Shiok version 2.0 is our attempt to provide you with the complete fine-dining
experience. We have moved to a more visible location, and created a more upscale
atmosphere without going overboard on the decor. 

So please do visit and check out the new look. We even have a 15% discount at lunch from Monday to Saturday. And you can book your table online.

Here’s what the new place looks like:

We are now located on Koramangala Ring Road, right around the corner from
Airport Road. If you would like to get a map and driving directions, it’s all
on our web site. The full address is:

Shiok Far-eastern Cuisine
96, Amar Jyoti Layout
Koramangala Inner Ring Road
Domlur
Bangalore – 560 071
Phone: 6571 5555 / 6666 (changed from old number)

I’m excited about Moss,
our new laid-back cocktail lounge above Shiok. It’s much larger than our old
cocktail lounge, but still features the same great cocktails (and some new
ones!) at prices that won’t burn a hole in your pocket. (Yes, we have valet
parking.)

Here’s a sneak preview of Moss:

Other "coming soon" plans include:

• Theme nights including Ladies Night
• Home delivery
• Lunch buffets

We will introduce all of those as soon as we settle down in
the new place and get over all the usual new restaurant start-up issues.

(I know this blog has been dead for a while. Blame it on a Movable Type
upgrade that screwed up the publishing and left me unable to post on the blog.
The latest version, thankfully, has fixed that problem. Who knows, this site may
come alive again. Hey, if Obama can become the President of USA…

But apart from the "oh my gawd, we didn’t foresee the hordes of people
moving in" excuse, there are certain problems with the way infrastructure,
is  designed, that makes you wonder if we might indeed have better luck
entrusting the planning work to a large group of chimpanzees, banging away at
AutoCAD. For instance, at some places, you will find bus stops right after a
traffic light. At others, you will find them around corners. This doesn’t need
some genius-level IQ to figure out, for cryin’ out loud. Who in their right
minds can’t see that erecting a bus stop right after a damn traffic light
is a sure way to cause a traffic block? Couldn’t they move it, say, 200 metres
ahead?

Another thing that the planners don’t seem to understand is the concept of a
"bottleneck". You simply have to look at Old Madras Road, where the 4
lane road is being widened to 8 lanes. Oh, that’s a good thing, you think.
Except that it’s being widened only up to the point of a busy intersection, so
all that happens is that the bottleneck shifts to another point instead.

Let me illustrate this in some detail with the example of the Airport Road-Koramangala
flyover that’s being constructed. This fine piece of work (I almost choked while
writing that) was started in
February 2003 and was supposed to be finished the same year, but of course, all
kinds of bureaucratic problems (methinks somebody didn’t get a big enough share
of the "incidental expenses" pie) led to numerous delays and the first
phase is apparently ready for opening in a fortnight – 3 years later.

The purpose of the flyover is to alleviate the congestion on Airport Road
because the intersection of Koramangala Ring Road, Indiranagar 100 ft Road, and
Airport Road is where three major streams of traffic meet. And anything that can
ease traffic jams is good, right? Flyovers are supposed to help the smooth flow
of vehicles without the problems of having a traffic light, aren’t they? (Unless
you’re using the aforementioned Richmond Road flyover, of course.)

Well… not if you build them like the city of Bangalore does. When a
layperson like me stands in front of the flyover construction site, it’s
glaringly obvious that all the flyover will do is to shift the bottleneck to
another spot: the Indiranagar 100 ft Road.

Take a look at the diagram below. I have colour-coded the different streams.
Vehicles coming from Koramangala are green, the ones coming from Domlur are red,
and the ones going to Koramangala are purple.

The Indiranagar 100 ft Road is a 3-lane road both ways (and barely one at
that.) The flyover looks like it will have two lanes both ways. This wouldn’t be
so bad, except for the small problem that a bypass from the Domlur side of
Airport Road (marked by "Domlur turn" also ends at pretty much the
same spot. Airport Road is already a busy road, so traffic from there to the
Indiranagar side via the bypass will not be insignificant.

