What to read: 8 books for those who seek to look at the world from a new angle
Every month, we try to prepare for our readers, a selection of your evenings or weekends, spent in a cozy atmosphere, watching a family movie or a good cartoon, and maybe a favorite book. This time, we have prepared for you several bestsellers of recent years, written by psychologists, mathematicians, journalists and economists. They all try to systematize and explain the world around us and ourselves and give readers the opportunity to look at familiar things differently. We chose what we liked the most. We recommend.
1. "Think Slow… Decide Fast", Daniel Kahneman (Thinking, Fast and Slow, 2011)
Quote:"The only confirmation of rationality is not that a person’s views and preferences are reasonable, but that they are not internally contradictory. A rational person can believe in ghosts if all his other beliefs allow the existence of ghosts.
The author of the book is the scientist Daniel Kahneman, one of the world’s leading psychologists, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. The book "Think Slow… Decide Fast" was published in 2011 and has won many awards.
In it, Kahneman explains the mechanisms of the human mind and how they lead to systematic errors of thought. Kahneman writes that the thought process takes place through the channels of two systems. The first works constantly and automatically, on an intuitive level. System 1 allows us to make quick decisions in simple situations. System 2 connects when we find ourselves in a slightly more difficult position. It is responsible for deeper data processing. The interaction of these systems determines our behavior and level of intelligence.
2. The "push to decide", Richard Thaler, Cass Sanstin (Nudge, 2008)
Quote: "The push to decide" in our understanding is any aspect of the architecture of choice that changes people’s behavior in a predictable way, without limiting their choice and without changing economic incentives. "
In 2008, The Push for a Decision was named one of the best books of the year by The Economist. It is based in part on the ideas of Daniel Kahneman, set out in the book "Think Slow… Decide Quickly" about the peculiarities of human thinking. Thaler and Sanstin call the two channels of thinking automatic and reflective systems, and give many examples of how conflicts between them lead to errors of thought.
The authors also introduce the concept of libertarian paternalism - the idea that private and public institutions can and should influence people’s decisions, while respecting their freedom of choice. Thaler and Sanstin believe that in situations where people behave irrationally and to the detriment of their own well-being, it is possible and necessary to unobtrusively correct their behavior. They cover a wide range of cases - loans and spending, electricity consumption, pregnancy among teenagers, unhealthy diet - and demonstrate how these patterns can be changed.
3. " Psychology of Influence ", Robert Chaldini (Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion)
Quote:"According to the theory of psychological reactive resistance, whenever something restricts our choices or deprives us of a choice, the need to preserve our freedoms makes us want them much more than before. Therefore, when a shortage or something else hinders our access to an item, we try to resist the intervention, wanting to master this item more than before, and making appropriate efforts.
"Psychology of Influence" glorified American professor of psychology and marketing Robert Chaldini. It was first released in 1984 and has since undergone four reprints.
The book is also about the pitfalls of our thinking, and how these loopholes are used by those who seek to profit from us and manipulate us: from used car sellers to sect members.
Thus, Chaldini writes about how strong our need is to respond with kindness to kindness. If someone has done us a sudden favor, such as buying coffee, we feel obligated to do something in return. This is often used by people who want to achieve something from us. By doing something trivial, they can make us act in the direction they need. Two more traps: the fear of missing an opportunity and the desire to get hard to reach. This is often used by sellers who create an artificial shortage of goods.
4. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, first published in 1990)
Quote: “But we all had to go through moments when we felt not the blows of nameless forces but control of our actions, domination over one’s own destiny. In these rare moments we feel inspiration, special joy. These feelings remain in our hearts for a long time and serve as a guide in our lives. "
The concept of "flow" is the main contribution to the psychology of American professor Mihai Chiksentmihai. Flow is a state of the highest concentration and the deepest immersion of a person in a process or activity.
In such conditions, all the secondary factors go into the shadows: the time spent, the need for food, the need to indulge your own ego. According to Chiksentmihai, when we manage to enter the stream, we experience the highest happiness. We need to learn to catch this state in order to overcome destructive entropy.
