David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
An interesting read. The main theme of the book is that commonly perceived advantages and disadvantages can be misleading. For example, based on various studies, Gladwell argued that sending your children to the most prestigious schools might not be in the kids’ best interests. Obviously brand names matter, but there are also many less obvious factors that could be important. If I have a kid who wants to study economics, it’s unclear to me whether GMU is a worse choice (assuming most of my favorite bloggers are still teaching there) than the top 5 econ departments. The section on legitimacy and punishment are something the Chinese leaders should read.
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-but Some Don’t
I think good predictions require some understanding of statistics, common sense, and avoidance of bias (confirmation bias, overconfidence bias, attribution bias, etc.). The more interesting bits I got from the books are chapters about earthquake and climate predictions, topics I’m less familiar with.
Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces that Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave
I didn’t learn much since I already came across most the research. I’ve also become more skeptical about the robustness and importance of many of these psychology findings.
Die Empty: Unleash your Best Work Everyday
Haven’t read a pure self-help book for a while. Its main message is to structure our daily life around things that matter to us. Similar to other self-help books it motivates and has some sensible advice, but ultimately it’s our job to figure out what is important to us and find ways to develop habits that lead to the results we want.
I like this epigraph: “The average man does not know what to do with his life, yet wants another one which will last forever.”
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