A book about Rubin's upbringing and professional experience in banking and politics.TakeawayNothing is for sure. Life is more about odds, choices, and trade-offs. There is no definitive answer. One would be better off focusing on building good process for decision making than judging solely on the outcome because bad decisions can produce good result due to randomness or luck. Conversely, good decisions can produce bad result and one should expect losses as part of the business. Risk taking is unavoidable in life. Think analytically and probabilistically in a mental decision tree. And the only way to refine our odds is through better knowledge and deeper understanding.Things I enjoyedo The Powell Doctrine: use overwhelming force in military intervention to secure certainty of resulto Write things down: Rubin often carried a legal pad to keep notes and wrote his analysis down. This is a good practice to keep track of things and hone one's thinking. He said often when a point of clarity is reached, a correct answer would present itself.o A Way of Life by William Osler: deal with fear of failure by living life in "day-tight compartments"o Rubin also handled stress and uncertainty by thinking of a failsafe fallback position.o He also tried to adopt the right frame of mind by focusing on the job in hand instead of worry about the outcome. i.e. mindfulness of present momento His philosophy teacher Demos taught: not only to understand the logic of an analysis, but to find the point at which the edifica rested on hypothesis, assumption, or belief.o Always be skeptical. Never take propositions at face value.o Find fulfillment within oneself instead of searching outsideo The importance of being sincere: Gus vs. Clintono Clinton has unusual listening skill: he made the person not just heard but understood with great sincerityo Alan Greenspan a master in Q&Ao Even a trader as good as Rubin has no ability in knowing where the market will go short term. The only rational way to profit is to invest based on long term prospect. Example: he felt the market was too high years before the Internet Bubble.o Company performance is judged by short-term result. This is not ideal but net benefit still over downside because it can avoid longterm cheaters. (I think just like democracy not ideal but can avoid dictators)o Free trades forces America to become more competitive.o Overreaction is part of human nature.o Take profit while the market is good because market sentiment can change very quickly.
Great book and a unique perspective (a wall streets risk arbitrager and secretary of the treasury - Robert Rubin). He applies his free market mentality to some of the most pressing international and domestic economic issues. Similar to the World is Flat or the Lexus and the Olive Tree (with a stronger economic bend), but told by someone with more expertise and experience"The best social program is a strong economy"-Bill Clinton" A change-oriented culture has been central to America success and will be critical to its future economic progress"
I appear to have quite a different opinion of this book to most of the other reviewers on Goodreads. As much as Robert Rubin may have accomplished both in the private and public sector, he is simply not good at writing or storytelling or indeed at providing insights into how he solves problems and makes decisions, the emotional and intellectual conflicts one faces or any astute observations of what other people might be going through.The book reads like "I applied to Harvard and then I went there and then I met president Clinton, and he was nice and smart, and then I met my amazing wife and she told me that...and so I...". Much in the style of a speech a 6-year-old might give when under pressure to give a summary of their life (except that Rubin has met high powered people and worked in influential positions).On the other hand, I thought that the descriptions of economic scenarios were actually plainly written and not hard to follow at all. Boring, like the rest of the book, but easy to follow.It could have been so much more had he just given a glimpse into thought processes, the political manoeuvring, any personal interests and jostling that may have impacted decisions, irrationalities in assessing situations...anything really that might show the greater depth of analysis that he is very likely to be capable of.
—Andrea James
Rubin has the most humble and sincere narrative. As an introvert myself, I immensely resonate with a lot of his view points and decisions. The first three chapters of this book offer a lot of genuine advice to intellectually driven yet professionally aspiring people. However, while that kind of narrative is refreshing for the first 100 pages, it gets tiring as one reads on. After all, most people buy this book to gain insights of what happened in the boom and bust of the 90s to 00s, not a prolonged self-analysis on strengths and weaknesses. I actually could not finish the book, as it drags on and on about who did this and who said that, but it always misses the key points of the stories. I think this book should not be read as a history recount, but an unrefined diary that aims at an audience comprised of only Rubin himself.
—Forsythbb
