The World's Best Book Summaries
What is Toyota’s company history? How did lean manufacturing become popular? In The Toyota Way, Jeffrey Liker recounts Toyota’s history as a car manufacturing company. He explains the beginning of the Toyota Production System, better known as lean manufacturing. Continue reading to learn more about the history of Toyota.
What is the connection between evolution and behavior? What are some examples of human behaviors that have survival value? Our brains work the way they do because of evolution: Ancestors who behaved in certain ways were more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on the genes that caused them to behave in those ways. So now, many generations later, those genes still survive in us and influence our behavior. Let’s examine the key categories of human behavior that are the product of evolution.
What was samurai culture like? What aspects of it should be applied to organizational culture? Ben Horowitz believes business leaders should follow the samurai’s example of intentionally defining foundational beliefs coupled with instructions for everyday behavior. We’ll explore Horowitz’s four lessons from the samurai honor code as well as examples from the business world. Keep reading for details on these actionable values from samurai culture.
What was the Stanford Prison Experiment? What were the ethical issues of the experiment? In 1971, Philip Zimbardo turned the basement of Stanford University’s psychology building into a simulated prison, paying undergraduate male volunteers to act as prisoners and guards. Zimbardo detailed his findings in The Lucifer Effect, which discusses the nature of human evil. Keep reading to learn more about the ethical issues of the Stanford Prison Experiment.
What was the Great Famine? What could have prevented the Irish potato famine? Between 1845 and 1849, Ireland experienced mass starvation and disease after most potato crops got infected. Amartya Sen uses the example of England’s lack of support during the potato famine to demonstrate how easy it is to prevent famines. Keep reading to learn what could have prevented the potato famine and how famines can be prevented today.
What was China’s one-child policy? How did the one-child policy affect China? Between 1980 and 2016, China had a one-child policy designed to combat overpopulation by limiting families to having one child. The policy restricted women’s rights, caused higher child mortality rates, and led to more crime in the nation. Continue reading to learn more about the impact of China’s one-child policy, according to Amartya Sen in Development as Freedom.
What happened when the dot-com bubble burst? How did investors react to the crash? When the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, investors became skeptical of any company that had aspirations of shaping the future. And their newfound skepticism became part of the new conventional wisdom. Here’s why that wisdom was misguided, according to Peter Thiel.
What is the Securities and Exchange Commission? How did they contribute to making high-frequency trading easier? The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s primary purpose is to prevent market manipulation. However, when the stock market transitioned into a technological stage, they were forced to change their stock market regulations with it. Unfortunately, these regulations made it easier for high-frequency (HF) traders to exercise their power over responsible investors. Here’s how the Securities and Exchange Commission’s regulations ended up backfiring on them and who stepped up to fix their problems, as explained in Michael Lewis’s book, Flash Boys.
What is a flash crash? Why did Wall Street experience a flash crash in 2010? A flash crash is when the stock market experiences a dramatic and unexpected drop in prices followed by a quick recovery. Wall Street experienced a flash crash in 2010, which Michael Lewis, author of Flash Boys, believes was caused by high-frequency trading (HFT) methods, but others believe one man was behind it. In this article, we’ll explore the 2010 flash crash, and how Wall Street fell victim to it.
What was the dot-com bubble? What can it teach us about tech startups? The dot-com bubble of the 1990s was the biggest bubble since the one ending in the Wall Street crash of 1929. The “lessons” of the dot-com dictate the way we think about tech today. Continue reading for Thiel’s insights on the dot-com bubble and its lessons for entrepreneurs.