Learning from Fiction - Millennium Trilogy - A brilliant Charity Store Find

The trilogy, written by the late Stieg Larsson, revolves around the fictional operations of a Swedish Publications house named (unsurprisingly) “Millennium”. For the sake of those who have not embarked on this reading journey, I will write only about the details I admire in the characters so that you may enjoy the storyline in your own time.

Of course, Millennium serves as the crucial vehicle for the interactions between the various characters. In many ways, Millennium serves as the backdrop to allow a work/personal relationship interaction between the characters Carl Mikael Blomkvist, Lisbeth Salander and Erika Berger. Throughout the trilogy, new characters enter at different stages to contribute their drama to the overarching story line.

In retrospective, I find Salander’s character very inspirational. Should you be fortunate enough to read the book without taking a sneak peak at the movie trailer, I would hope that you find her behaviour and characteristics to be worthy of noting down and applying to yourself. Of course, there are many elements of her character which I probably shouldn’t aspire to become, but general traits like her attentive and sharp mind is one which everyone should adopt.

Despite being written at the (disputably) dawn of this computer age, the novels feel surprisingly in touch with modern times. There are continual references to the dominance of Apple computing (albeit older specs) and a general aura that technology is being used appropriately to tackle many elements of life. Therefore, I am positively surprised at the timelessness of the writing. But what I wished to comment, was the awe inspiring methods in which Salander approaches computers. Her ability to hack is something I envy, because it seems she can accomplish so much by just installing “Asphexia” into all her enemy’s computers. In all honesty, the trilogy has made me aspire to become a better user of technology in order to leverage its’ power against greater forces beyond my control.

I found reading the Millennium Trilogy immensely satisfying. It’s a storyline which isn’t too far fetched to the point of “ridiculous”, whilst not being too mundane that I fall asleep. There were spikes which kept me alert and kept my eyes glued to the page. At times, it felt like the words naturally translated into movie action scenes in my mind, so in that sense, the trilogy is a highly entertaining book.

The trilogy sits into the “good entertainment” category perfectly. If you want to take your mind off serious books but not wanting to ditch reading altogether for a while, then The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who played with Fire and The Girl who Kicked Over the Hornet’s Nest are next up on your list.  

+ I found all three books across various Charity stores in London. Each sequel appeared at exactly the time when I finished the preceding one. It seems books have a certain compass in them which makes them steer towards you!

Chuathink's New Insights through Sam Walton's Made in America

    
    It’s been a personal habit to read books on successful people. Humans, as I see it, are creatures who can learn through the osmosis of ideas. We can become something through continued exposure to certain elements. Sam Walton, arguably the most successful entrepreneur of the 20^th century, is an idol worth holding in everyone’s minds. At the time of his death in 1992, he had a net worth of $65 billion which, even by today’s standards, is a sum way over all of our heads. I find that inspirational, particularly since he sits in a paradigm level far beyond the horizon I can see. Despite passing away the year before I was born, his thoughts and history can be transmitted through his paper time machine – Sam Walton – Made in America – to me, the young buck fighting his fears in life.

    It is a great story which I urge people to read. It describes a man who has been innovative, aggressive yet simultaneously humble throughout his life. It is surprising to learn that the first Wal-mart was not open until Walton was 27 – an age in modern times which seems old for an average future billionaire young buck. Yet, it shows that age is not a limiting factor in producing a great business. Rather, it’s the necessity of driving your ambitions to better serve the needs of people. Walton decided earlier on that he wanted to help the customer save money, which in turn would help his business prosper. That was it. The simplest of thoughts paved the way for Wal-mart’s incredible success. Yet the story didn’t start with complex models of store growth and expansion into new markets, rather, it was simply to buy in bulk and sell sell sell. Simplicity is the beauty of it all. Of course, complexity was inevitably added once the empire rolled into its’ growth stage but, by that time, Walton was more than capable of leveraging his business expertise to gain growth.

    In our noisy, information-filled metropolis world, books like this remind us of the importance of simplistic core values. More importantly, everyone must look at their core values and view them as the foundations for future growth. Much like building construction, if the foundations are shaky, then our future plans are going to be in jeopardy. For those who want to build something better, start by reading the book by a man who built a global empire.

Louis Litt in "Leveraged"

Season 4 has brought some fantastic tension to of the world’s most popular corporate show. In the latest episode, “Leveraged”, we see the relationship between Mike and his former peers stretch to breaking point.

More importantly, we’ve seen the softest side to Louis Litt since his debut in the pilot episode a few years back. “This is so unfair. I’m emotional, you’re cold. You’re loved, I’m hated” were the words which touched my heart as he confessed to Harvey about his grave mistake in accidently giving Mike an idea to attack Harvey.