The result: you have four streams of traffic leading into a road
that’s only capable of handling three.

Well, what do you expect when this kind of situation occurs? Some stream will
get blocked. The diagram below shows exactly where traffic will rapidly get
choked (shown in grey.)

Hmmm, that’s not good at all. Vehicles that are supposed to
move fast over the flyover will slow down considerably, thanks to the choke at the end
of it.

But wait, wait! There’s more. Observant readers may have noticed that
just 30 freakin’ metres away from the termination of the flyover, there’s
a right turn. So you have vehicles coming from the Indiranagar side, wanting to
turn right, and trying to negotiate their way into the right turn, not through
speeding vehicles from the flyover, but through the traffic jam I described
above. Take a look at the new scenario below. Vehicles turning right have been
coloured blue.

If this is what happens, and keeping in mind the legendary Bangalorean
driver’s consideration for other drivers (cough, cough), the jam will go from bad to worse (see the
expanding grey.)

Ironic, isn’t it, that a flyover designed to make traffic flow faster will do
nothing of the sort? All because some dolts didn’t realise that making four-lane
traffic flow into three lanes creates a choke point.

Let’s take a look at some of the possible options to work around this problem
and figure out how viable they will be.

Option 1) Put a traffic light at the right turn so the blue vehicles can turn
without running into an existing jam. Unfortunately, this is what will happen:

Yes, if you make flyover traffic wait even 30 seconds for a green light, you’ll have traffic piling up on the darn flyover itself. Oh, and on the
Domlur bypass too. What fun, eh?

Option 2) Seal off the right turn so the congestion is eased. This may help a
bit, but at peak time, say 6-7 PM, when traffic doubles or triples, you will see
the heightened effect of four lanes flowing into three. Here’s what you’ll get:

You now get two congestion zones instead of one. Worse, you risk the Domlur
bypass pile-up to propagate on to the main airport road itself, and that just
puts us back at square zero.

Lastly, after all this, I guess I should point out that the numerous traffic
light stops and intersections on 100 ft. Road will make it difficult for fast streams of traffic
to progress, with the result that the entire 2 Km stretch will be perpetually
jammed like Cunningham Road currently is. That is the domino effect, amigos.

Suddenly those chimpanzees using AutoCAD seem like a better proposition,
don’t they?

I am no road planner, but as someone who’s done a wee bit of programming in
the past, I have some understanding of bottlenecks and scalability. The
Koramangala-Indiranagar flyover looks like a disaster waiting to happen when
it’s thrown open to the public on July 15. It’s a pity that spending millions of
rupees wasn’t enough to get someone half-sensible to design the darn thing well.

(I hope to start a small series soon on how traffic jams are caused in
Bangalore. This will hopefully bring me out of my blog drought, caused by life
giving me a hard time from all corners lately.)

Update: It seems the stupid politicans have already started damaging the flyover

Move over call centres and data processing BPOs. The future of outsourcing
belongs to another industry, if Indian Minister for Commerce, Kamal Nath, is to be
believed. According to Nath, the next new wave of growth in the Indian economy
will come from – believe it or not – the protest industry, now being referred to
as SPO – Strong Protest Outsourcing.

Speaking at a news conference in New Delhi, Kamal Nath briefed reporters that
he sees major business opportunities in getting Western countries to outsource
their protests to India. Nath said, "the outsourcing business is about
saving costs and increasing efficiency. Why should people in countries like USA
and UK waste their time protesting over various issues? The per-capita income is
too high to waste time on being offended. Instead, they can simply outsource
this activity to Indian companies." Asked whether Indian companies were
globally competitive in this market, Nath confidently added, "Can you think
of any country better suited for this business? India is a diverse country with
people of many faiths and beliefs. We have a rich history of being offended at
every little thing, from western expressions of love like Valentine’s Day to
what someone names their dogs. I am certain that we can be the dominant player
in this market in the next five years."

