[This Week's Books] The Betrayal of Success and More

The Goal 1

The factory is running at full speed, yet the company is heading toward bankruptcy. Eli Goldratt's management classic begins with this strange scene. The machines never stop, employees work overtime, and the production reports show a growing output, but the actual goal keeps slipping further away. What The Goal 1 asks is not about efficiency, but about direction. Rather than focusing on how much you have done, the book urges you to identify what is blocking overall performance.

The Theory of Constraints may sound rigid by name, but this book unfolds as a novel, following plant manager Alex Rogo's crisis, his family struggles, and the probing questions of Professor Jonah. The process of finding bottlenecks, changing the flow, and breaking the illusion of partial optimization doesn't remain just a story of manufacturing from 40 years ago. Even in the age of AI and automation, the reason organizations often fail is not a lack of technology, but rather a busy atmosphere that loses sight of the real goal. (Written by Eli Goldratt | Dongyang Books)

How to Spend Money Wisely from Age 60 to 90

Retirement planning usually starts as a story of saving. Hideki Oe turns this question around. He points out that if you cling to your bank balance, you may end up losing the time and physical ability to actually spend it—that, in itself, may be the most expensive form of waste. Money after retirement is not something to simply grow; instead, it becomes a tool to ask what experiences and relationships you want to exchange for your remaining time.

The book's message does not encourage overspending. It warns against spending money for vanity or comparison, and recommends spending on things that truly broaden your life, such as travel, food, sharing, and time with others. For a generation that learned about post-retirement anxiety only in the language of financial products, this book argues that letting go at the right moment is far harder than simply holding on to your money until the end. (Written by Hideki Oe | Smart Business)

The Future Map of AI in China

China's AI can no longer be described with the outdated label of "copycat." Seonyoung Lim connects disparate scenes—deepfake, humanoids, autonomous driving, drones, quantum technology, and digital currency—into a single national blueprint. Technology is no longer just a source of corporate competitiveness; it is becoming a national operating system that simultaneously mobilizes administration, capital, talent, manufacturing, and infrastructure.

The book's strength lies in not viewing China merely as an undefined threat or a massive market. Amid the power struggle between the United States and China, it asks whether Korea will become "sandwiched" or emerge as a connector in the new order. However, the tension over China's rapid pace and scale is strong, so some forecasts may feel somewhat overwhelming. Still, the book is valuable in that it brings China into the AI discourse that has long focused solely on Silicon Valley. (Written by Seonyoung Lim | Chaekman)

The Intruder

A woman, in search of a mature and stable sense of self, embarks on a journey inward—only to realize that her psyche is less a warm counseling room and more a hostile maze, tangled with guards, bureaucratic systems, and sticky organs. Irene Pujadas pushes the familiar narrative of self-exploration into a bodily adventure, sharply satirizing the language of self-help and healing.

What Diana encounters is not some hidden true self, but rather an internal system that monitors, mocks, and tries to expel her. Amidst ridiculous and bizarre scenes, a sharp sense lingers. Do we truly want to understand ourselves, or are we simply seeking an explanation we can endure? This is a novel of remarkably cruel self-awareness, wrapped in inventive imagination. (Written by Irene Pujadas | Minumsa)

Flesh

Istvan's life is propelled not by grand choices, but by events that first strike his body. Secret relationships at fifteen, military service and loss, entering British high society, and time consumed as an object of desire. David Szalay captures a person's life not in the depths of psychology, but on the surfaces of the body. Being alive is more often exposure than blessing, and the body is both an opportunity and a trap.

The prose is cold and concise. Explanations are sparse, and the characters never fully open up. Thus, the novel's brutality emerges more from its silences than its events. Even as Istvan wears the trappings of success and social ascent, he continues to slip. Instead of stating clearly what made or broke him, the novel leaves the reader with the unsettling sense that, in the end, all that remains for a person is a living body. (Written by David Szalay | Seohae Munjip)

The Betrayal of Success

Success stories are always polished. Someone overcame poverty, someone proved their talent, another persevered and finally rose to the top. Bernd Kramer raises uncomfortable questions hidden behind these shining narratives. Do people really succeed solely through effort? Or have we been covering up luck, background, and the vagueness of evaluation criteria with the word "ability"?

The most piercing parts of the book are the skeptical looks cast at winners rather than losers. The successful attract attention even when humble, while those who fail learn to blame themselves before seeking structural causes. This book does not deny the value of effort. However, in a society that worships success as a kind of morality, it asks who can win with peace of mind, and who is left to endlessly blame themselves. (Written by Bernd Kramer | Chusubat)

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.