The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
In The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, Stephen Greenblatt tells the story of the most important person you’ve probably never heard of: Poggio Bracciolini. Although Bracciolini’s …
Books
What I’ve been reading
Consumer.ology I enjoyed the first part of the book, which explores the fallacy of market research and the complex reality about consumers and the psychology of shopping. A summary paragraph: …
Book Recommendations from Nassim Taleb
(Jan 2017) Perilous Interventions: The Security Council and the Politics of Chaos Solid Book on Interventionism, Should be Mandatory Reading in Foreign Affairs. This is an outstanding book on the side …
The Best Books on The Psychology Behind Human Decision Making and Irrationality
**reader suggestions are at the bottom*** This is a great way to build your antilibrary. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely Mentioned by many others. Outstanding experimentally-driven analysis of …
Open-plan Offices Suck — Privacy Makes Us Productive
Working alone is out. Organizations, schools, and culture are in the thrall of what Susan Cain calls “the new groupthink,” which holds that creativity derives from our gregariousness. …
Situations Matter
“We’re easily seduced by the notion of stable character. So much of who we are, how we think, and what we do is driven by the situations we’re in, yet we remain blissfully unaware of it.” …
Poaching Stars is a Terrible Idea to Improve Performance
In an effort to improve performance we often turn to the simple answer of trying to hire a star from another organization. This sounds like a great idea, is hard to argue with, and offers the promise …
What did Steve Jobs Read?
I’ve always wondered just what influenced Steve Jobs thinking? Walter Isaacson‘s biography of Steve Jobs provides an unprecedented look at not only Steve Jobs life but the books which …
Five Must-Reads for Tackling Complex Problems
Ted Cadsby writes “the following five books are a small sample from a longer list of must-reads, but they have two things in common. First, they forced me to confront how superficial and …
Putting people and things into categories
Putting people and things into categories is something we all do. It’s a useful shortcut but reveals biases. And it plays a role in everything from ethnic violence to childhood development. The …
Thomas Kuhn: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
“The decision to reject one paradigm is always simultaneously the decision to accept another, and the judgment leading to that decision involves the comparison of both paradigms with nature and …
Why is it so Hard to Kill a Cockroach with your Shoe?
The Cockroach Papers by Richard Schwied is an interesting book if you are looking to learn more about biology or evolution. Cockroaches are built for survival no matter what the world throws at them. …
What Does Bill Gates Read for Fun?
You like to read? So does Bill Gates. And he reads a lot. Here’s a brief look at what he reads on topics such as education, energy, finance, and development. Education Work Hard, Be …
Five Book recommendations from Dan Ariely on Behavioural Economics
Dan Ariely, professor of psychology and behavorial economics, says we can all be more aware of our surroundings and our decision-making process. He suggests the following five books: The Invisible …
Is Everything Obvious Once You Know The Answer?
We often think we can rely on common sense. But in a complex world, common sense is not always sufficient. *** Duncan Watts new book Everything is Obvious: Once You Know The Answer explores the limit …
Vaclav Smil: Why America is not a New Rome
On television, modern histories of Rome lead one to think that Romans were rather well off, enjoyed a lot of free time, and commanded the largest and most powerful empire in the history of the world. …