After the press conference, Kamal Nath granted MadMan’s Web an exclusive
freewheeling interview in which he talked at length about this new business
opportunity, India’s competence in this area, and the government’s special
initiatives to foster growth in the industry.

MadMan’s Web: Mr. Nath, thank you for giving us this chance to
interview you.

Kamal Nath: My pleasure. This is the Internet age, and blogs are fast
becoming a powerful medium of disseminating information.

MW: Mr. Nath, could you please tell us a little more about this new
opportunity for India?

KN: The world is far from a peaceful place. Every day, there are
protests in Europe and North America over several issues. Part of being
democratic countries is allowing people the right to protest against what they
think is wrong. But protests also waste productivity. When  people are
protesting, they are not contributing to the economy of their nations. So
instead of protesting themselves, they can simply outsource their outrage to
Indian companies that will specialise in this area. They can then go about their
daily lives, confident that their protests are in safe hands.

MW: Why are you so convinced that Indians are the best suited for this
activity?

KN: Of course we are the best! First of all, Indians have been
offended at pretty much everything over the years. If you’ve written a book
that’s even slightly controversial, there are sections that want it banned. If
you make a movie that tackles bold themes, you can expect howls of protest about
how it’s corrupting impressionable young minds. If you wear a female tennis
outfit just like everyone else in the tennis world, somebody will be quick to
point out how you are no longer a good member of your community. So let me
assure you, no matter what the subject of the protest is, we Indians are capable
of delivering a strong protest. Our service standards are world-class and
globally competitive. When it comes to protesting, we are the epitome of "unity in
diversity"! With our wide range of religions, beliefs, and
castes, we are champions at being offended and having our sentiments hurt.

MW: How did this great business idea strike you?

KN: If you remember, we have been making a strong push for India as
the next global economic superpower at forums such as the World Economic Forum
at Davos. Recently, when I was following the fall-out of the controversial
Danish cartoons, I was stunned to observe how competent our fellow countrymen
were at protesting over cartoons that they had not even seen. If our
people are so skilled, can you imagine how good they can be at tackling
well-known global issues?

MW: How will you convince foreign countries that there is a serious
cost-saving in outsourcing their protests to India?

KN: This is simple. In fact, I had an opportunity to discuss this with
US President George W Bush on his recent visit to India. If you want hard
numbers, consider this: The per-capita income of USA is $40,100 per year. The
per-capita income of India is just $530 per year. Is there really any reason for
an American citizen to fritter away so much money protesting issues like
teaching evolution in schools and allowing gay people to marry? Why not simply
let us Indians handle that instead? While the Americans save money by working,
we will do the protesting for them. We can carry placards, go on hunger strikes,
block traffic for hours, and even torch buses and break shop windows if
required.

MW: Can you give us a couple of examples what kind of issues could be
outsourced?

KN: Sure. For example, we can protest gay marriage if the Americans
want us to. We have laws criminalising homosexuality, so it’s a walk in the
park. The Bush administration wants to promote abstinence in USA, but why spend
dollars on that? We have long been looking down at people having sex before
marriage, and we even protested when a well-known actress said it was ok. We
have proven competence in these things already.

MW: Do you really believe that SPO (Strong Protest Outsourcing) can be
bigger than the regular BPO industry already in place?

KN:  Definitely! The youth of India are in need of employment.
BPO, while it has provided employment to many, also has to deal with two big
problems: training and attrition. Employees need quite a bit of training to
handle their jobs, and many of them keep switching jobs, leaving companies
helpless. But look at SPO – it has absolutely no training needs. Unemployed
people can be recruited by the hundreds of thousands, given some basic
instructions on how to protest, and then unleashed to do their jobs. As for
attrition, it doesn’t matter in the least if some protestors quit. There are
thousands more that can take their place. This industry could potentially solve
India’s unemployment problem. There are thousands of issues available globally
where the protests can be outsourced.

