Moneyball by Michael Lewis

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The only reasons I didn’t give this book 5 stars is that it was a little slow in the second quarter and that I’m not at all a baseball fan, with the exception of one season of trying to learn all the Red Sox players only to see them all leave the team the following season- catching me completely by surprise and making me vow never to give away my love like that again. Necessary run-on sentence.

I love data and statistics though and from that perspective, this book is such a joy. If only more people took an interest in what statistics can and cannot tell us, the world would be a more logical and effective place.

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The Honest Truth About Dishonesty by Dan Ariely

The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone - Especially Ourselves by Dan Ariely
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

On the pro side, some of these influences are important to know about in one's personal life and in legal and policy work. On the con side, this book is pretty repetitive if you've read Ariely's other books as I have. Additionally, though I'm aware that this is all based on studies, the lack of actual moral or spiritual perspective in the book is disappointing. Compare for example Jonathan Haidt's The Happiness Hypothesis or The Righteous Mind.

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Dollars and Sense by Dan Ariely

Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter by Dan Ariely
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a better book if you haven't already read a ton of behavioral economics. For me, it was a compilation of a lot of effects I'd already read about (for example in Ariely's Predictably Irrational). This book would be great for people who don't know that much about behavioral economics who are interested in personal finance.

I was also uncomfortable with the way the authors veered into territory that was somewhat morality- based without a holistic view of the issue. I fear economics often makes this mistake, but to my mind, behavioral economics is more sophisticated and shouldn't make this error. We've rejected the idea that humans make the most rational economic decisions. We've also learned that morality can be very closely tied to empathy and other emotional systems. So I didn't find the section on "fairness" to very sophisticated with regards to current economics, psychology, biology, or ethics research. Sure, you should pay the locksmith his rate for the reasons stated in this book, but I disagree that you shouldn't battle large companies like Netflix or Uber when they do something you consider unfair- and certainly when they do unethical things.

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The Social Animal by David Brooks

The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement by David Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The beginning was really good. It was a compilation of the science of human thinking and culture with a hypothetical couple as a storytelling vehicle. But at the end, there were a lot of Brooks's own political views without enough research cited. Frequently Brooks made policy assumptions or cited correlations with no clear explanation of why he was assuming causation. Correlation is not causation! Say it ten times before bed every night!

5 stars for the beginning and end, 2 stars for the word vomit in the politics section.

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When by Daniel H. Pink

When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A short book about how timing affects both our personal decisions and business plans. There is definitely some repeat information that most people are aware of already, but the book is so short that it's worth reading to get a sense of the overall psychological impact of timing decisions correctly.

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Atomic Habits by James Clear

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a summary of Nudge by Richard Thaler, who actually discovered a lot of this information, and Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Even though I've read a lot of the information before in other books, and I don't think it's particularly fair that Clear is just cashing in other people's work, nonetheless I think Clear did an especially good job of collecting the most relevant information to the topic and keeping the explanations of each point short. Not a lot of filler in this book and this is probably the book I'd be most likely to revisit on this topic.

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The Creative Curve by Allen Gannett

The Creative Curve: How to Develop the Right Idea at the Right Time by Allen Gannett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was pretty solid, there was even some new information here which is pretty exciting for me since I read a lot of books on these general psychology-behavioral economics-business topics.

My main complaint is that we can't completely control the four laws of creativity. The current cultural zeitgeist, for example, is completely out of our control; if that culture has no interest in us or vice versa, then that's that. Likewise, not all people have access to high-quality creative communities either because of geography, lack of wealth, or family responsibilities.

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The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis

The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read a lot of behavioral economics, and I've read Kahneman and Thaler, but I was missing the context of the history of Kahneman and Tversky, followed later by Thaler, being the inventors of this discipline. I was also missing the context of the in-between location of the discipline between psychology and economics, but more importantly as the source of strife between psychologists and economists. This book also expressed my frustrations with my economics classes, and I'm even more annoyed now that I realize my economics professors were basically just ignoring research that was at that point already 20 years old. I was also interested in learning about how this research came out of Israel. I was maybe a little less interested in the ins-and-outs of Kahneman and Tversky's personal relationship and about which Lewis left me a bit confused.

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Nudge by Richard H. Thaler

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One basic premise, many thoroughly detailed examples. But the examples are super important life examples about investing, insurance, education and as such are pretty interesting. Be warned though, I don't think it really works as a self-help book. It's more about how governments, companies, or other large entities can point people in the right direction of their best decisions.

There's a political/economic bias in the book which the author admits up front, but is neither liberal nor conservative per se, but something Thaler calls "libertarian paternalism." The idea is that people should get a few choices (but not lots of choices that overwhelm them) keeping in mind that they rarely know what's best or act in their own best interest. Libertarian in practice but paternalistic in your mind? Sort of.

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Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is super interesting, but after reading it I am not any smarter than when I started.

"Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant - in the blink of an eye - that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work - in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?"

I don't know!

The psychologist predicts whether a marriage will last has been scientifically studying it for years. The tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault was an expert but just magically started seeing it without knowing why. The antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance had expertise but did so contrary to the science.

But even if you're an expert- don't trust your immediate reaction! All the politicians thought Warren Harding would be a great president and he was terrible. And there is the example of when police make huge instinct-based mistakes that result in them shooting unarmed, innocent civilians. We respond differently if we are subconsciously primed, a thing we fail to notice so we probably can't protect ourselves against.

The whole section on Coke and Pepsi seemed especially irrelevant and boring.

