Books finished in October:
(Warning: reviews are unpolished and quickly written.)

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants. Reviewed before.

The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition, and the Common Good by Robert H. Frank. Recommended.

Robert Frank contends that in a hundred years from now, economists will have recognized Charles Darwin as the most important economic thinker. Darwin was influenced by Adam Smith, but had a wider conception of competition. A key distinction is between traits that are beneficial for an individual and the species, and traits that are beneficial for an individual but not the species. An example of the latter is the horns of the bull elk, featured on the cover. The horns are an asset when fighting for females, but not when trying to escape predators. Frank believes that had the elks had the opportunity to vote to downsize all the horns, they would have done so unanimously, like hockey players when considering the mandatory use of helmets.

Frank believes such head to head competition is important for humans as well, as much of what we care about is “graded on the curve”. He starts with the example of competing to have the best/most expensive suit. This may seem trivial, but he follows up with more important cases, most importantly of how people overinvest in houses, both because of trying to keep abreast of one’s neighbors and because school quality is related to certain areas. Cars and parties are other goods that make people try to outcompete each other, to the detriment of the common good. As people compare themselves with those slightly higher on the curve, “expenditure cascades” result.

Since we have these strong positional concerns, one’s consumption imposes a negative externality on others, and should be taxed like other externalities. The way to do this is by way of a progressive consumption tax – take income minus savings, and tax that at a progressive rate. This avoids the negative effects of income and payroll taxes (on saving and job creation). And in the long run, everyone will be richer as a result of the increases investments. This seems like a good idea regardless of what one believes about expediture cascades.

I find Frank’s thoughts very appealing. One difficulty is that many types of expenditure can be seen as investments. If I pay for education rather than saving, should that be treated as consumption? I am not sure how one would deal with that and other similar issues. But the book is definitely recommended.

Hits to both the left (tax rather than regulate; there is no conspiracy among capitalists) and right (public spending is too low, we should increase it by taxing harmful activities).

The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons. Recommended.

Popular, yet rigorous, science. The care the authors take not to overstate their claims or their generality stands out in this book by experimental psychologists Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons. The book is organized around six common cognitive illusions: 1) Attention (just because we are paying attention does not mean we notice everything); 2) Memory (memories are fragile, impacted by beliefs, perception and other things, and may be misleading); 3) Confidence (confidence is not necessarily related to skill, feedback is essential for improvement); 4) Knowledge (we believe we know more than we do, e.g. do not really know how things, machines, markets, etc work); 5) Cause (correlation is not, we see patterns and make predictions); 6) Potential (not everything have a quick and easy fix).

A very good book, though times it goes through things in too much detail, and the authors sometimes assume too little sophistication about how “we” interpret things, at least when writing about how we infer causal relationships. They also say that we have no way to know about cause-effect in the absence of an experiment, however there are other ways of identifying causal effects.

The purported cognitive benefits of su-doku, crossword puzzles etc, classical music have not shown up in rigorous studies. Research on the benefits of more advanced games have so far produced ambiguous results.

Fluency can be misleading. The book ends with a plea for thinking things through and being way about intuitions. But do look for the gorilla, it may be that we do not see one because of the illusions.

The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen by Kwawe Anthony Appiah. Appiah tells the stories of three once-pervasive but now abandoned customs – the duel in aristocratic England, foot-binding in China, and slavery – and one that is still alive – honor killings of women in Pakistan. He notes that the abandonment of these practices did not result from moral arguments alone, as they were always put forward long before. At the same time, it is not simply legislation that caused the revolutions. Collective action among families apparently was important in ending foot binding. The account the working class supporting the abolition of slavery because it degraded manual labor is very nice, but I wonder what historians think. At the end of the book I am not too much wiser on how they do happen, as the stories are quite different for the different cases, although it has to do with shifting codes of honor. I reviewed a couple of Appiahs book last month, I liked those better.

Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much by Sendhil Mullaainathan and Eldar Shafir. In contrast to other popular science books, here for once is one that acknowledges that there are trade-offs in the world-more of everything is not necessarily better. Much is quite standard for an economist used to thinking about scarce resources, here attention. The novel point is that scarcity itself is costly. Scarcity reduces “bandwith”, like a computer overloaded with running programs. An experiment with random assignment of rich and poor show how scarcity itself can be stressful and thus important beyond having fewer resources. Planning ahead is important for success-is there a difference between long-term thinkers and others? Maybe not, since find many who do not think ahead among students at good universities and other resourceful people. But there really are differences among, I would object, the question is what trait or combination of traits is more fundamental. Everyone tunnels, but it is a good idea to structure incentives well inside the tunnel. The authors recognize that we need to prioritize what to incentivize the poor to do, since every activity taxes bandwith. Effects on bandwith are important to consider and also to see as an outcome. E.g. helping a poor mother with full-day child care so she does not have to juggle so many arrangements. Allocated bandwith more important than number of hours, ref Ford and efficiency wages.