MW:  What steps is the government taking to encourage companies
to handle protest outsourcing projects?

KN: The government is going full steam ahead on this. A committee,
headed by Ravi Ali Joseph Singh, has been formed to identify volatile issues all
over Europe and North America. Ravi Ali Joseph Singh is a veteran government
official who belongs to four major religions and has suffered almost his entire
life being offended by insults to his religions in this country. We believe he
is best suited for this new foray. We will constantly keep the press informed of
the developments in this matter. Meanwhile, if budding entrepreneurs want to
explore this new opportunity, we encourage them to contact the Ministry of
Industry in New Delhi and we will provide all the guidance we can.

MW: Mr. Kamal Nath, thank you very much for your time.

KN: Thank you.

1) What are the main reasons that provoked you to make a career transition
from being a software engineer to a hotelier?

I have been passionate about cooking since I was 13. I chose to go with IT as a
career, but by my mid-twenties, I had decided that in another 10 years, I would
have my own restaurant. So it was more about moving the plans forward by a few
years. I chose to do this because I was 27, single, and thought I could take
more risks now than if I were, say 35. Also, the IT industry was going through
its bust phase a few years ago, and companies were doing crazy things, including
laying off lots of people. I decided that it was the right time to move.

2) What emotions did you go through while making a major career leap?
Weren’t you a little skeptical of abandoning the career you did for so many
years for something very new?

It definitely wasn’t an easy decision to make, and I’m not the impulsive type at
all. But several of my friends said I should give it a shot. Once I started
considering it seriously, I thought about it for a whole month to make sure it
wasn’t just a passing fad. After I made a firm decision, I experienced anxiety
and apprehension about a whole new future, but there was also some exhilaration
about doing something I was so passionate about.

3) Did you go through the following emotions while you were considering a
shift from software:

— "I’m sure there’s something else I’d like to do. I’m just not
sure what it is." If yes, how did you cope with it?

Not really. I am a down-to-earth fellow, and I prefer to deal with things I
know, than worry about some ideal career that hasn’t occurred to me yet. That
million-dollar idea may strike me one day still, but I’m not going to put
everything else on hold waiting for it. I prefer to instead keep my eyes open
for opportunities in the future instead.

— "I know what I want to do, but I don’t know how to make money doing
it." Too many of us want a certain career but hold back because we don’t
think we can make a living at it. Did you think the same as well?

Well… many of us have lists of things we’d like to do if that pesky matter of
earning a living weren’t an issue. I would have liked to do several things, like
being a cartoon voiceover artist (not much scope in India for English cartoon
voiceover work), start a no-nonsense advertising agency (not practical), start a
product-based software company (couldn’t think of any product ideas at the
time)… a few more. But I ruled them out one by one. Idealism and optimism are
wonderful things, but they must be tempered with pragmatism.

— "I dislike the job I have, but I’m not ready to give it up.” If
yes, how did you cope with it?

No. I liked what I was doing. I still miss it sometimes.

4) What were the major obstacles (consequential or inconsequential) you were
confronted with when you decided to shift from one career track to the other?

The biggest obstacle was my lack of experience in the restaurant business. I
only knew that I had a good product, and that was because I had confidence in my
own cooking abilities. Beyond that, there was a world of things to learn about
running a restaurant itself. But even before that, I was confronted with the
arduous task of designing and actually setting up a new restaurant in an empty
commercial space. It certainly wasn’t easy, and two years later, I find myself
still learning things. Dealing with various government agencies, bureaucracy,
corruption, and the tons of paperwork was another learning experience.

I think one  of the best decisions I made was to hire an experienced and
knowledgeable person as my manager. I firmly believe that one must do the things
one is best at, and leave specialised duties to the specialists.

5) On a very technical note, what checklist should one follow before making a
drastic decision to change career paths?

