Saturday, June 06, 2009

"The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman has a pretty good "what if?" scenario to explore. What will happen to the planet if all the human beings suddenly vanished one day..? The author had originally written an article in Harper Magazine as to how nature rushed in to fill the void when human beings abandoned Chernobyl after the disaster. That led an editor to ask him this what if question that in turn led to this book.

He has looked at the question quite thoroughly from several different points of view. Initially he talks about how modern suburban homes will start disintegrating and how long what parts will last. For example, nails (used in the exterior structure) getting corroded due to rain will start allowing water to seep in triggering the deterioration, followed by roofs collapsing, destroying most of the house within 25 to 50 years while ceramic tiles in the bathrooms may last several thousand years. Then he discusses Manhattan subway system that uses 750+ pumps to keep pumping water out 24x7 but for which the subway tunnels will be flooded. If the pumps stop even for 4, 5 hours water will start covering the tracks. If the pumps are off for 36 hours, it could potentially fill the tunnels. In few days, whole tunnel will be certainly under water..! It is amazing that this subway system was conceived and constructed 100 years back with this much of perpetual maintenance designed in as a requirement to just keep it dry. He estimates that within 20 years most of it will look like a river grid.

He then analyzes how without maintenance Manhattan office buildings will start to fall down (in about 50 years), how long major monuments such as Liberty Statue (several decades), Eiffel Tower (few decades), the likeness of Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore (7.2 million years but for earth quakes), etc. will last before they collapse. Then there are interesting case studies of places like the DMZ between North and South Korea (where due to absence of human beings, several plants and small animals that could not thrive before are found in abundance now), parts of Cypress that were abandoned by people in a rush due to war between Turkey and Cypress (where you can see plates on dining tables still in place since people who fled didn't have time to close things down properly). Discussions about how nuclear power plants that were left running will start exploding, how Panama canal that is artificially kept open by endless maintenance will cease to exist, polymers that will stay on for millenniums being eaten by micro organisms in the sea to their own detriment are fascinating.

Overall, though the question is very intriguing and the various points of view from which he has presented the material are wide ranging and comprehensive, the narration is not gripping. I was left with a general sense that earth will go back to the way it was before human beings showed up. That much is easily understood even without reading this book. Towards the end book gets into the importance of being green and caring for the planet. It explains how people need to understand that Earth will be fine with or without us; but we will be screwed if we don't behave and so, we shouldn't think that we are saving earth but are only trying to preserve ourselves. Nevertheless, in the end the book still leaves you with the feeling that while individual data points are fascinating, the overarching presentation is weak. So, if you haven't read it yet, you don't have to rush out and get a copy. :-)

TV channels like National Geographic & History have developed documentaries based on this book. Even couple of those episodes I watched left me with the same feeling. They might be good for children and teenagers.

Got this book via Swaptree.com. Will put it back in circulation seeking my next book in exchange.

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Read "High Output Management" by Andrew S. Grove few months back. As one of my friend said, this 30 year old book has aged well. Andy Grove is the famed ex-CEO of Intel. He has captured the fundamental management practices of running a company very well. He starts out with an extremely simple example of running a breakfast diner and builds it up nicely to discuss production, inventory management, capital purchase, P&L and so forth. While the material presented is very easily accessible, contents are not trivial. This combination makes it a nice piece of work.

He has discussed compensation systems, performance review procedures and processes, meetings and other nuts and bolts that are all mandatory in real world offices. Principles and ideas explained are nothing esoteric but are the ones we could put to use right away. It's easy to read style makes it quite informative and thought provoking to anyone trying to get a better understanding of management process in the industry. Recently read a Business Week article that had his interview included. He was complaining about how present day Silicon Valley is too short term focused. He was expressing his worry that lack of long term focus will block revolutionary, disruptive technological improvements from being realized. Got to see if Silicon Valley in particular and U.S. as a whole wakes up in my life time.

-sundar.