Loren

Well Researched, Well Travelled, Well Told

Revisado: 02-17-20

There are three sets of stories: Survival, Failure, and Future, and each of those sections has three specific locations for the stories. As the subtitle of the book advertises, there are lessons that each of the stories can provide.

The survival group has stories of post tsunami Indonesia, Zaatari (a very large refugee camp in Jordan), and a prison in Louisiana. Examining these locations from the perceptive of how markets work is quite insightful, and those interested in public policy related to those environments would do well to read these accounts.

The failure group includes Darien (a no-man's land between Panama and Colombia), Kinshasa (DRC), and Glasgow. All of these failed for very different reasons, and are all interesting. The future group includes Akita, Japan (extreme aging), Tallinn, Estonia, (extreme efforts at digital government), and Santiago (an extreme wealth distribution).

The author does a nice job of working in relevant economic and other social science literature where it makes sense, but unlike a lot of books, it does not appear that the editor told the author to jam in more content to make it longer. In addition, he is well versed in economics, and while he clearly supports the vibrant markets that he observed in Zaatari and Indonesia, he also details the harsh impacts of the market oriented policies and income inequality in Santiago and the failure of the market in Darien. So while the examples are 'extreme', he is not an extreme economist on one or the other side of the ideological spectrum.

From work and other interests, I have connections with a number of these places and issues, so I found this book to be very useful. But even for those who didn't have prior interests in these specific locations, it is still a very good read. Few people are likely to get to most of these places, much less do the kind of systematic interviews and analysis performed by the author.

In terms of the audible reading, the narrator does not get in the way of the story and has an English accent as well as a Castilian accent in the sections reading Spanish place names, etc.

Of course, like any audible book, it does mean that you want to refer to a map or photos about those locations, but that is probably a good sign rather than a criticism. I also appreciate that he doesn't bother listing the http address or constantly mentioning "the accompanying PDF", those are just annoying. We know how to find maps and photos.

I read (listen to) a lot of economics titles in the vein of this book and freakonomics, etc., and this author found a good approach and did a really good job on it.

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Window on a World We Will Never See

Revisado: 10-08-19

The author spent years, lots of money, and risked his life to witness the kinds of things that happen in the open ocean.

It is more of a story of the small ship/vulnerable individuals rather than large scale geopolitics, but that is the story that is least reported.

You will look at seafood and the oceans differently after reading this book.

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Not concise like the title

Revisado: 11-20-17

I am not an AI professional and learned a lot from the book. However I found there to be a lot of repetition and some chapters that belonged in an entirely different book.

That is unfortunate as the author is well connected in the field and has an important message, some of which may get lost if listeners lose interest.

Narrator is excellent, never gets in the way.

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A few big flaws

Revisado: 06-28-17

There are some excellent examples and explanations in the book but I really tired about halfway through. One problem is that this audio book would be enhanced by some graphics, particularly of the different log functions he describes. In addition, the really long section on cities is off the mark and gets in the way of a compelling narrative. Finally, this often seems like an advertisement for the Santa Fe institute and I find his plaudits for all his colleagues annoying and again takes away from the message.

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Great history of the Chief of Staff position

Revisado: 04-15-17

The author goes chronologically from the Nixon Administration through the Obama administration summarizing the tenures of each of the chiefs. He has excellent access to the principals and described many of the highs and lows of the administrations and how those related to the roles of the CoS. He also has good information about the personalities of each of the chiefs and how that either helped them serve their presidents or got in the way.

He makes the case over and over that the modern presidency cannot function without a strong CoS, which was attempted by Carter and Clinton. He also suggests that 'principals' -- CoS who take themselves too seriously do not function well in the job (Sununu and Regan). Finally, his stories also show that presidents are not generally well served by CoS who are too close, as that prevents them from giving bad news or tough advice to the presidents.

Extremely well researched and very interesting read, and each of his major points are generally well supported by interviews from those who were in the position.

The only loose end is that while these characteristics seem necessary, they are not enough to prevent disasters from occurring on their watch, which the author confronts most directly with Haldeman and Nixon. Not the fault of the book, but just a reflection of the fact that both people and the world of politics in Washington are very complicated.

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Mismatch?

Revisado: 03-07-17

My goal in reading this book was to get a better understanding of how blockchain works, where it is likely to be employed, and to think about whether all the hype is warranted.

This book is pretty light on the second and third of those goals, with more guidance on how to set up your own blockchain. Really? Is a person who is planning to set up a blockchain going to start with a one hour self help book?

I now plan to look elsewhere such as on YouTube for some visual guides and maybe for another article or book to help me understand the hype.

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Piece of crap.

Revisado: 02-08-17

Returned. Seems like main point was to maximize the number of times he used the word fuck.

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A multi-level message, well written and well read

Revisado: 11-16-15

When you begin this book, it seems as if it will be a straight comparison between the airline safety model of reviewing and learning from accidents (open) and the medical system model for covering up mistakes (closed), and it does describe few powerful illustrative examples from each of those fields. However, it turns out to have quite a few more dimensions and lessons, For example, it also turns its focus on the criminal justice system (closed) and the political system (closed). These analyses alone would make it a good book and support a strong argument that learning from mistakes is hugely important.

However, the author takes it a step further and looks at some of the psychological reasons why all of us find it so difficult to admit mistakes (cognitive dissonance), and how we so naturally create narratives that support our original decisions. Like some of the best books in this genre, the book forces us to admit that we also are subject to the same kinds of biases that make it difficult to create and maintain "open" systems that encourage us to regularly test our ideas, even while it provides one example after another of why mistakes are essential to learning.

Simon Slater is a good narrator: pace, accent, and expression contribute to an excellent audio book.

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Not worth the listen

Revisado: 06-14-15

I have read the full book and wanted to see whether it was possible to get the essence in the summary, but I don't think it is possible. First thing is that the summary is dry dry dry since it does not include the experiments that make the insights so memorable.

That was bad enough but the narrator then started butchering certain names like Bayesian, and even worse, he misread the word 'causal' for 'casual' which was repeated about ten times. They wasn't just irritating, it was confusing.

I just switched it off at that point.

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esto le resultó útil a 16 personas

Condescending

Revisado: 02-16-15

Some reasonable examples and concepts but the author is condescending and the narrator's expression makes it worse. I am not sure I will finish this one. Contrast to Think Like a Freak which appeals to experts and novices alike.

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