Category: Education

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Education Reading

Latest Read: Caste

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. This book proves yet again when fully revealed history is painful. Caste is one of the most powerful books I have ever read.

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

Isabel is certainly forcing America to grapple with an understanding that our country was founded upon a coded class (caste) structure originating from India.

India’s caste system is based upon ancient Hindu text suggesting Manu, was an all-knowing man. One day he was approached by men asking “Please, Lord, tell us precisely and in the proper order the Laws of all the social classes as well as of those born in between.” So developed a caste system of classes including the highest, untouchable class across India.

Accordingly from this point forward Isabel delivers America’s caste system. Isabel developed a metaphor: America’s caste in the form of an old house that requires evaluation of the basement structure after severe weather. As you know an old house needs constant inspection.

Isabel is simply spot on with class events across our society. This book becomes more important now than ever to understand and comprehend our house’s aging framework.

Her book documents time after time how African Americans have been cruelly abused by a class system. Isabel’s analog is that caste is the bone and race is the skin.

400 years of caste in America

Indeed, this book’s structure reveals 400 years of caste in America. Surprisingly this began with the slave trade prior to the pilgrims’ arrival at Plymouth Rock in August 1619. In fact a Dutch slave trade ship arrived in America destined for the Caribbean. Isabel carries this forward to the Charlottesville car attack in August 2017. For more than 400 years caste is still shifting the foundation of America’s house.

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Mindset

Mindset – Changing The Way You think To Fulfill Your Potential by Carol Dweck. Carol is Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. Her study of human motivation is researching why people succeed or do not, and how individuals can understand how to foster success.

Mindset - Changing The Way You think To Fulfill Your Potential by Carol Dweck

Hence Carol’s popular research regards two mindsets, and the difference they make in outcomes is incredibly powerful. In addition, by learning where an individual’s view on ability are sourced, you can change their reaction to failure.

Her growth versus fixed mindset is the core of the book and has won her much acclaim. For this reason, there is almost no audience that should pass on reading her book.

Accordingly, anyone can appreciate that middle school children can benefit the most and become a sponge for knowledge. Consequently in the age of COVID, resilience is a key lesson for the need for a growth mindset in an almost daily changing environment.

Dweck’s research reveals why one’s raw talent and abilities do not define success, however approaching them with a growth mindset will prove success in the long run. This is also effective for any parent’s goals, personal or professional.

Carol reveals what great parents, teachers, CEOs, and athletes already know: how a simple idea about the brain can create a love of learning and a resilience that is the basis of great accomplishment in every area.

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Education Reading Vietnam War

Latest Read: Dien Bien Phu and the Crisis of Franco-American Relations

Dien Bien Phu and the Crisis of Franco-American Relations, 1954-1955 by Lawrense Kaplan, Denise Arraud, and Mark Rubin. This research is certainly a very intriguing collection of American and French academics re-approaching the relationship during the key event that would be driving American foreign policy for a generation.

Dien Bien Phu and the Crisis of Franco-American Relations

Published in 1980, these insights offers the west deep new, modern insights into post World War II Asia. Therefore I have embedded an extended series of quotes which highlight the historical, complex, and strained relationship between France and the United States during the siege that would cast aside France from the world’s stage as a power.

Readers can certainly view Japan’s attack of Pearl Harbor, Truman’s betrayal of FDR, and Eisenhower’s failures in a new light. The papers also addresses the domino theory, the deep conflicts between Ely and Radford that ultimately focused on the failed attempt at Operation Vulture. Yet nothing could save France from defeat even with atomic weapons.

Finally, the French 1955 attempted coup d’état reveals the absolute desperation of French attempts to claw back into Vietnam. These topics jumped out as key strains between Franco-American relations that linger into the 1960s. My Dien Bien Phu retrospective is certainly expanding via this research.

Table of Contents:

Prologue: Perceptions by the United States of its interests in Indochina
1. Franco-American conflict in Indochina, 1950-1954
2. The French military and U.S. participation in the Indochina War
3. Britain and the crisis over Dien Bien Phu, April 1954
4. Eisenhower, Dulles, and Dien Bien Phu: “The day we didn’t go to war”
5. Military necessity, political impossibility: French overview on operation Vautour
6. Redefining the American position in Southeast Asia
7. From Geneva to Manila: British policy toward Indochina and SEATO
8. Passage of empire: the United States, France, and South Vietnam, 1954-55
9. Repercussions of the Geneva Conference: South Vietnam under a new protector
10. Spring 1955: Crisis in Saigon
11. The United States, NATO, and French Indochina
12. France between the Indochina War and the European defense community

Even the Prologue: Perceptions by the United States of its interests in Indochina by Richard Immerman will startle readers. Immerman suggests Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor an intentional ploy to divert global interest away from their aims across Indochina. Certainly this appears true today.

