In the Affluent Society, Galbraith offers up his view of the world, or rather how he feels the rest of the world views it wrong! He points out that when much of the early economic literature was written, there had begun a fundamental shift in world economics. Up until that time, poverty was the norm... bare sustenance was the primary economic problem to be solved. About the time Adam Smith began observing the pin factory, the world was changing to become what Galbraith calls, an "Affluent Soc
author: Matt | posted @ Tuesday, August 26, 2008 8:30 PM | Feedback (0)
"Emergent Design: The Evolutionary Nature of Professional Software Development" is a must read for anyone in the software development field. Whether you are a manager, a developer or a consultant, this book will help you view the profession differently. Scott does an incredible job of being a down-to-earth visionary... someone who can see things clearly from 50,000 feet, but has the technical legs to stand on the ground and look the code in the eye. What follows here does the book no justice
author: Matt | posted @ Monday, August 11, 2008 11:36 PM | Feedback (0)
Full disclosure: I am a software developer that is generally a free-market conservative. David Rice writes as though software developers are incompetantly nefarious drolls who have created a market failure that requires heavy government intervention to protect the masses. If that sounds like "over the top" rhetoric, wait until you read his book. Peppering his prose with emotionally charged language like "sad irony", "public ignorance" and "shockingly", and of course his most quoted phrase "six
author: Matt | posted @ Saturday, August 09, 2008 2:27 PM | Feedback (0)
"Patterns" has become a bit of a buzz word in software development of late. Kent Beck takes a different angle on the topic with his book "Implementation Patterns". Beck takes the notion of patterns from being a somewhat abstract discussion of object oriented design down to the "bare metal" of the writing of the code itself. In my opinion, every programmer ought to read this book, even if they don't follow his advice. The ideas and concepts explored are critical to a deep understanding of wha
author: Matt | posted @ Tuesday, July 22, 2008 9:43 PM | Feedback (0)
This is a collection of chapters that are essentially research papers by various authors. The subject matter is generally along the lines of HCI, however some of the topics are very narrow. Among the topics are utilizing AI for the interface, creating better e-commerce web sites and incorporating HCI concepts into the software development life cycle. If you are interested in researching any of these topics, each chapter is well research and each has its own bibliography. What follows is not
author: Matt | posted @ Friday, June 27, 2008 2:53 PM | Feedback (0)
Donald Norman provides an excellent treatise in the design issues surrounding usability. He focuses most of his effort on the design of physical products such as automobiles, home appliances and building components, however his attention to computer interaction design is very prescient considering the year of this book’s publishing.
author: Matt | posted @ Wednesday, June 25, 2008 4:24 PM | Feedback (0)
I tend to not read much fiction so when I do it is either a handful of authors that I know I like, or like this book, a recommended one. Recently I asked my boss, who I respect greatly, for some ideas on reading and research. He is a follower of Objectivism and recommended I read some of Ayn Rand's books. This was the first of the series he suggested I read.
author: Matt | posted @ Monday, June 02, 2008 3:26 PM | Feedback (0)
This "review" is more of a sketch of notes I took while reading this book. Crandall, Klein and Hoffman deliver an intensely practical look into a realm of psychology that could be very difficult to comprehend. The book surrounds the notion of Cognitive Task Analysis which is essentially a method of studying how people think. Klein's work has surrounded primarily the way people make decisions (Sources of Power) however in Working Minds the authors also look at how people learn to do new jobs,
author: Matt | posted @ Tuesday, May 13, 2008 9:11 PM | Feedback (0)
Robert Austin manages to sum up in this short book the observations that bothered me for 16 years working for FedEx. As a courier for most of those years, I watched the company struggle with measurement dysfunction as they attempted to get more and more productivity from their employees. The symptoms I witnessed first-hand are so clearly described by Austin that it surprises me that no one at FedEx picked the book up and fixed the widespread problem. If you doubt me, stop your FedEx courier s
author: Matt | posted @ Monday, April 21, 2008 9:38 PM | Feedback (0)
I have to admit that I get pretty geeked up about books like this one! In Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions, Gary Klein addresses a phenomenal array of questions and issues surrounding the stated topic. Even though the book is written in the style of a research report, it is sprinkled with enough fascinating anecdotes that it will keep your interest even if you don't like that style. The stories make the reading easy, but Klein's approach to the material makes it interesting.
