Category: Book Reviews

Gad Saad is a Lebanese Jewish (he states he is an atheist of “Jewish heritage”) person whose family was one of the last to leave Lebanon because of the civil war. They left because the multi-cultural, religiously tolerant society collapsed, their safety was no longer possible.

Gad remembers in elementary school hearing a classmate say they wanted to grow up to be a Jew killer.

His family moved to Canada where others of his family had established themselves. He went to college at McGill University for his first two degrees and then Cornell for his PhD in marketing. He is known for his work in evolutionary psychology in the marketing and consumer behavior fields. He has taught in Canada and the US but has come under pressure in Canada for his views on the conflict in Israel.

His book was fascinating, published in 2020. I heard of it from a podcast on “Honestly”,the podcast series from Bari Weiss.

From the summary on Amazon. “There’s a war against truth… and if we don’t win it, intellectual freedom will be a casualty.
The West’s commitment to freedom, reason, and true liberalism has never been more seriously threatened than it is today by the stifling forces of political correctness.
Dr. Gad Saad, the host of the enormously popular YouTube show THE SAAD TRUTH, exposes the bad ideas—what he calls “idea pathogens”—that are killing common sense and rational debate. Incubated in our universities and spread through the tyranny of political correctness, these ideas are endangering our most basic freedoms—including freedom of thought and speech.
The danger is grave, but as Dr. Saad shows, politically correct dogma is riddled with logical fallacies. We have powerful
weapons to fight back with—if we have the courage to use them.
A provocative guide to defending reason and intellectual freedom and a battle cry for the preservation of our fundamental rights, The Parasitic Mind will be the most controversial and talked-about book of the year.”

The book helped me think about the factual basis of my opinions so to avoid glamming on to the rhetoric of my information sources. Every issue we face today has two sides. The overwhelming majority of people in the Lavant want a safe place to make a living and raise their families. Both sides are pulled towards opinion by “their” side of the issue versus finding common ground underlying a solution. Sound familiar to our current political milieu?

This was not a heavy read but highlighted common tendencies in all of us and offers a way out to solutions.

Jonathon Rauch wrote a readable thesis concerning our society’s foundation of establishing knowledge. He likens this to the constitution of our government, the rules and procedures to establish our governing system are the same as  those to establish knowledge that engenders trust in the resultant body of work.

Today our foundation is being eroded by those who don’t mind lying, manipulating facts, creating their own facts, punish anyone who decides to disagree with you, etc. Both the right and left use methods unique to each to control the messaging.

He wrote this during the first Trump administration and gets off track by only giving examples of misdeeds by him and his folks, openly admitting he does that, page 180. My opinion is that takes away from the argument as both sides of the aisle are equally guilty.

He follows this with a condemnation of cancel culture, a  creation of the left, and does a good job doing so. The left totally owns this disease of our society.

He uses quotes from folks that have been exiled to the trash bin of history in a positive fashion. FBI director Comey. Peter Strzok, FBI agent, who wrote to Lisa Page a FBI attorney in a FBI email that they needed to find a way to stop Trump. Anthony Fauci. Erwin Chemerinsky, law dean at Berkeley who wants to trash the constitution and start all over. All credited with standing up to the Trump administration when they were all actually suppressing the truth.

He mentions with praise many things I respect. Braver Angels. Jonathon Haidt. FIRE. And many more. He spends too much time on gay rights and the struggles he and others faced, he should have given other references.

He credited many supporters, including the Koch’s and other conservative groups amongst the overwhelming progressive supporters. At least they were mentioned.

Both sides of the aisle  should be concerned about how our society sifts through information to create truth. Both sides of the aisle should have the courage to admit fallibility, accept empirical proof, work to persuade versus impose ideas–all these strengthen our republic by creating common ground.

Social media has done a great thing bringing everything to everybody, and a terrible thing at the same time. The old aristocratic stranglehold of media has been broken and it appears we must all now find our own trusted sources of truth. Many options are not truth.

This could be a good thing, but we as citizens must step up to this new responsibility. There is a great deal of junk being pushed at us, it could destroy trust in the institutions that hold the republic together.

Let us pray.

 

“The Undoing Project” M Lewis

Copyright 2017, read May 2024

Not exactly sure where I heard of this book.

“Doubt if not a pleasant condition, bur certainty is an absurd one.” – Voltaire. This quote opens the book.  Another favorite quote along those same lines is “Right or wrong, but never in doubt.” Attributed to Mark Twain. Amos was a bit like that, 151.

This book is about two Israeli psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who collaborated to create a new understanding of how we humans make decisions, both correct and incorrect. They were present at the creation of Israel, were in the military through a couple of wars, taught in Israel, then both emigrated to the US/Canada to teach here. They are characterized as two people of one mind with very different personalities, both quirky in many ways yet perceiving some truths that are now recognized as foundational. Tversky died early of cancer (melanoma) and Kahneman was awarded the Nobel prize later for the work they created.

Lewis, as normal, writes with an engaging, novel-like style pulling you through the story. I have read other books of his and found them to create a narrative he seemed to want to make. An example, “The Big Short” about the financial crisis was very critical of the financial industry, rating agencies, greedy mortgage brokers, etc. but left out the fact that the Clinton administration supercharged the CRA to push home loans so to raise the home ownership percentages in the U.S.

Anyway. Collaboration with folks who have knowledge you don’t; Focusing on “undoing” which really means root cause failure analysis before making a decision; and reading Kahneman’s book, “Thinking Fast and Slowly” are keys to the decision-making process.

37 balance data with human intuition

44 Sunk cost prejudices our thoughts towards retention versus letting something go away.

62 The 35, a story about 35 Israel Army folks who were killed on an operation when they were discovered by a shepherd who they let go. Lone Survivor same story. The decision to not kill the boy was in error.

