My recent reading, primarily on cognitive topics.
- “Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart,” by Gerd Gigerenzer, Peter M. Todd, and ABC Research Group - could have used a more aggressive editor. Some decisions are better made with less evidence. The opening two pages of the book were enough to illustrate this, giving the example of an emergency room triage protocol for heart attacks, reduced to three simple questions, instead of the 29 or so the hospital used before, which led to quicker and more accurate diagnoses.
- “No Country for Old Men,” by Cormac McCarthy – I don’t get it. I really don’t. Don’t get the point. Don’t get the hype.
- “Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences,” by John Allen Paulos – I’ve been slacking on my math skills, so I picked this up as you-can-do-it. The most interesting part of the book was a mathematical proof, of sorts, on the best strategy for picking a spouse.
- “Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World,” by Chris Frith – Recommended by Ramachandran, so I picked it up. Fascinating book. Most of my reading now centers on cognitive matters. It’s supremely interesting to find out why people act certain ways.
- “Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body,” by Neil Shubin – Very good book. The graphics could have been better though.
- “Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind,” by V. S. Ramachandran, Sandra Blakeslee. – Re-read. This is by far the most interesting book I’ve ever read, and I loan it out frequently. His new book is MIA…..
- Documentation for the “Memoir” class for LaTeX, by Peter Wilson. Free PDF. The first section “Art and Theory” is a great summary of the parts of a book. I should be picking up “The Elements of Typographic Style,” by Robert Bringhurst, tomorrow.
- Edward Tufte’s website forum provides hours of fascinating reading. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information should be required reading for every IT person (and most other fields). “Envisioning Information” should be, as well, and “Visual Explanations.” Still haven’t read “Beautiful Evidence” I’ve purchased and given away (so far) six copies of his PowerPoint essay. Lord, do I despise PowerPoint presentations! I’ll hold that rant off for another blog entry, though. You’re welcome.
- I’ve been reading up on Optimism Bias (Kahneman again) and reference class forecasting. It’s typical to underestimate the time and resources required for a project, so proper project planning should refer to a reference class — a similar project — to compare with, and your bias compensated for. Short summary.