Louis, played by Rick Hoffman, is the character I sympathise most with. I know he is a man with extraordinary talents yet he lacks the right packaging for him to succeed well amongst his equally capable peers. He exerts dominance over the associates as a way of establishing his persona authority in the firm to replace his inadequacy of controlling the higher echelons of Pearson Specter. Although he is fantastic, it’s a shame how his emotions are continually manipulated by Jessica so he is used as tool. To date, we know Louis is the most insecure character on set, yet this quality is exactly why we enjoy his presence on screen. With constant blabbering about the art of ballet, movie line quoting and the flashing of his shimmering teeth, it is no wonder why he is a side character who grabs screen attention time and again.

Through the series, I’ve grown to love Louis more and more and with each passing scene, I wait excitingly for his next involvement in the storyline. I’m also waiting for this tense storyline to pass over so Louis can revert back to his joking self and say the phrase “You’ve been Litt up” with a more mischievous tone in his voice. 

Moving on, Player

It would be nice if people’s name had a past tense. Whenever we talk about an ex, it seems perfectly logical to give them a term which crystallizes their personality traits at the time you knew them. Wouldn't that be nice? It would make conversation easier because we wouldn't have to worry about giving the impression we still think about them.

It’s disappointing to know that things didn't work out and we had to part ways. Yet, the heaviness of being tied down is replaced with the lightness of starting anew – the rebirth of oneself. I have more freedom to tackle the world with the mixed energy of hatred, love and passion driving me forward. Whatever it is you feel, I encourage you to channel that feeling into productive action. It’s time to build yourself into a stronger version of yourself with your experiences of the past. In this way, it is obvious to see why the past is heavily linked to the future. Move on, Player. 

BIGBANG - MONSTER

YG Entertainment and BIGBANG never fail to impress me, probably because it's the unique style they portray that incorporates the outrageous themes of the Eastern music world, combined with music that can be related to Western culture and it's music too. Upon knowing the release date of title track "MONSTER" I was eager to find out what kind of music would go with this cheesy, cliche word.

Listening to it with the music video is always the best way to edge oneself into a new song, because knowing it's from the Korean Pop world, the high budget videos are almost certainly the ideal complimentary eye candy to the music. BIGBANG did not disappoint, because there were crazy themes that, I'm sure, has raised the bars of the Korean music scene. Long gone is the image of bubble-pop, and with good riddance! But the 5 man band have replaced that image with cool, edgy and dare I use the word, 'modern'.

University or life?

Sometimes I get stuck in that momentary phase of ponder. I ask myself whether my decision to attend university was an act of self interest in education, or an indirect forced decision influenced by my school ethos and unknowing parents who believe in the industrial education system.

Looking at my interests, I know that my passion lies within the arts; most notably painting, sculpture making and spending vast amounts of time imitating singers with my piano. So my decision to undertake a management degree at London School of Economics seems quite daft, and so it is.

I remember asking people from my workplace about their thoughts on the future; more specifically about whether they were going to attend university. Their abrupt answer of 'no' startled me, because I come from an academic institution where education is all and end all. But now I feel like it definitely is a viable option, seeing as the greatest members of our society, Steve Jobs, Jay Chou, Bill Gates, are all either college drop-outs or didn't attend university at all. Maybe in life there's just a need to remain focused and feed your passion, I guess that is the most important way to guarantee success and fulfilment in everyone's future.

We often get trapped within a cycle of life that we took no part in deciding. Rushing our applications for university because that's what everyone else did, and selecting the best course that supposedly suited us, expecting to pick up the interest once there. But this is probably the worst decision of all, because we don't listen to our wants but rather obey the wants of others. I don't know where this rant is going, or if anyone will read it with great interest, nor will anyone reply with their opinions, but I hope at least someone will get a grasp on this subject of desperation to achieve something beyond the status quo.

Human Evolution

According to the theory of evolution only the fittest will survive, a conclusion drawn with reference to the centuries of animal evolution as well as man's growth itself.

But as a majority of the world's population draw nearer to the bright city lights, the more we follow the mediocre path of school and "careers", the more we lose the ability to truly survive if catastrophe occurs. The capitalist mindset we all share today will be the final doom for our race. Our desire for money and materialistic items drives us to succeed in specific areas of expertise, but the truth of the matter is we all work towards attaining higher wealth. When looking at this system, one can see human individuals (particularly those in cities) as only living money-making specimens. Do many of the young know how to cook? And even if we do, are we at all educated on producing the ingredients used in order to make our dishes?

But why bother if the supermarkets provide all this in cheap and convenient packages? It makes sense, because this exchange of money will only help us to save time on irrelevant duties like cooking, in order to make space for more money generating ideas and actions. What if one day, perhaps soon in the future, when the collapse of the oil trade leads to an exponential growth of food prices, are we as a human race going to cope? Will the knowledge of calculus or trigonometry help us in our survival, or are these tools which only render useful in our current luxurious lifestyles?