It depends on whether you plan to be an entrepreneur or get a salaried job in
another industry. The latter option is a lot safer because you don’t have to
deal with so much change all at the same time. But a few essential things to
ponder are:

1. Do you truly want to switch? Perhaps you’re simply not in the right
   position, the right company, or both. If so, shifting to a new job in a new
   company might be a less risky option.
2. Are you sure you’re fit for the new profession? Doing something just
   because everyone else is doing it is not a good idea, not only because you
   may not succeed, but also because you may be late to cash in on a fad. Being
   good at a business requires that you either know your trade very well, or
   have the ability to spot a business opportunity and then hire the best
   people to run it for you. Some people are great at getting work done, but
   it’s not for everyone. Do your homework diligently. Make a proper business
   plan with numbers and chart out the most pessimistic scenario.
3. Are you willing to take the risk? A new business will not start making
   money for a while. Can you handle not having a stable source of income? Do
   you have a wife, kids, or family to feed? Do you have a backup plan if your
   venture fails? (And some ventures always will. It’s the circle of life.) If
   you’re not starting your own business and getting a job in a new industry,
   you might have to take a pay cut because you’re not joining on the same
   level. Are you ready for that? Will the reward be worth it?
4. Do you have spare money to keep you going in the bad times? You should
   have at least six months of salary available for living expenses, preferably
   ten.
5. Do you see yourself doing this for the next twenty years? If that thought
   makes you pause for more than 30 seconds, consider whether it’s really a
   good long-term decision.

6) After so many years, what is that one thing you miss about being in
software? Do you have any regrets?

I was quite passionate about my former career too, and I do miss it on days when
I’m feeling low or business has not been good. But life is full of trade-offs.
There is no way I would have been able to manage two careers simultaneously, and
I had to make a choice. I made it. I guess the biggest thing I miss about
software is having peers to talk to, socialise, and exchange views with. In my
current job, I’m the big boss, and the people I manage are mostly of a different
background than my own. I don’t have any colleagues with whom I can go out and
enjoy a weekend. Heck, my job doesn’t allow me the luxury of weekends. When
other people are out enjoying themselves, we in the restaurant business are
working the hardest. My day off is on a Monday, when everyone else is starting
their work week. I also miss having a regular paycheck every month. Like I said
earlier, life is full of compromises.

7) After the career shift, how did you evolve not just as a successful
professional but also as a human being?

I have learned a few skills that I might otherwise not otherwise have picked
up. I work in a business with a very low tolerance for errors, and where the
word "deadline" means "in the next 5 minutes", not in the
next five weeks. It has taught me some unbelievable project management skills.
Work in a busy restaurant on a weekend, and you will truly learn what it means
to make resource management decisions in seconds without using an Excel
spreadsheet. You will learn how to best allocate resources when you have ten
tasks and only enough manpower to complete two in the next ten minutes.

Apart from that, I now feel the responsibility of being responsible for the
livelihood of 28 people, most of whom aren’t that rich. They depend on me to
help feed their families, and that is an enormous responsibility. I follow the
management principle of "speak softly and carry a big stick" – tough
but fair.

Lastly, I have picked up a completely new set of people skills. As a fine dining
restaurant owner, I face thousands of people in a month, and they come with
varying temperaments and moods. I have to be polite and courteous to everyone
who walks through my door, even when they get upset, and even if technically
it’s not our fault at all. Making sure everyone leaves happier when they walk
out the door is a tough task, but it’s a challenge, and when they do, it is very
rewarding.

I get the chance to put a smile on people’s faces, and it makes it all
worthwhile.

8) What advice will you give to people who want to chase their dreams of
pursuing their dream career but are little skeptical to do so?

I would advise them to persist with their skepticism. Yes, seriously. It is good
to dream, but not to day-dream. You need hope, but not delusion. That said, you
should realise that to boldly go where no one has gone before (please pardon my
Star Trek geek cliche) does indeed require a leap of faith and a hope for a
market that may not even exist yet (certainly true in my case.) Just be sure
that your decision is an informed one and based on solid research, not solely on
an impulsive moment. We have to deal with the constraints of the world we live
in, and one of those is earning a livelihood.