Mathletics: A Scientist Explains 100 Amazing Things About the World of Sports by John Barrow. Ok. In most cases too many simplifications or not too illumating.

Ratings and additional books are in the library.

Books finished in September:
(Warning: reviews are unpolished and quickly written.)

The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty by Nina Munk. Recommended. 

The story of Jeffrey Sachs’ rise (and fall?). Sachs became a celebrity as an economic shock therapist in Bolivia in the late 1980’s and then in Poland and Russia. He then turned his considerable attention to poverty and in particular Africa, wanting to jump-start economic development there. He often argued on the basis of cost-effectiveness, as with the case for controlling malaria, but seems to have been consistently overoptimistic about how to obtain and keep up funding. In addition to disregarding advice on how to implement his changes, in particular on creating local ownership, controlling corruption and creating accountability. Add to this a lack of any strategy for measuring results, it is no surprise that the debate about the impact of Sachs’ highly advertised Millennium Villages have become heated. A piece (by Michael Clemence and Gabriel Demombynes, both involved in the debate) about what can be learned about the need for transparency from that controversy can be found here.

In the book, Sachs comes off as motivated and engaging, but also as righteous, preachy, and someone not tackling criticism or dealing with real-world constraints. Sachs drew much criticism for the effects of his shock therapies, but I believe his approach there was the right one: Acknowledging that there are trade-offs and costs that must be incurred, but that the alternative is worse. When trying to do too much, one may easily end up getting done nothing.

Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (Issues of Our Time) by Kwame Anthony Appiah. Appiah traces the history of cosmopolitan ethics to try to stake a course between cultural relativism and value fundamentalism. He does not present clear-cut answers, but believes mutual understanding will ensue if both (or all) sides participate in conversation – both in its original meaning of living together and of the current meaning of discussing – and get used to each other. Then we may actually learn from our differences. And presumably also extend our moral circle. Perhaps this is naive, but perhaps not. I particularly liked the part where he reminds us that people with different beliefs often appeal to evidence the same way, e.g. by employing explanations that they cannot account for in detail, invoking authorities, and bringing up new facts that needs explaining. He is perfectly clear that modern science most often provides better explanations, thanks to its institutional structure that has been built and has persisted for a long time.

Experiments in Ethics (Mary Flexner Lecture Series of Bryn Mawr College) Kwame Anthony Appiah. Experimental philosophy is a rapidly growing new discipline, in which philosophical concepts and intuitions are investigated empirically. Appiah begins his book with an exposition of the well known fact that today’s narrow conception of philosophy is a very recent phenomenon, philosophers from antiquity to the 18th century worked in what is today known as science, and all this work fell under the label of philosophy. For example, the “natural philosophies” of Copernicus and Kepler were included a survey of “Philosophies.”

Appiah uses this to show that philosophers were no strangers of experiments, and draws the line to today’s experimental philosophers by stating that experimental thinking was also part of their repertoire. David Hume explicitly claimed to be engaged in “experiments” in his works. Although it is not altogether clear what exactly Hume intended with his use of the word, he was always committed to data.

I was not aware that Thomas Schelling was an early investigator of modern “behavioral economics” topics like the reference point and the win-loss distinction.

I like that Appiah discusses the uncertainty present in “trolley” scenarios, too few people consider that, in my opinion essential, element in these cases. Although he loses me after that.

Jonathan Haidt has become famous arguing that people reason from intuitions and emotions to moral judgment. Appiah cleverly suggests that Haidt himself may be doing the same in some of his cases of whether a particular act is a moral offense (such as having sex with a dead chicken, and then cooking and eating it). People’s reasons for why these things constitute a moral offense are not very informative, but are other reasons?

Ratings and additional books are in the library.

Books finished in August:
(Warning: reviews are unpolished and quickly written.)

Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam by Nick Turse. Demands a review of its own. Recommended. 

It’s Game Time Somewhere; How One Year, 100 Events, and 50 Different Sports Changed My Life, by Tim Forbes. It’s Game Time Somewhere is the story of how a sports junkie got his dream of working in sports fulfilled, lost interest in sports, then found it again. Tim Forbes gives up his well-paying consultant job to get a foot into working in golf, then rises through the ranks there to become an ad-man and event manager. Along the way, however, he loses his passion for sports, and sets out to rekindle it through watching 100 events of 50 different sports. Things do not go as planned, unfortunately, as there is always something missing. He rants about ill-behaved superstars and an obsession with advertisement. In the end he realizes that what brings the good experiences is being part of a community is important, but what proves to be most powerful is participating oneself. To facilitate participation in any way becomes his advice to arrangers of sports events.

