term prediction.

Time is one of those factors which we can't really measure in terms of how much is good enough. But a short term prediction based on historical trends can give us really close results.

The book is filled with a lot of data but not in a overwhelming way. If you're not a data person you can focus on the outcomes, and predictions. In fact, with the help of data you can actually put your thoughts around it, and connect with your own experience/facts from other sources.

Thank you for Being Late by Thomas Friedman

Thomas Friedman was not a new name to me. I've already read The World is Flat so I knew the kind of writing I should expect.

One thing which I was not aware, and which I realized after finishing the book was that there was so many updates from the latest tech world. These updates might have sounded a fairy tale to many readers but I could relate to a lot of these things.

Anyways, the book is more around how rapidly we've increased our knowledge in science which actually transformed to real world. These innovations have immensely affected our daily lives. The changes have been so fast that the human beings are not able to adjust to such speed. This has given rise to inequality in many ways within the society, and country.

These innovations have also hurt the natural resources which we're exploiting on a similar exponential trend. In the recent years the attitude towards such issues has changed as there are more and more researches happening which are trying to help us maintain the equilibrium with mother nature. The consequences of imbalance will be fatal.

Thomas has suggested a framework around how we can maintain the balance with nature, and also how we can create an all inclusive society which works toward the goal of common welfare, and connects the people to build a long lasting bonds which ultimately brings the harmony in the society.

Given the larger topics are covered the book is a bit fat but worth the read.

Peace