9) To sum it up, how would you describe your journey from one career path
to the other?

Disruptive, painful, anxiety-laden, thrilling, scary, and yet oh so satisfying
too. It’s a cocktail of emotions. If you’re not ready for the tumultuous nature
of the career shift roller coaster, you shouldn’t go along for the ride.

Karnataka Chief Minister Dharam Singh today lashed out at the media for
harping incessantly about the poor infrastructure in Bangalore. Singh said that
the media should paint a more balanced picture and not stress only the negative
aspects of the city.

"If you believe only what you read in the papers, you will think that
people are only getting stuck in traffic jams every day. Why does nobody talk
about the reasoning behind the our potholed roads?", asked the furious
Chief Minister at a press conference today. When asked to explain, Singh said
that thanks to the potholed roads and impoverished infrastructure of the capital
city, many human lives had been saved. Referring to the recently
released statistics that death from road accidents had gone down by 12% from 903 to
791, Singh gave credit to the poor roads and constant traffic jams in city. "You media people should put more value on human lives.
Earlier, people used to get hit by speeding vehicles. Thanks to our roads, we
have eliminated the possibility of reckless driving. Tell me, how can you hit an
innocent pedestrian or another vehicle when you’re driving on potholed roads at
20 Km/hour or if you’re caught in a traffic jam on Airport Road?", said the
CM.

Dharam Singh added that apart from the fewer accidents, inferior roads were
also an important part of stimulating the state economy because they generated
valuable jobs for the poor. He earnestly requested the middle class and
upper-middle class citizens to spare a thought for the numerous labourers and
construction workers who made their living from jobs generated by the road
repair and maintenance contracts that are being issued every year. "It is
easy for the people driving their expensive cars to complain about the state of
the roads. I ask these people to put themselves in the shoes of the poor person
who works on tarring roads. These people live a hand-to-mouth existence. If
there are no roads to repair, how will they feed their families?", asked
Singh.

The CM said he would recommend the Bangalore infrastructure model to other
states as well. He said that like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he too believed
in infrastructure reforms "with a human face". "Like it or not,
bad infrastructure saves lives", he concluded.

Or might there be one?
Could there be something so bewildering, so mind-blowingly improbable, that the brilliant mind of Mr. Pinto couldn’t have considered? For instance, could it be possible that I had a blog without my own domain at http://madman.weblogs.com that actually goes back many years? Heck, it might even be possible that I moved to my own domain after a while. But wait, Mr. Pinto might point out that http://madman.weblogs.com doesn’t exist any more! (Even though it now redirects to this site.) Unless of course Dave Winer shut down his service. And maybe, just maybe my article on junking mission statements was – gasp! – actually written on March 25, 2001 (scroll down). Or my article on getting rid of income taxes perhaps? Or the one on principles of my company (scroll again)? How could it be possible that my article on useful 404 error pages gets comments many years later (Mr. Pinto should be rightfully aghast at that) when it is only #1 on a Google search for “useful 404 pages” and other similar searches? Not even having the article published on a major web development site can be convincing enough, I say. Bloody hell, that article dates back to the year 2000! How it could migrate to a domain registered only in 2003 remains a mystery on par with the origins of Dark Matter in the universe. Therefore, I do not blame Mr. Pinto one bit for concluding I’m a cheat. Argumentum ad ignorantiam is certainly a valid way to prove something.
Oh no! You mean it could actually be true that I wrote these in the same year that I actually claim to have written them? That I actually did start a blog in October 2000? But my domain was only registered in 2003, so how did these articles get there by magic, Mr. Pinto would demand to know. I’ll admit: I’ve been using this top secret experimental technology that hasn’t been approved for use by you regular folks. It’s tentatively called “copy and paste” until we can find a catchy name for it. (I’m pitching for “Windows Reproduze ™”.) I hope I don’t lose my research grant for leaking details about this technology that allows me to copy text from one file and paste it anywhere else I please. The patent royalties itself could run into millions of dollars.
Perhaps you think the evidence I’ve provided is feeble and Mr. Pinto is right in asking “Blogging or cheating?”. You should all punish me for the cheat I have been exposed to be. Google bomb the heck away. And after you’ve done that, please head on over to Mr. Pinto’s site and tell him you’ve done so. Justice must be served!
(Lastly, there is also the more puzzling mystery of whether I’m the chef or the owner of Shiok or just pretending to be either. How could one person be both, eh? That’s just not possible.)
I’ll end the way Mr. Pinto begins his piece – with a quote from my father: “It is better to shut your mouth and be considered a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt.”
Years later, I found out my father actually got that quote from somewhere else. Darn it, being a fraud runs in my family. I can’t help it.

