Thought Dominion

A decent corporate thriller. The author sure knows how to storytell.  To recap, this book narrates the history of Yahoo, its meteoric rise and steady decline, the efforts and decisions in trying to save it. Anyway, I enjoyed the book. It gave me a lot of insight into how Silicon Valley's elite think and interact, corporate management at the highest levels, and how a successful company can either adapt and succeed again, or fail in a rapidly changing industry. I think I'm one step closer to becoming a CEO myself (hahaha). If you're even slightly interested in business and technology, I'd recommend giving this book a try. But when reading this, one has to be careful not to overly sympathize with the characters in the story. No matter what troubles they went through, these are still the richest people in the world, the top 0.1%. Mayer herself enjoys throwing lavish parties and pouring money into looking good, despite her hands-on attitude at work. So like

I bought 7 books from an annual book fair called Big Bad Wolf. Hence the title. Three of them are fiction. Four are not. This post will summarize each of these books and why I selected them. Starting from my fiction basket: 1. A Strangeness in my mind - Orhan Pamuk I bought this for the author: Orhan Pamuk is a legend in modern Turkish literature. The guy is a master at weaving stories imbued with Turkish culture. Unfortunately my Turkish was never enough to properly enjoy Turkish-language literature. But an English translation is a different story (pun intended). Given my five years in that beautiful country, I believe this novel will be particularly appealing for me to read. 2. Half World - Hiromi Goto Bought this for the cover. And the outline. A young girl spirited away to a strange world? Sounds like a certain box office hit anime film. I'm expecting a kaleidoscope of settings, a Louvre gallery of characters, and a meteor show

Is Islam a destroyer of love, a noose of feelings, an extinguisher of romance? Dead wrong. Islam is a channel that directs the river of romance into a vibrant ocean. In fact, Islam commands that married couples prioritize each other and their relationship above almost everything including their children. Seriously, even just holding hands and feeding each other are rewarded. I have consumed quite a bit of manga and anime, and thus (unfortunately) have been exposed to romance and love themes more than a Muslim should be. But it has also allowed me to ponder how the "mainstream" version of love compares to the love Islam endorses. Indeed, even within fiction I am skeptical of relationships based primarily on physical and worldly external attributes. "Isn't she cute, I'd like to date her". "He's a star football player, I'd love to become his girlfriend". Cuteness and athleticism will lose their appeal after a short while, particula

A university student has just finished all his courses.  But before he could  take his  diploma, the university asks him to return his student card. Is it unfair this student has to give back his student card? Even though he did nothing wrong?  Of course it's fair. Firstly, the card always belonged to the university, who only lent the student the card for his student period. So of course the university can take it back when he graduates.  The same applies to all blessings. We don't actually have what we have. They all belong to Allah. وَمَا بِكُم مِّن نِّعْمَةٍ فَمِنَ اللّهِ   (And whatever you have of blessings/favor, is from Allah) So when the Owner takes back what He Owns, we need to accept and allow Him to take it back. Aka إخلاص. We have no right to complain. But remember, Allah is Al-Hakim, al-Alim. The Most Wise, the all-Knowing. And Allah is Al-Rahman, Al-Rahim. Allah is very, very kind to us, despite our sins and mistakes. He loves to give. So when