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The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Even though this is totally out of date with Facebook, it was still really interesting. It makes you wonder if Gladwell's theory fits with how the Russian ads for Trump were implemented. They were mostly used in the relevant electoral vote swing areas, so they were tailored in a way not described in the book. The "connector" was not a person but the Facebook and Twitter ad technology itself, which according to the book is not supposed to work especially well- especially considering that we are overwhelmed by Facebook and Twitter information. They were definitely "sticky"- racism often is.

Anyway, the book could definitely use an update in the post-social media world. Is everything different now? Or is social media really just like email? I'm thinking everything is different now.

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The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely

The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home by Dan Ariely
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I gave it only 4 stars because there is a lot of overlap with Arely's other book, Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. In particular, I think Predictably Irrational also addressed how high wages or bonuses are demotivating, how the "Sisyphean condition" at work is demotivating, and how we overvalue our own work.

I really enjoyed the new sections on adaption, "assortative mating" which is economist talk for hot people pairing up together, dating inefficiencies and how to potentially make them more efficient, and the joys of consumer revenge (though I'm certain that's not how Ariely would describe that section). There was also an interesting section on how we tend to follow our own example. Once we have behaved a particular way, we view our choices so positively that we continue to behave in that way. Mind-bending.

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The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal

The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It by Kelly McGonigal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A strong compilation of the science of willpower but the author didn't explore societal consequences very deeply, so it felt like a more surface-level self-help book. Also, author refused to write a conclusion so the book felt unfinished. Even a simple summary of the information would have been better than just suddenly cutting off the book after her last topic.

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Bright-Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich

Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I appreciated her critique of the positive-thinking culture in culture and business. I find the former irritating and the latter oppressive. The research shows that pessimists make the best attorneys. I've always suspected that would be true in a number of other fields where anticipating and averting disaster would be beneficial to a cheery facade. But the demands on sick people to be positive and even to pray are exhausting. What are we to make of how we've treated both the most positive and religious people who die from cancer- not to mention the grumps and atheists we tortured with this advice right to the grave? I agree with the premise that there is a sinister intersect of religion, magic and the corporate world in all this victim-blaming.

That said, I think Ehrenreich wasn't very fair to the scientific study of happiness and positive psychology. (Says the person who is obsessed with Jonathan Haidt and his books.)

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Pound Foolish by Helaine Olen

Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry by Helaine Olen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was well-conceived and extremely well-executed. It's organized, researched, and holistic. I wish all the non-fiction books I read were this well-done. I devoured it. I really want everyone to read it and love it.

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Freefall by Joseph E. Stiglitz

Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy by Joseph E. Stiglitz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Please, if you live in the United States, I beg you to read this book. The author is a winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, and he makes the information he's conveying very clear to the non-economist. I realize it's a little old now and would benefit from a little updating, but it's still so valuable to understanding modern economic theory and how political decisions are affecting the economy. New favorite!

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High Price by Carl Hart

High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society by Carl Hart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

About 60% memoir (very good interesting memoir) and 40% the science of drug effects that the author researches professionally. Super interesting and thoughtful book that will probably change the way you think about drug abuse, though I think it's a better memoir than it is a science book.

As a science book, there is a little more to be desired. I've read previous accounts of Rat Park and other such studies, but the author only mentions them in passing without fully explaining the study and the implications for humans and drug laws and policy. I followed what he was getting at because I've read other related books, but I'm not sure if he provides enough information if someone is coming to this without previous reading on the topic. Also, I would have appreciated more information about Adderall in general since it is often used to treat children. With regards to the actual science, the personal account is a little irrelevant, especially since the author is stressing how useless anecdotes of "monstrous" drug users are when assessing the real effects of drugs. Well, that works both ways, his personal accounts how he managed to create a life for himself isn't specifically relevant to the examination of drugs, except that he became a drug researcher and his viewpoint with regards to the racism behind the drug policies. But that doesn't require a full memoir to convey.

As for the memoir, kind of sexist. I could have lived with fewer references to "chasing pussy." I understand he's trying to explain the perspective of his friends and family in the memoir, but he didn't exactly disown or condone this perspective in any way. I don't think it's so blatant that it will destroy interest in the memoir, but it might be a lot for some readers.

Overall, a good book worth reading: interesting from start to finish, a good memoir, and decent science book.

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Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fascinating and intricate. Harari builds a spiderweb, starting with the history of human thought, building and building until you understand how plausible his predictions of the future are.

This was the first time I had encountered this particular explanation of why we should study history- not just to avoid repeating it, but to understand that the actions that we take as a given are actually options. (See his section on lawns.)

This was the first time I had considered humanism in the particular way he explains it, and the first I even heard of dataism. Strongly recommend this book for its intellectual content, but it's worth mentioning that it was also so fun to read that I could not stop.

If you want the super short summary, Harari wrote this article for the Financial Times: https://www.ft.com/content/50bb4830-6...

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Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While there are many great concepts in this book, for me it suffered from the following:

1) A lot of this research- even Kahneman's personal research - has been widely cited in more recent books which I read first.
2) Some of it is an explanation of basics statistics such as regression to the mean. While most of the population might not be familiar with basic stats, if you are, this part might be a bit belabored. (And for people that aren't familiar with basic stats, this book might be basically unreadable because I'm not convinced that the author did a good job of explaining it.)
3) It was too long. It covered too many "biases" and there were too many many examples of each kind of bias. I almost gave up on the book because I was going insane from the length and repetition.

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The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a good expenditure of my time. Taleb makes a coherent argument about things I've previously thought about but vaguely dismissed both because of my desire to be normal and my fear of potential "black swans." I say "vaguely dismissed" because I can't actually dismiss my fears by just telling myself they are irrational; I can only avoid taking action to prevent the consequences.

I didn't totally understand all the writing about models in Part 3, but this doesn't seem totally necessary to understanding his larger points.

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