Monday, February 1, 2021

No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention

Reed Hasting, Erin Meyer
online access from ProQuest Ebook Central
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Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings reveals for the first time the unorthodox culture behind one of the world's most innovative, imaginative, and successful companies.

There has never before been a company like Netflix. It has led nothing short of a revolution in the entertainment industries, generating billions of dollars in annual revenue while capturing the imaginations of hundreds of millions of people in more than 190 countries. But to reach these great heights, Netflix, which launched in 1998 as an online DVD rental service, has had to reinvent itself over and over again.

This type of unprecedented flexibility would have been impossible without the counterintuitive and radical management principles that cofounder Reed Hastings established from the very beginning. Hastings rejected the conventional wisdom under which other companies operate and defied tradition to instead build a culture focused on freedom and responsibility, one that has allowed Netflix to adapt and innovate as the needs of its members and the world have simultaneously transformed. Hastings set new standards, valuing people over process, emphasizing innovation over efficiency, and giving employees context, not controls. At Netflix, there are no vacation or expense policies. At Netflix, adequate performance gets a generous severance, and hard work is irrelevant. At Netflix, you don’t try to please your boss, you give candid feedback instead. At Netflix, employees don’t need approval, and the company pays top of market. When Hastings and his team first devised these unorthodox principles, the implications were unknown and untested. But in just a short period, their methods led to unparalleled speed and boldness, as Netflix quickly became one of the most loved brands in the world.

Here for the first time, Hastings and Erin Meyer, best-selling author of The Culture Map and one of the world’s most influential business thinkers, dive deep into the controversial ideologies at the heart of the Netflix psyche, which have generated results that are the envy of the business world. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with current and past Netflix employees from around the globe and never-before-told stories of trial and error from Hastings’s own career, No Rules Rules is the fascinating and untold account of the philosophy behind one of the world’s most innovative, imaginative, and successful companies.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

一流的人讀書, 都在哪裡畫線?

土井英司
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日本Amazon五顆星評價,好評滿載!

讀書,是從數千行字裡,
畫出專屬於自己,能夠拓展未來、翻轉人生的一條線

讓股神巴菲特翻轉思考的一句話。
蘊藏著上億商機的線索……
讀書,就是在上千行文句中,找出能開啟你全新未來的一行字。
這一條線,就可能翻轉你的人生。

土井英司是日本亞馬遜網路書店的創立元老、王牌採購,一手打造全球銷量超過六百萬冊的《怦然心動的人生整理魔法》等多本暢銷書,擅長培育作家、挖掘暢銷書,被譽為日本第一書評家。他每年讀超過一千本書,每天持續發行超過五萬人訂閱的書評電子報《商業書馬拉松》,至今已超過十三年。他是愛書人、更是專業讀書人。

土井強調,閱讀商業類書籍的重點不在享樂,而在於投資。一流的讀者,能夠從上千行文句中挖掘能為己所用的精華,畫上專屬於自己的一條線,為自己的職涯或事業創造新的契機。

本書引導讀者學會畫出那翻轉人生的一條線,從「選書」開始傳授獨門訣竅,緊接著是分門別類的「部分閱讀」,勇敢挑戰自己不熟悉、不擅長的領域,由淺入深擴充自己的商業知識,接著才能抓對重點、讀出門道。

不論是輕薄近人的暢銷書、還是艱澀厚重的磚頭教科書,每個優秀的讀書人,都能從中抓住有助提升自己的靈感。

書末更親自示範作者自己如何「畫線」,精選四十四本商業好書,畫出土井英司獲益匪淺的文句,與讀者分享他獨特的深思考技術。

你也可以從中選一本書,拿起紅筆想一想,如果整本書只能選一個重點,能夠改變你人生的文字,是哪一句?

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)


Monday, January 25, 2021

T-Minus AI: Humanity’s Countdown to Artificial Intelligence and the New Pursuit of Global Power

Michael Kanaan
online access from EBSCOhost Ebooks
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"Mike Kanaan is an influential new voice in the field of AI, and his thoughts paint an insightful perspective. A thought-provoking read." Eric Schmidt, former CEO and executive chairman of Google

Late in 2017, the conversation about the global impact of artificial intelligence (AI) changed forever. China delivered a bold message when it released a national plan to dominate all aspects of AI across the planet. Within weeks, Russia's Vladimir Putin raised the stakes by declaring AI the future for all humankind, and proclaiming that, "Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world."

The race was on. Consistent with their unique national agendas, countries throughout the world began plotting their paths and hurrying their pace. Now, not long after, the race has become a sprint.

Despite everything at risk, for most of us AI remains shrouded by a cloud of mystery and misunderstanding. Hidden behind complex technical terms and confused even further by extravagant depictions in science fiction, the realities of AI and its profound implications are hard to decipher, but no less crucial to understand.