72 The halo effect, the root foundation for a decision is known to us and we overlook better data.

82 The Kahneman Score is a data point to grade pilots, kind of like the GRIT score, a piece of data to bounce human thought against. An evaluation score, like a personality test.

98 If you wait long enough a problem may not be urgent anymore, like Truman.

113 Similarity with what we know tends to lead us down a path to a decision that may be faulty

126 praise and correction works better than negative criticism

141 Take a break trying to solve a problem, constant work clouds the mind.

148 Confirmation bias is a killer.

173 Doctor decisions tested based on data, results were scary, disagreements, 5 days later a different diagnosis from same doctor.

195 A summary, our perceptions, biases, retained models of the past, confirmation bias, etc., no matter how much our training, lead to inaccurate decisions. We should use data and collaborate with others before making big decisions.

221 Acknowledging uncertainty is a key to good decisions, be vulnerable, ask around, read, get data all within the time frame for the decision.237

231 the need for certainty drives many poor decisions.  Wrigley. Making War.

248 we should evaluate a decision not on its’ outcome solely but the decision process that let to it.

261 Various tests show we make decisions to minimize regret, not maximize gain.

264 When one fails to take action and something not so good happens we tend to not accept responsibility for inaction. Confession of sin!

317 Delta pilot training on crew coordination reduced incidents by training in collaboration with others, data, etc. JAL accident in SFO-“I can’t tell the captain he is wrong”

327 The conjunction fallacy;

342 The Prospect Theory, the second most cited paper in economics. We make economic decisions the same way we make others and in order to make better decisions we must recognize our foibles. 60% of all acquisitions do not meet their financial projections.

 

A worthwhile read, a bit heavy on the relationship between the two men and somewhat theoretical on the philosophy side but I came away with a base knowledge of our decision processes need to be right in front of us and we need to collaborate.

Habits

I recently read a couple of books about habits, “Atomic Habits” by James Clear and “The Power of Habits” by Charles Duhigg.

One of my clients recommended the first to me and the second was referenced by the first so I read that also.

I knew habits were both positive and negative, in our personal and public lives, but learned how powerful they are in determining our ability to achieve our goals. They also operate semi-consciously in most everything we do. Our brains want to use little energy, so a habit enables us to act in the most efficient manner possible.

Atomic breaks down how a habit is established, how they are maintained and how to change a habit we may find objectionable. It is easy to read, summarizes each chapter, provides examples of each point that are relevant to us all.

The Power does a similar analysis but in much more depth.

Both books are worth the read to assist us in establishing positive habits and ameliorating negative ones. I would read Atomic first, then if more detail is desired The Power second.

Again, I learned how much of our actions are habits, meaning we don’t think about what we are doing thoroughly enough sometimes.

The End of Race Politics, Coleman Hughes

A 2024 book by Mr. Hughes. I learned of it from a Firing Line interview and was impressed with the clear headed and practical thought addressing a critical cultural issue for our republic.

I am 77, served in the Marine Corps and Alabama National Guard and then was employed by an international distribution company till retirement. I saw bigotry firsthand, as did my father who served during the second world war. My luck was being in an organization that was established as colorblind, meritocracy was the path to success. When a racist of any color decided to use their power to suppress another there was a culture and legal foundation to support others to stop injustice. Certainly not in every case but an overwhelming majority.

Coleman Hughes examines the current state of “neo-racists” who want to re-impose a culture that was fought against in the civil rights era. They are the other end of white supremacists. They play on past injustices to stoke the fire of resentment to create a place for them to reap personal and financial benefit for themselves and those close to them.

There are racists in our country today, of all colors. There always will be until we evolve out of the tribal, flight or flight creation of our species. One day maybe. Until then we enforce the laws against discrimination. We favor no one based on their race. We fix our K-12 education system so opportunity is available to all.

This was a short read but very powerful.

Adam Grant is at Wharton, was the youngest tenured professor when he started.  He is a psychologist who has done some interesting work in what works in the business and personal world.

“Give and Take” was an enjoyable read, well researched with lots of stories illustrating his points. He talked about how we interact with others, classifying us as “Givers”, “Takers” and “Matchers.” Later in the book he provides resources to help us see who we are and methods to alter our interaction habits if desired. An effective “how to” book.

As a sales guy, a leader in a now large company, $6 Bn sales in North America, Latin America and Australia, I found the book very instructive to assist us in our goals to be more productive, effective and personally happy. I was pleased that some of the suggestions were habits I had developed (thanks USMC), others I wished I had developed.

The interesting take away was that “Givers” reside at the highest level of “success”, and the lowest. That declaration early in the book was counter-intuitive until the research and examples were detailed.

All can benefit from reading, reflecting and acting on the results. The last section was a gift, tools to help us change if so desired. Lots of books shine in research, etc. then leave us hanging on how to implement, not this one!

I just finished this book, written by three famous Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Bill Campbell is the subject and he circuitously ended up in the valley coaching many of the leaders of our tech world.

Starting out in football, not being very successful, he evolved when at IBM in marketing, he was involved with the ad at the super bowl, the woman throwing the sledge into the screen. He found his way to the valley running a couple of companies and then evolved into full time coaching.

He is characterized as outcome oriented, a sailors’ vocabulary, unwilling to pander to anyone, high integrity, compassionate and a giver-someone who gives more than he gets.

He made a bunch of money but coached kids’ sports, talked with everyone and made contacts with folks who at the time were not “important.”

He died of cancer in early 70’s, too bad, the book has mostly good lessons, along with some stuff that I can leave behind.  A relatively short read.