I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined)
by Chuck Klosterman, 2014
The villain, in any situation, is the person who knows the most and cares the least.
Now that I’ve told you the main (only?) point of the book, you don’t need to read it. QED.
(I listened to this book on CD)
It Works
by Melvin Evans, 1946
(I’m not sure if the cover really looks like this. My copy is really from 1946 and doesn’t have a dust jacket.)
This book will make you a better person. It’s written by an “industrial executive and management engineer” who has moved on to studying human engineering. His book is filled with suggestions for doing better at work, at home, and in the community. It’s refreshing to read a book founded on good morals and Christian virtues. You don’t read much written with this sort of vigor anymore. Reading it just made me feel good.
The last chapter quotes the Gettysburg address, a plan for peace from a Chinese peasant, and a prayer from the author’s daughter: “God, give us the strength and willpower today to do the things we know we should do for Thee, but so often lack the courage.” The book praises democracy and the American way profusely. The three parts of the book are “E Pluribus Unum- Teamwork”, “In God We Trust- Faith”, and “Liberty- How It Works”. Throughout, there are calls for people to do things the right way with the right intentions, in order to generate good results: It Works!
Thinking, Fast and Slow
by Daniel Kahneman, 2011
This is a great book that hits on all the research in behavioral economics and cognitive biases. It’s also a devilishly slow read. 400+ pages, with each page probably averaging 4+ minutes for me as I read it and contemplated its significance. I’ve been reading it slowly over the last 2 years.
Here’s the list of topics it will discuss at length, in alphabetical order:
affect heuristic
anchoring
associative memory
availability heuristic
Bayesian statistics
causal base rates
certainty effect
cognitive strain
confirmation bias
conjunctive fallacy
decision utility
decision weights
denominator neglect
disposition effect
duration neglect
ego depletion
endowment effect
experienced utility
expert intuition
focusing illusion
halo effect
hindsight bias
illusion of understanding
insufficient adjustment
intensity matching
law of small numbers
loss aversion
mental accounts and keeping score
mental shotgun
narrative fallacy
narrow/broad framing
negativity dominance
optimistic bias
outcome bias
overconfidence
overestimation of rare events
pattern seeking
peak-end rule
planning fallacy
preference reversals
priming and associations
prospect theory
regression to the mean
remembering self
risk aversion/seeking
stereotypes
substitution
sunk cost fallacy
System 1/2
what you see is all there is (WYSIATI)
Learning about these terms and recognizing when your human brain is leading you astray will improve your future decision making.
Living with Water Scarcity
by David Zetland, 2014
Living with Water Scarcity gives an economical evaluation of the state of water in the U.S. and abroad. The premise of the book is that water should be treated as a valued, scarce commodity. In reality, consumers are given poor incentives toward the limited use of water and social planners/politicians often poorly allocate water when faced with varied water demands from households, businesses, farmers, and the ecosystem. The book asks plentiful questions about the treatment and allocation of water and suggests answering the questions economically.
I was hoping to like the book more than I did. The first few chapters, on personal, household economics, read well. However, the second half of the book, about the public allocation of water flows, became both whiny and preachy. Whiny in that it complains of corrupt politicians and lazy government water managers. Preachy in that it speaks of the effect of mismanagement of ecosystems in light of climate change. There were also a stream of stick figure illustrations throughout that made the book seem amateur and sarcastic. I think the topic of water economics is of value, but I hope that there are better books out there to learn of the subject. If still interested, the book can be downloaded in .pdf form for free from http://livingwithwaterscarcity.com/.
Who Moved My Cheese?
by Dr. Spencer Johnson, 1998
A short silly parable to teach you to change and adapt with new circumstances. Don’t be like Hem, the little person who can’t get over the fact that his prosperity seemed to dissipate overnight when his Cheese disappeared. Instead, adapt to good and bad circumstances to make yourself flexible and resilient. Find new Cheese.
When I joined Booz Allen Hamilton in 2011, I went to a multi-day orientation. On the first day, we were asked what adjective best described each of us as we started our new job. There were 8ish options, including proficient, responsive, and conscientious. I chose “adaptable”, because, frankly, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do in my job and I just had a lot of general intelligence-based skills. I was 24. The older new employees scoffed at my stupid answer. Being adaptable served me well, though, as I learned a ton of new skills, led projects in areas in which I was previously ignorant, and responded well to setbacks. Point is: this book wasn’t really written for me, I already knew its message. I don’t want to give it a bad review for that reason, but I didn’t get a whole lot out of it. I listened to it on CD on the same trip I listened to Superman Versus the Ku Klux Klan.
Superman Versus The Ku Klux Klan
by Rick Bowers, 2012
You’ll learn some fun facts about Superman and some terrifying facts about the KKK in this book. Take, for instance, the fact that two Jewish boys from the Cleveland suburbs created Superman, and the artist was 5’2″ and 112 pounds. Or the way that Superman was kept from overpowering the Germans and ending World War II: Clark Kent took his physical to join the Army and accidentally used his X-ray vision to read the eye chart in the next room over; the Army labeled him practically blind and therefore 4F, unfit for military service. (Captain America to the rescue?) The book chronicles the early days of Superman and the three revivals of the bigoted hate group the Ku Klux Klan. Following initial success in comic books and radio programs, a run of Superman radio episodes was broadcast in 1946 in which Superman takes on the KKK. He exposes their tactics and secrets to the young audience of the program, in the hope that they will grow up without such hate in their mind and hearts.