5. "Shock of the present: when everything happens right now", Douglas Rashkoff (Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, 2013)
Quote: “Our society has reoriented towards the present moment. Everything happens live, in real time, in the mode of constant inclusion. Our way of life and technology have increased the speed at which we strive to exist, this is not a banal acceleration. It is, to a greater extent, an insult to everything that is not happening right now, and violent attacks on what is supposed to be happening. "
The book by media and technology writer Douglas Rashkoff is reminiscent of futurist Alvin Toffler’s 1970 Shock of the Future. Toffler made predictions for the near future. In it, as Toffler suggested, advances in technology will force the space around man to change so rapidly that it will begin to produce painful reactions from the brain that does not keep up with these transformations.
Rashkoff is concerned about the present. According to him, the moment has come when the futurists of the last century were obsessed. But we do not live it in its entirety.
According to Rashkoff, the framework of the present has expanded, pushing the horizon of the future. We live in the infinite now that technology and media impose on us. And although our brains strive to be digital, our bodies have remained analog. In the dissonance between them, humanity experiences a "shock of the present."
6. “ Turn on the brains . Free Time in the Internet Age ”, Clay Shirky (Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in the Connected Age, 2012) Quote:
“It is extremely difficult for modern 20-year-olds to understand how much the world has changed. It is even more difficult to explain to them this: twenty or thirty years ago, as a citizen of the world, you could not publicly declare something that was on your mind and that you would like to share with other people. You just couldn’t. Point".
The English title of this book translates as "Cognitive Excess: Creativity and Generosity in the Age of Communication." "Cognitive surplus" its author, American writer and lecturer Clay Shirky calls the amount of free time that has appeared in a person with the development of technology. How humanity spends these free hours is the main focus of the book.
According to Shirka, we use this time more and more constructively, for creation, co-production, not just consumption.
Thanks to the Internet, people are creating new forms of interaction and association with each other to achieve common goals, including civic ones. Shirki is convinced that the results of this interaction can have the strongest positive impact on society, so it should be encouraged in every way. A more detailed review of the book can be found here. Clay is the author of another bestseller - "And here comes everyone" - about the ability of the Internet to unite people.
7. “Anti-fragility. How to benefit from chaos ”, Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Antifragile, 2012)
Quote: “ The moral of this chapter is: a paradox, but the greatest benefit we get is not from those who try to help us (for example, “advice”), but from those who who actively tries to harm us and, in the end, fails. "
Anti-Fragility is the latest book by economist Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the acclaimed Black Swan. His first bestseller focuses on hard-to-predict events "that no one or almost no one expected" and the ability to predict them. Anti-fragility is a term that describes resistance to large-scale stress, force majeure. According to Taleb, people and systems that possess this quality are best suited to prosper in the chaos and instability that are so characteristic of our world.
Anti-fragility Taleb contrasts fragility and invulnerability. Thus, in the conditions of an outbreak of the disease in an fragile state there is an epidemic. An invulnerable state is trying to completely protect its territory from the sick, and an anti-fragile state is conducting a mass vaccination against the disease. Taleb believes that anti-fragility can be developed by subjecting the system to small shocks, which will make it more resistant to more significant stresses.
8. Signal and Noise , The Signal and the Noise (2012)
Quote: “We need to stop and admit that we have problems with forecasting. We love to predict, and we don’t get anything out of it. "
American analyst Nate Silver has long been engaged in mathematical prediction in sports, in particular in baseball, then in politics. In 2012, he became known for correctly determining the winner in all 50 states before the US presidential election. In 2016, he was wrong, like many others, to believe that Donald Trump had only a 29 percent chance of winning.
Signal and Noise describes methods for constructing mathematical models based on probability theory and statistical techniques.
As examples of various statistical principles, Silver discusses poker, explaining why no one was able to predict the crisis of the 2000s, how Google’s search engine works, whether nuclear war is possible, and why weather forecasts do not come true.