author: Matt | posted @ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 11:50 PM | Feedback (0)
This is a fascinating look at the Supreme Court that is unfortunately marred by the incredible bias of the author. I enjoy reading a diversity of opinions, however Toobin so blatantly injects his political beliefs into this story that it leaves one to wonder about the factual nature of his accounts. As I recently explained to my son, an 8th grader, sometimes what an author doesn't tell you is as important as what he does tell you. While all of the anecotes are fascinating and the book itself
author: Matt | posted @ Friday, March 14, 2008 11:50 PM | Feedback (0)
Joseph Williams manages to present this textbook information in a very non-textbook-like manner. In Style: Towards Clarity and Grace he quickly covers the complex topic of writing with the ease of someone with a mastery of the subject. Using common sense, plenty of examples and a good sense of humor, Williams conveys his ideas with a delightful variety that makes the book a pleasure to read.
author: Matt | posted @ Wednesday, February 27, 2008 11:27 PM | Feedback (0)
In Five Minds for the Future, Howard Gardner explores the mental capacities that he believes will be crucial to the success of individuals in the future. He explores these five concepts in a multi-faceted manner, looking at not only the educational ramifications but also the continuing improvement of the mind in the work place. Gardner manages to skirt many touchy political issues but his liberal bias comes out from time to time (as in his comparison of Jon Steward to Ralph Nader.) The book i
author: Matt | posted @ Sunday, February 10, 2008 5:45 PM | Feedback (0)
Naomi Karten has written a very comprehensive book dealing with a wide range of issues relating to communication within an organization. While she touches from time to time on personal communication issues, her primary focus is on organizational communication with an emphasis on the information technology field. As with most speakers who also write, her writing style reflects the fact that she is more comfortable with the spoken word and from time to time you get the impression that her humor
author: Matt | posted @ Friday, February 01, 2008 12:48 AM | Feedback (0)
I made the mistake of reading the two Taleb books on my list out of order. In fact, had I read Fooled By Randomness first, I could have skipped reading The Black Swan since the bulk of the material is covered in the first book (and covered better in my opinion.) That is not to say that there was no new material in the second book, but rather that the new material was not enough to justify spending the time to read through the re-hash. As far as readability goes, I would recommend Fooled By Ra
author: Matt | posted @ Sunday, January 06, 2008 11:34 AM | Feedback (0)
Nassim Taleb writes an interesting book about unexpected events. His theories about probability provide a different perspective on some old topics. Taleb's writing style is engaging if not eccentric. He injects dry humor along with plenty of parenthetical comments. He is a self-described philosopher - trader, however unlike most philosophers, he doesn't seem to be too concerned with the reader thinking he is smart. Most modern philosophers seem more concerned with impressing the reader than
author: Matt | posted @ Saturday, December 08, 2007 11:28 PM | Feedback (0)
Wanting to have a better understanding of Theory of Constraints thinking, I decided to go back and read this novel that Goldratt wrote in the early 80's. The novel is about a production plant manager who is facing a crisis in his career. His plant is going to be shut down in 3 months if he and his team can't show better results. While Goldratt does introduce a "personal" story to go along with the business story, this is a novel you wouldn't want to read just for the "story". Like most busin
author: Matt | posted @ Sunday, November 18, 2007 7:21 PM | Feedback (0)
This book is a bit of a classic and in fact I found out recently that it was reprinted again in 2001. I read the 1975 version that the local university had in their library and while the book is over 30 years old, it still has a tremendous amount of value with regard to the thought processes that go into information systems. What follows is going to be less of a book review and more of a collection of random notes that I took as I read the book.
author: Matt | posted @ Saturday, November 10, 2007 4:46 PM | Feedback (0)
Before I was hired on at my current company, the entire organization did a group study and review of Crucial Conversations. After hearing my boss and others talk about the book, I decided to give it a read and fortunately he had an extra copy for me. The book covers a lot of very practical advice for dealing with conversational situations that frankly we all find ourselves in almost daily. While it tries to cover a broad span of conversations (home life, work life, social life) I found it to
author: Matt | posted @ Monday, November 05, 2007 10:02 PM | Feedback (0)
Malcolm Gladwell wrote "The Tipping Point" another book that I have on my list to read but I came to this one first. "Blink" is an interesting foray into the power of the unconscious mind... or rather unconscious thinking. Whether we realize it or not, our brains are working non-stop and sometimes we come to conclusions without knowing how or why. Gladwell's exploration of this topic is a detailed, anecdote-filled book that is a pleasure to read and will spark some interesting thoughts along
author: Matt | posted @ Monday, October 01, 2007 7:00 PM | Feedback (0)