In T-Minus AI: Humanity's Countdown to Artificial Intelligence and the New Pursuit of Global Power, author Michael Kanaan explains the realities of AI from a human-oriented perspective that's easy to comprehend. A recognized national expert and the U.S. Air Force's first Chairperson for Artificial Intelligence, Kanaan weaves a compelling new view on our history of innovation and technology to masterfully explain what each of us should know about modern computing, AI, and machine learning.

Kanaan also illuminates the global implications of AI by highlighting the cultural and national vulnerabilities already exposed and the pressing issues now squarely on the table. AI has already become China's all-purpose tool to impose authoritarian influence around the world. Russia, playing catch up, is weaponizing AI through its military systems and now infamous, aggressive efforts to disrupt democracy by whatever disinformation means possible.

America and like-minded nations are awakening to these new realities, and the paths they're electing to follow echo loudly, in most cases, the political foundations and moral imperatives upon which they were formed.

As we march toward a future far different than ever imagined, T-Minus AI is fascinating and critically well-timed. It leaves the fiction behind, paints the alarming implications of AI for what they actually are, and calls for unified action to protect fundamental human rights and dignities for all.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

斜槓青年:全球職涯新趨勢, 迎接更有價值的多職人生

Susan Kuang
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除了本業,你還擁有什麼?
除了職稱,你還有沒有比名片更亮眼的故事?
席捲全球新風潮!
不是迫於生存,而是不甘平庸!


斜/槓/青/年──Slash是一種生活態度!
共享經濟時代,越來越多人不再滿足於單一職業和身分的束縛,
開始選擇一種能夠利用自身專業和才藝,經營多重身分的多職人生。
這些人都擁有一個共同的名字:斜槓青年/Slash。

對於一個斜槓青年最重要的是:
不是身兼很多種賺錢的方式,而是擁有許多真正熱愛的事物。
透過不同管道,讓你的才華和機會超/展/開!

斜槓青年並不浪漫,但可能精采。
他們投資的不是財富,而是自己人生的故事────
一邊做設計同時開書店、從事攝影也是健身教練、寫程式邊做Youtuber……
如今全球斜槓青年的故事已越堆越厚,如果你還未上路,那你該緊張了。

未必要辭職去旅行,
拋棄麵包追逐詩與遠方。
但是你該捫心自問,
除了一份安穩的工作,你還會什麼?
如果世界是精采的,
當你delete人生的其他選擇,自然就沒得選擇。
你要做一隻在猴群裡爬樹的魚?還是也同時痛快地游水!
讓現在的業餘愛好,成為你未來謀生的手段!

從今以後,按自己的方式生活!

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)


Monday, January 18, 2021

Designing Experiences

J. Robert Rossman, Mathew D. Duerden
online access from ProQuest Ebook Central
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In an increasingly experience-driven economy, companies that deliver great experiences thrive, and those that do not die. Yet many organizations face difficulties implementing a vision of delivering experiences beyond the provision of goods and services. Because experience design concepts and approaches are spread across multiple, often disconnected disciplines, there is no book that succinctly explains to students and aspiring professionals how to design them...

Named a best customer experience book of 2019. ― My Customer

Designing Experiences provides a much-needed evolution in the delivery and execution of programs, services, products, and experiences. Rossman and Duerden present a contemporary approach to experience design, journey mapping, and design thinking that helps us understand the complexity of designing experiences. Moreover, the book offers a refreshing resource, targeting multiple academic disciplines that will benefit greatly from Rossman and Duerden’s framework and conceptualization of experience design. ― William W. Hendricks, Professor and Department Head, Experience Industry Management Department, California Polytechnic State University

Designing Experiences will change the way you think about just about everything you do, or experience, in life. This engaging book outlines the essential elements of any experience, explains the features that influence how we experience different events, describes how to use a set of specific tools to design experiences that achieve a planner’s desired objectives, and leads the reader through the process of conceptualizing how to create great experiences. The book is full is of useful insights relevant to businesses, politicians, teachers, and parents, anyone trying to create experiences that will meaningfully engage others. ― Brigitte C. Madrian, Dean and Marriott Distinguished Professor, Brigham Young University Marriott School of Business

The core content and big payoff in the book is the how-to guide. It begins with an ascending framework of five types of experiences: prosaic, mindful, memorable, meaningful, and transformational. ― Strategy + Business

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

香港築印

馮俊鍵; 攝影、插圖, 陳耀慈
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歲月悠長的建築
仍蘊含著流動的生命

走在香港的大街上,
總會與不同的建築物擦身而過,
新舊區交替之間,
不少建築屹立於城市多年,
成為歷史的見證,
承載着幾代人的回憶。

本書以細膩的筆觸與繪畫,
勾勒出香港富有歷史意義的建築物,
還以相片展現它們今天的面貎,
在多角度的重塑下,
一磚一瓦流露着人情味與質感,
讓讀者追憶香港舊日生活之外,
也能憑藉建築物的變遷,
見證時代的更迭。

(摘錄自cp1897.com.hk)