Read also:Cartoons about real human values PAID TREATMENT Collected - 452 175 UAH For closed projects of the Fund on the UBB website - 26 615 UAH SMS receipts - 1 173 UAH Donations online (Lycpee) -
1. "Think Slow… Decide Fast", Daniel Kahneman (Thinking, Fast and Slow, 2011)
Quote:"The only confirmation of rationality is not that a person’s views and preferences are reasonable, but that they are not internally contradictory. A rational person can believe in ghosts if all his other beliefs allow the existence of ghosts. The author of the book is the scientist Daniel Kahneman, one of the world’s leading psychologists, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. The book "Think Slow… Decide Fast" was published in 2011 and has won many awards.
In it, Kahneman explains the mechanisms of the human mind and how they lead to systematic errors of thought. Kahneman writes that the thought process takes place through the channels of two systems. The first works constantly and automatically, on an intuitive level. System 1 allows us to make quick decisions in simple situations. System 2 connects when we find ourselves in a slightly more difficult position. It is responsible for deeper data processing. The interaction of these systems determines our behavior and level of intelligence.
2. The "push to decide", Richard Thaler, Cass Sanstin (Nudge, 2008)
Quote: "The push to decide" in our understanding is any aspect of the architecture of choice that changes people’s behavior in a predictable way, without limiting their choice and without changing economic incentives. "In 2008, The Push for a Decision was named one of the best books of the year by The Economist. It is based in part on the ideas of Daniel Kahneman, set out in the book "Think Slow… Decide Quickly" about the peculiarities of human thinking. Thaler and Sanstin call the two channels of thinking automatic and reflective systems, and give many examples of how conflicts between them lead to errors of thought.
The authors also introduce the concept of libertarian paternalism - the idea that private and public institutions can and should influence people’s decisions, while respecting their freedom of choice. Thaler and Sanstin believe that in situations where people behave irrationally and to the detriment of their own well-being, it is possible and necessary to unobtrusively correct their behavior. They cover a wide range of cases - loans and spending, electricity consumption, pregnancy among teenagers, unhealthy diet - and demonstrate how these patterns can be changed.
3. " Psychology of Influence ", Robert Chaldini (Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion)
Quote:"According to the theory of psychological reactive resistance, whenever something restricts our choices or deprives us of a choice, the need to preserve our freedoms makes us want them much more than before. Therefore, when a shortage or something else hinders our access to an item, we try to resist the intervention, wanting to master this item more than before, and making appropriate efforts. "Psychology of Influence" glorified American professor of psychology and marketing Robert Chaldini. It was first released in 1984 and has since undergone four reprints.
The book is also about the pitfalls of our thinking, and how these loopholes are used by those who seek to profit from us and manipulate us: from used car sellers to sect members.
Thus, Chaldini writes about how strong our need is to respond with kindness to kindness. If someone has done us a sudden favor, such as buying coffee, we feel obligated to do something in return. This is often used by people who want to achieve something from us. By doing something trivial, they can make us act in the direction they need. Two more traps: the fear of missing an opportunity and the desire to get hard to reach. This is often used by sellers who create an artificial shortage of goods.
4. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, first published in 1990)
Quote: “But we all had to go through moments when we felt not the blows of nameless forces but control of our actions, domination over one’s own destiny. In these rare moments we feel inspiration, special joy. These feelings remain in our hearts for a long time and serve as a guide in our lives. " The concept of "flow" is the main contribution to the psychology of American professor Mihai Chiksentmihai. Flow is a state of the highest concentration and the deepest immersion of a person in a process or activity.
In such conditions, all the secondary factors go into the shadows: the time spent, the need for food, the need to indulge your own ego. According to Chiksentmihai, when we manage to enter the stream, we experience the highest happiness. We need to learn to catch this state in order to overcome destructive entropy.
