Fooled By Randomness
I finished Nassim Nicholas Taleb's book Fooled By Randomness. I'd previously read The Black Swan by him. Even though it's his second book, I would refer it to anyone before Fooled by Randomness. Fooled is a dense book, as close to a philosophical treatise as I will probably ever read. I appreciate the content, though. Taleb uses anecdotes, hypotheticals, and his own experience as a trader to argue that when it comes to areas with a lot of uncertainty and randomness (the market, etc) that success is not necessarily indicative of actual merit. (He also argues that there are many Read more…
Roosevelt on the River of Doubt
I just finished "The River of Doubt," a history of Theodore Roosevelt's exploration of the unknown River of Doubt (since renamed Roosevelt River). A really great history! After reading McCullough's Mornings on Horseback, I now have an interesting sense of Roosevelt. I've read his biography up until he was 27 or so and started to come onto the national stage, and then a biography of him after he failed to be re-elected in 1912. Judged by everything but his Presidency in the middle, he's a magnetic character. Incredibly likable, he has traits I sincerely admire, most notably what McCullough calls Read more…
Woodward’s Plan of Attack
I just finished Bob Woodward's in-depth chronology of the lead-up to the Iraq War, Plan of Attack. The book starts in 2001, shortly after a meeting on Afghanistan when Bush asks Rumsfeld to start looking at the current Iraq war plan, and ends on the first day of the war in March of 2003. It's based on documents, confidential sources, and interviews Woodward with Bush and Rumsfeld. Chronology really is the right word for it, too, as it's pretty matter-of-fact, with little embellishment. According to Wikipedia, in 2004 when the book came out, the Kerry campaign recommended the book as Read more…
This month’s Wired was great!
I greatly enjoyed this month's issue of Wired. The content is not live on the webernets yet, but I can recommend most of the issue. Especially: the article about the DOJ's eye on Google the ionosphere controlling HAARP in Alaska that can artificially create Northern Lights beer made from dinosaur-era yeast frozen in Amber (Jurassic Pint indeed!) Silicon Valley CEO's trip to Baghdad And an interesting story about Dilbert creator Scott Adams, who lost his voice for 3 years. Many other good things abound in the pages, but these 5 stories really stood out. I really love it when a Read more…
Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others
But no, apparently the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic edition, and apparently Amazon, whose business lives and dies by publisher happiness, caved. It electronically deleted all books by this author from people’s Kindles and credited their accounts for the price. via pogue.blogs.nytimes.com I love my Kindle, but this is bad news for everyone. It makes me wary to buy anything when this can happen. And, as David Pogue notes: “You want to know the best part? The juicy, plump, dripping irony? The author who was the victim of this Big Brotherish plot was none other than George Read more…
Pride and Prejudice on the Kindle
For all the many classics that showed up on my English Major reading lists, Pride and Prejudice wasn’t ever there. Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility both were, but this was my first encounter with Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. Gotta say. I loved it. Maybe it’s the romantic in me, but I really enjoyed it. It makes me want to pick up the rest of Austen. And since P&P was free on the Kindle, I’ll probably try Emma on the Kindle too. This was the first time I used the Kindle dictionary feature while reading. It was really handy to Read more…
Malcolm Gladwell is missing the point
And there’s plenty of other information out there that has chosen to run in the opposite direction from Free. The Times gives away its content on its Web site. But the Wall Street Journal has found that more than a million subscribers are quite happy to pay for the privilege of reading online. Broadcast television—the original practitioner of Free—is struggling. But premium cable, with its stiff monthly charges for specialty content, is doing just fine. via newyorker.com I haven’t read Chris Anderson’s book “Free”. But I’ve been reading enough to realize that Gladwell is missing the point in his review. Read more…
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