Yet for Americans this is a rather stark suggestion. Yet upon reflection there is merit to the Japan’s single strike. Why risk resources in Indochina when a full defensive strategy against America would culminate in the the atomic bombing of their mainland.

Japan had already invaded and conquered China. France surrendered to Japanese troops across Indochina, yet managed to negotiate terms after Japan’s invasion of French Indochina in 1940. At the height of the second French colonial empire, Paris ruled almost 9% of the global population.

Set against Communist China and the Soviet Union, President Eisenhower ultimately shaped a policy leading America to war for a generation. Resource rich Indochina would be providing Japan much needed raw materials to drive their war effort. When American banned oil sales to the Japanese mainland, Indochina became their target.

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: The Man Who Solved the Market

The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution by Gregory Zuckerman. This book is an easy ‘book of the year’ recommendation. The storyline is a mathematical whizkid recruiting talented mathematicians and scientists in building a successful investment firm.

The Man Who Solved The Market

Simons went to MIT in 1958, obtaining a mathematics Bachelors, then a PhD at UC Berkeley also in mathematics PhD at the age of 23. During the cold war Simons began working for the NSA in 1968 breaking Soviet encryption. Simons won the Oswald Weblen Prize in Geometry in 1976. Likewise he later became chair the Math department at SUNY at Stony Brook from 1968 to 1978. He began developing a talent for recruiting high performing, well respected mathematicians away from Ivy League schools.

Simons is widely recognized for establishing pattern recognition, development of string theory, and developed the Chern–Simons form. His efforts combining geometry and topology with quantum field theory has paid off handsomely. At the same time, Gregory serves four keys lessons for anyone striving to achieve success.

Lesson #1: Believe in yourself

Yet to the surprise of many, Jim left academia in 1978 to launch his investment firm. Here is where James shines: establishing a firm by believing in yourself. Chiefly hiring noted mathematicians James Ax, Sandor Strauss, Leonard Baum, Elwyn Berlekamp, Robert Mercer, and noted programmer David Magerman to join him was the bedrock of his firm. Gregory writes about the upbringing of key players in the book to provide just enough insight to what makes mathematicians and scientists tick.

Simons understood that bringing very intelligent people to his company would continue to build a foundation for success. Even Jim’s competition would shortly change markets:

One programmer, Jeffrey Bezos, worked with Shaw a few more years before piling his belongings into a moving van and driving to Seattle, his then-wife MacKenzie behind the wheel.

Page 124

The Man Who Solved the Market is an excellent book which reinforces the notion to surround yourself with smart people. Along this path, his company dealt with his own bad behaviors while also managing the motivations and decisions of those he hired. From time to time, these talented teams caused friction. Name an organization that is immune from this.

Lesson #2: True success is not an overnight gimmick

Although society expects little today by the way of grit and success must be immediate. On the contrary, Simons and his team created, tested, and then re-created models over a twenty year span.

Furthermore, Simons understood historical financial big data would better tune their prediction models. The longer tail provided the math quants a tested, fine tuned approach in establishing new success whose by-product was large sums of money.

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Design Education Reading Technology

Latest Read: Storytelling with Data

Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic. Above all, Cole explores a basic understanding of visualizing data. Based upon excel spreadsheet data Cole makes an honest attempt to teach how communicating visually is important. That is to say, this book is aimed at users exploring visual data models for the first time.

Storytelling with Data

While Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic succeeds in this delivery, the storytelling component is not as convincing. Storytelling is certainly no easy task. The challenge is even more important today as many tools provide visually appealing toolsets. Data visualization tools are misused unintentionally and results create confusing data patterns. I would leave the storytelling component to others.

Cole certainly references Nancy Duarte and I would lean heavily to Nancy to learn how to tell stories. Storylines do not require charts as a default rule. The best outcome for Cole’s work is to actually spin the lessons as a what not to do.

Storytelling with Data delivers the following key points. Certainly understanding context about your audience is the top priority. Secondly choose a visual data type that works for the data as Cole repeated avoiding pie graphs, multiple y-axis labels, and 3D at all costs. As a result, eliminating clutter, as suggested by Cole is a solid reference for removing everything that may hurt your story.

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