5. "Shock of the present: when everything happens right now", Douglas Rashkoff (Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, 2013)
Quote: “Our society has reoriented towards the present moment. Everything happens live, in real time, in the mode of constant inclusion. Our way of life and technology have increased the speed at which we strive to exist, this is not a banal acceleration. It is, to a greater extent, an insult to everything that is not happening right now, and violent attacks on what is supposed to be happening. " The book by media and technology writer Douglas Rashkoff is reminiscent of futurist Alvin Toffler’s 1970 Shock of the Future. Toffler made predictions for the near future. In it, as Toffler suggested, advances in technology will force the space around man to change so rapidly that it will begin to produce painful reactions from the brain that does not keep up with these transformations.
Rashkoff is concerned about the present. According to him, the moment has come when the futurists of the last century were obsessed. But we do not live it in its entirety.
According to Rashkoff, the framework of the present has expanded, pushing the horizon of the future. We live in the infinite now that technology and media impose on us. And although our brains strive to be digital, our bodies have remained analog. In the dissonance between them, humanity experiences a "shock of the present."
6. “ Turn on the brains . Free Time in the Internet Age ”, Clay Shirky (Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in the Connected Age, 2012) Quote:
“It is extremely difficult for modern 20-year-olds to understand how much the world has changed. It is even more difficult to explain to them this: twenty or thirty years ago, as a citizen of the world, you could not publicly declare something that was on your mind and that you would like to share with other people. You just couldn’t. Point". The English title of this book translates as "Cognitive Excess: Creativity and Generosity in the Age of Communication." "Cognitive surplus" its author, American writer and lecturer Clay Shirky calls the amount of free time that has appeared in a person with the development of technology. How humanity spends these free hours is the main focus of the book.
According to Shirka, we use this time more and more constructively, for creation, co-production, not just consumption.
Thanks to the Internet, people are creating new forms of interaction and association with each other to achieve common goals, including civic ones. Shirki is convinced that the results of this interaction can have the strongest positive impact on society, so it should be encouraged in every way. A more detailed review of the book can be found here. Clay is the author of another bestseller - "And here comes everyone" - about the ability of the Internet to unite people.
7. “Anti-fragility. How to benefit from chaos ”, Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Antifragile, 2012)
Quote: “ The moral of this chapter is: a paradox, but the greatest benefit we get is not from those who try to help us (for example, “advice”), but from those who who actively tries to harm us and, in the end, fails. "Anti-Fragility is the latest book by economist Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the acclaimed Black Swan. His first bestseller focuses on hard-to-predict events "that no one or almost no one expected" and the ability to predict them. Anti-fragility is a term that describes resistance to large-scale stress, force majeure. According to Taleb, people and systems that possess this quality are best suited to prosper in the chaos and instability that are so characteristic of our world.
Anti-fragility Taleb contrasts fragility and invulnerability. Thus, in the conditions of an outbreak of the disease in an fragile state there is an epidemic. An invulnerable state is trying to completely protect its territory from the sick, and an anti-fragile state is conducting a mass vaccination against the disease. Taleb believes that anti-fragility can be developed by subjecting the system to small shocks, which will make it more resistant to more significant stresses.
8. Signal and Noise , The Signal and the Noise (2012)
Quote: “We need to stop and admit that we have problems with forecasting. We love to predict, and we don’t get anything out of it. " American analyst Nate Silver has long been engaged in mathematical prediction in sports, in particular in baseball, then in politics. In 2012, he became known for correctly determining the winner in all 50 states before the US presidential election. In 2016, he was wrong, like many others, to believe that Donald Trump had only a 29 percent chance of winning.
Signal and Noise describes methods for constructing mathematical models based on probability theory and statistical techniques.
As examples of various statistical principles, Silver discusses poker, explaining why no one was able to predict the crisis of the 2000s, how Google’s search engine works, whether nuclear war is possible, and why weather forecasts do not come true.
Read also:Cartoons about real human values PAID TREATMENT Collected - 452 175 UAH For closed projects of the Fund on the UBB website - 26 615 UAH SMS receipts - 1 173 UAH Donations online (Lycpee) -