Category Archives: Books

The Extra 2%

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A new book by JONAH KERI.

With foreword by Mark Cuban.

The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First.

It is 253 pages and a fast read.

In summary of book:

Difference between success and failure is quite small in pro sports. Every little thing matters. Book focuses on MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays.

Be bad – draft high. Draft well. Retain best of best. Use analytics to figure out value; sign young players to long term deals to retain value; build around young core; use technology to metric as much as you can; be clinical in honest reviews of players productivity; make sure no stereo effect of coaching to young players; and get all coaches in all systems to speak with one voice as to systems, development, goals and ways to improve. Don’t confuse young athletes with too many voices and systems. Don’t always believe the outside experts. Did you know Albert Pujols was drafted in the 13th round? Be nice and communicate to fans often as an owner.

Thank you.

I still await the book from an author on How I Will Win a Championship…

All these books are always about “how they won a championship” and they seem so obvious in hindsight.

Great and Important Book

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“More Than Good Intentions.”

How a new economics is helping to solve global poverty.

There is lots of important work being done in economic research and financial theory on how to help 1.5 billion people around the world escape poverty. MIT has created a lab – The Poverty Action Lab – led by Esther Duflo that is churning out fantastic research and real world solutions to our planet’s single biggest problem.

It is truly amazing that there are 2.0 billion people connected to the Internet and 1.5 billion people living in poverty. A planet of haves and have nots. This book is really fantastic. It is not sentimental. It is real world and offers some counterintuitive solutions. You will find this book a great read.

A Good Book

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Scorecasting by Tobias J. Moscowitz and L. Jon Wertheim.

It adds to the body of analytics and what drives success in sports and why some teams win and some teams don’t.

I find these books to be a good read with great detail and stats. The thing that I am always surprised about is how these stats never take into account health, injuries, bad or wrong officiating calls and basic luck.

Random things that shape big games at times. That is the wonder of sports.

You will enjoy this book. I am.

I Just Started to Read This Book

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It is a simple and good read. It discusses next generation media creation; how to sift through the good from the bad; and why it is liberating to have the steering wheel in your hands. Curation Nation by Steven Rosenbaum, a filmmaker, author and big thinker. You will get a lot out of this book. Click here to order it from Amazon.com. Thank you.

Alone Together

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This is a fantastic article.

This is what I was feeling and what generated my blog post around New Year’s Day on “New Ways of Working Together.”

Sherry Turkle is a great thinker in this space. I once brought her into AOL back in 1994 to speak to our folks about community, communications, privacy and new media. I remember her speech was riveting!

This book will be considered seminal work in this space, I am sure. “Little drops of dopamine every time we make a connection.” I love that concept. I talked about it all in my book The Business of Happiness as well. Let us all hear what Sherry has to say. Buy the book and read it in a physical format, too. For old time’s sake…