Here we go then…

Total Number of Books I Own: Like Yazad, I never counted. I estimate
several hundred (at least 700 or so). I got them insured for Rs. 50000 which is
much lower than what they’re worth. The collection also grows faster than I can read
them, so I have about 20 books still to be read. 

Last Book I Bought: I spent many hours at bookshops in Singapore
during my last trip a couple of months back (when I
wasn’t eating, that is), and the last book I bought was a double
volume of Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen
Confidential and A
Cook’s Tour.

Last Book I Read: Why
Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps: How We’re Different and What to Do
About It. I borrowed this from a friend because the title got me
curious. (I’m always curious about books on human behaviour.) It turned out to
be mostly crap and I read only 3/4 of it. Does that count? If not, the last book
I read completely was Frederick Forsyth’s Avenger.
It was entertaining but set off my "bullshit meter" far too often.

Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me: I can’t possibly restrict it to
five, but those are the rules, so let’s give it a shot.

On
Writing Well by William Zinsser: This book is invaluable to people who
want to be better writers. When you read it, you will realise how much more you
could be. I owe much of my penchant for simplicity and clarity to this man. It’s
affordable, so you should buy a copy too.

The
Design of Everyday Things: If you think I bitch too much, you can partly
blame this book. It opened my eyes to the world of design, and showed how poor
design is responsible for product screw-ups. If you’ve wondered why people push
a door when it’s clearly marked "Pull", this book will tell you. (And
it’s a design problem, not a user problem.)

Peopleware:
Productive Projects and Teams: Every person who manages a team of
professionals in the IT business should have a copy of this book, and even if
you’re not in IT, a large part of the management advice in this book
will still be useful to you. Stuff like how overtime doesn’t help in the long
run, or how motivational posters actually have the opposite effect… here, read
the sample chapter online. 

Influence:
The Psychology of Persuasion: Robert Cialdini has written a wonderful
book on how we are manipulated by other people all the time. He describes these
"weapons of influence", why they work, and how to protect yourself
from them.

It
Rains Fishes: Legends, Traditions and the Joys of Thai Cooking: Believe
it or not, this book has only 30 recipes, but its value lies in the detailed way
the author explains the principles of cooking and combining flavours. I’m a
strong believer in teaching people how to cook rather than teaching them
just recipes, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Read her pieces on balancing
flavours, making curry
pastes, and cooking to
taste rather than blindly following recipes. This book closely competed with
the far more formidable tome on Chinese cooking, The
Modern Art of Chinese Cooking by Barbara Tropp. So why did It Rains
Fishes win? Because Tropp’s book is not in the least for the casual cook. It
can be intimidating reading it if you’re a novice, but a great learning
experience if you’re not (and I wasn’t.)

Tag five people and have them do this on their blogs

Is there anyone out there who hasn’t been tagged yet? People like Yazad have
tossed their nets out to catch everyone. After much cross-checking, here are my
picks:

The Raving Atheist

Shanti Mangala

Sandeep

Jace

Anita Bora