The book is a fast read or listen. I think it was a good book to listen to on tape, about 3 hours long.
Washington’s Secret Six
by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger, 2014
George Washington was a spy in the French and Indian War. Therefore, I’m pretty sure he told a lie or two in his day.
This book centers on a spy ring Washington set up in New York City during the Revolutionary War. NYC was taken by the British pretty early in the war and held throughout. The spy ring provided (somewhat) timely information to the general about British activities in the city. They helped thwart a plot to print and devalue patriot currency, helped keep Benedict Arnold from turning over West Point to the British, and provided opportunities for small fort captures and supply seizures on the outskirts of the city.
It was an interesting book about an area I did not know about in the Revolutionary War. Washington did not really outfight the British, he simply outspied them. The tradecraft used by the spy ring (dead drops, invisible ink, codes, 100% secrecy) are taught as a case study to new CIA agents nowadays.
I listened to this book on CD. I believe the first author was also the reader. I wish they had gotten a professional reader; the book was read too forcefully and loudly.
America, 1908: The Dawn of Flight, the Race to the Pole, the Invention of the Model T, and the Making of a Modern Nation
by Jim Rasenberger, 2011
A visit back to the year 1908 provides snapshots of the innovation and excitement that was present a century ago. I found the bits about the Wright brothers and the Great White Fleet most fascinating. For the Wright brothers, it tells how they worked both in the US and France to showcase their flying machine to both best their rivals and to secure funding/payment for purchases. For the Great White Fleet, it tells about how and why Teddy Roosevelt sent the US navy around the world and the reception in other countries. I also liked the description of Merkle’s Boner in the Giants’ pennant race.
I could do without the details of pop culture and interesting murder cases from 1908. I also thought the book focused too much upon New York City. And the book was overly long-winded at times, occasionally putting me to sleep when I wasn’t driving (I listened to the book on tape). Overall, a mixed review. Would be interesting if you’re into early 1900’s history.
Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto
by Steve Almond, 2014
I won’t be letting any kids of mine play football. They’ll probably be skinny like me and won’t want to anyway, but still.
Football is an overly violent form of pseudo-battle that causes permanent brain damage to its players. Players are expected to act tough, take another hit, and fight back, no matter the circumstance. It has a culture of fans willing to sweep aside the faults (sexual assaults, drug use, cheating in school) of their team’s players in order to keep them active for the weekend’s game. And it has a corrupt business model in which the NFL is somehow a non-profit and teams blackmail their cities into funding ridiculously expensive stadiums for billionaire owners.
Those are the arguments. Most of them ring true. Unfortunately, the sport is a lot of fun to watch as a strategist, analyst, and fantasy owner. So what’s a fan to do? I like the suggestions for change at the back of the book. They would improve many situations without ruining the fun of watching football. I don’t think the situation is equivalent to a modern-version of gladiator sports or sacrificial offerings, so some of the book was a bit over the top. Interesting read though.
How to Measure Anything, 2nd Edition
by Douglas Hubbard, 2010
This book is of value to anyone in a decision making role. It details the steps necessary to… ahem… measure anything. It is written from a PRACTICAL standpoint of asking questions and performing basic statistics to determine what actually matters to a decision.
Even with a strong decision science and statistical background, I found the way this book framed questions and thought-processes to be refreshing. Too often we delve so deeply into the math of the problem that we forget how to frame the question initially. So while the math wasn’t new at all to me, I found it’s presentation useful. I think other PhD students and professors would benefit from this book as well.
Here is the method the book suggests when deciding what (and how much) to measure to aid in making a decision:
1. Define the decision and the variables that matter to it. If you can’t define a decision that will be affected by your question/measurement, then it doesn’t matter.
2. Model the current state of uncertainty about those variables. This typically involves querying experts to get their confidence intervals on the variables of interest. Experts should be calibrated in providing accurate confidence intervals before beginning.
3. Compute the value of additional measurements. This aids in determining which variables have confidence intervals that are too wide to make a decision right now. Typically, only a couple variables require ANY measurement in a decision, and they are not necessarily the variables that decision makers would normally try to measure.
4. Measure the high-value uncertainties in a way that is economically justified. Measure in an iterative manner, starting with a small study. You will often need less information than you think to shrink a confidence interval to an acceptable range.
5. Make a risk/return decision after the economically justified amount of uncertainty is reduced. You will have adequate information at this stage to make your decision. Does the reward expected from the decision justify its risk for your organization?
You should read the book. That said, the book is not perfect. It messes up a couple mathematical topics in its exposition. It can be very dry and boring in places, even for someone used to reading statistical prose. I think its benefits outweigh its drawbacks, however.