If this book had been 1/3 as long and with 85% fewer jokes, it would have been an interesting and fresh look on something that means a lot to a lot of people. As it is, it becomes tedious and only occasionally entertaining.

Republic of Outsiders: The Power of Amateurs, Dreamers and Rebels by Alissa Quart. Innovations often come from outsiders. But often outsiders also come up with gibberish, and though Quart mentions that tension explicitly, she did not elighten me about it. To be fair, I do not think she promises to.

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia: A Novel by Mohsin Hamid. The opportunities, challenges and choices involved in being an entrepreneur in the third world, half-parodically clothed as a self help book. We meet a You that is guided through how to succeed moneywise, which also carries with it successes and failures of other kinds. Recommended.

Why I Am a Buddhist: No-Nonsense Buddhism with Red Meat and Whiskey by Stephen T. Asma. Ok.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carre. Although usually not a fan of spy novels, I must confess I thoroughly enjoyed this classic.

The Little Book of Talent: 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills by Daniel Coyle. Nice little book with tips from Coyle’s experience and research. Seems very good to look at before trying to teach kids, but also in general. Most of the tips are in my librarything review.

Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber. Interesting chapter on the economics myth of ancient truck and barter, but the book jumped around too much and was too long for me to be able to keep the thread, I put it down halfway. Excellent reviews by Henry and others at the Crooked Timber seminar on the book.

Ratings and additional books are in the library.

Books finished in July:
(Warning: reviews are unpolished and quickly written.)

• From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and Its Aftermath by Kenan Malik. Malik, a psychologist and writer living in Britain, son of an Indian Hindu-Muslim couple, was shocked by the burning of Salman Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses in Bradford in 1989, and it is never any doubt that his sympathy is with the freedom of speech and against making exceptions to that, to any religious or political side. He makes several good points:
  -Rushdie early on an outspoken anti-racism, anti-imperialism voice.
  -multiculturalism in Britain imposed from above, not broadly demanded from below.
  -multiculturalism restraining youth to live within boundaries and rules the British society had in many cases discarded.
  -diversity of views within communities, evidence from surveys. Mullahs, etc often not representative.
  -militants often have little knowledge. In fact, Malik views them more as generic protesters/rebels than moved by religious, fairness, or other intellectual motives.
  -Malik got article with an analogy between Rushdie and the freethinker Thomas Paine (1737-1809) rejected by the Independent, and is worried about possible increasing self-censorship.
  -cartoons etc published many times without controversy, then some people were able to make them light fire. This shows that the context is crucial. Perhaps there is some hope in this, in that controversy does not necessarily run deep.
• Ava’s Man, by Rick Bragg. Nostalgic about Charlie Bundrum, an all-beloved family- and handyman living in the South during the great depression. Not without faults, but revered by everyone. Worked as carpenter, (bootleg) whisky-maker, and fisherman. A bygone time that was not long ago.
• Two Caravans, by Marina Lewycka. Ok.
• The Prodigy: A Biography of William James Sidis, America’s Greatest Child Prodigy by Amy Wallace. The life of William James Sidis (1898-1944), wizard of mathematics, languages and much else. Probably well endowed naturally, and was taught to love learning and reasoning by his parents. It is striking how much of this upbringing is regarded as standard in many environments today: Answering children’s question seriously, talking to them as adults, learn them reasoning and principles rather than isolated facts and rigid rules. The author makes that case that WJS suffered from a dysfunctional relationship between his parents, having to be socially together with older others, and above all from being hunted on by the tabloid press. Made substantial contributions to mathematical physics, but eventually he retreated into anonymity and menial jobs, although still an intellectual firework in the areas that he did not leave behind, like politics and the collection of streetcar transfers(!). Although eccentric he did not appear bitter. The moral is nevertheless to treat children seriously as learners, but let them be children.
• Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington. Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in 1856. He lived as a slave until the end of the civil war in 1865, when his family was freed. He was determined to learn how to read and managed to obtain an education at the Hampton Institute, Virginia. A strong advocate of the importance of education for the black race. Apparently there were tensions between this approach and the more confrontational tone of many others in the black political community, but this is not something that is mentioned specifically in the book. Washington stressed the importance of learning a trade to become an integrated and valued member of society, and worked as an educator for most of his life, heading the Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, from 1881 until his death in 1915.
• Revolt in the Desert: The Authorised Abridged Edition of “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” by T. E. Lawrence. Unnuanced generalizations about nations, peoples, etc. Not engaging.

Ratings and additional books are in the library.