(Courtesy of Henry Manampiring)

One of the most well-known accounts in the Indonesian twitterverse is @Newsplatter, which belongs to public relations practitioner and writer Henry Manampiring.

People often mistake Henry’s account as a news portal account due to its name, but once they follow it, they will find Henry’s pleasant and playful personality fills their timelines.

With around 93,000 followers, Henry also loves to engage his followers with some just-for-fun personal projects that are based on his professional proficiencies as a public relations practitioner.

One example was his 2010 national survey for Indonesian singles that unraveled the many reasons young Indonesians opted to remain single.

In the last couple of years, Henry has expanded his reach to writing. He has written and published a couple of self-improvement books and his latest book is The Alpha Girl’s Guide, in which he interviews a number of well-known career women who share their tips on how to become an alpha female.

To write books, Henry said he needed to read a lot to expand his horizons and creativity.

“The more topics I read, the more I can find new ideas to write about,” Henry said. “I believe creativity is not necessarily creating something new. Sometimes it’s just connecting the dots in a new way.”

---------------

‘Fooled by Randomness’
by Nicolas Nassim Taleb

This is a brilliant book written by an author who is famous for his other work, The Black Swan. This book opens people’s eyes to how most events in life take place randomly. The human species lacks the statistical instinct to comprehend this. Disaster strikes when human beings believe there is a pattern behind it. This kind of belief leads human beings to believe in nonsense like magic, alternative medicine, zodiac and other things. Taleb says that people who believe in randomness will be wiser in their daily lives.

---------------

‘A Case of Exploding Mangoes’
by Mohammed Hanif

An award-winning fiction novel from a Pakistani author. This book is storytelling at its best. Hanif creates a story based on the death of Pakistani President Zia Ul-Haq who was killed when his airplane exploded in 1988. This is an adult satire with hilarious dark humor. The ending of this book is very satisfying. It will remind you of a Guy Ritchie film.

---------------

‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’
by Dale Carnegie

The supertacky title might be off-putting to many people, but the content is really good. This book is 90-years-old and I don’t think many Indonesians have read it. This book, I think, is the mother of all self-improvement books. Carnegie teaches you how to treat other people with kindness and genuine respect.

— JP/Hans David Tampubolon

Popular

Java airports grounded by low demand, poor planning

'Dialogue' must be at heart of China, Australia ties, PM tells Xi

Rethinking ocean finance