James Fox (2022)

A book using colour as a way to access a range of other topics, without ever losing focus.

Some of the choices will probably be controversial, such as the emergence of “whiteness” as a racial classification, even though supported plentifully by evidence. There are plenty of other less challenging anecdotes, though. Why do we usually consider there that there are seven colours? – at least in part because of Newton’s religious and alchemical ideas that led him to want to tie colour to the notes on the musical scale

I most enjoyed the chapter on purple, mainly because it focused on the significant technological change that synthetic aniline dyes brought into culture, changing the relative abundances of various colours and changing the ways in which they were perceived as signifiers of wealth and status.

4/5. Finished Sunday 11 August, 2024.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Tony Fadell

Twenty-five years ago, more or less, I ran a start-up company. I wish books like this had existed back then to help me understand what start-ups need to do.

Fadell has perhaps the best pedigree imaginable, including being involved both in massive successes (the iPod, the iPhone, the Nest thermostat) and crashing failures (General Magic), and the best thing about this book is his willingness to share them, warts and all. He’s clearly come to a place in his life where he regards everything as a learning opportunity and a teaching opportunity, rather than needing to project a particular image of himself.

The business advice is fascinating, even for someone who doesn’t intend to start a company: there’s plenty to learn about organisation structures and politics. I suspect it’d be absolute gold for anyone thinking of making hardware devices for the modern software-dominated world, though. Fadell has a clear understanding of what’s needed to make a physical product succeed, and his emphases on story-telling and understanding the customer’s journey as a route to success are compelling.

There’s also a lot of insight into some of the major companies and personalities he’s met along the way. He’s positive about Apple, clear-eyed about Steve Jobs’ strengths and weaknesses – and clearly quite shell-shocked by his exposure to Google as not what he was expecting them to be.

5/5. Finished Saturday 3 August, 2024.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Len Deighton (1979)

An alternative history that has aged well. The premise is quite common: what if Nazi Germany had invaded Britain in the Spring of 1941, and succeeded? The plot revolves around rescuing the King and retrieving atomic secrets, both to be sent to America.

But it’s the politics of a Nazi occupation that clearly most fascinated Deighton, because he build a labyrinth of plots and counter-plots between Army, SS, British Resistance, and American isolationism. These internecine struggles are actually quite familiar from the actual history of Nazi occupations, so it’s quite fascinating to see them transplanted to a fictional Britain. It’s so well done that it’s a shame it isn’t part of a series (of which Deighton wrote several).

4/5. Finished Saturday 3 August, 2024.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Len Deighton (1979)

An alternative history that has aged well. The premise is quite common: what if Nazi Germany had invaded Britain in the Spring of 1941, and succeeded? The plot revolves around rescuing the King and retrieving atomic secrets, both to be sent to America.

But it’s the politics of a Nazi occupation that clearly most fascinated Deighton, because he build a labyrinth of plots and counter-plots between Army, SS, British Resistance, and American isolationism. These internecine struggles are actually quite familiar from the actual history of Nazi occupations, so it’s quite fascinating to see them transplanted to a fictional Britain. It’s so well done that it’s a shame it isn’t part of a series (of which Deighton wrote several).

4/5. Finished Saturday 3 August, 2024.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)