January 2009 Entries
In The User Illusion, Tor Norretranders explores a broad range of topics from information theory to cognitive psychology to existentialism. The edition I read is an excellent translation of the Danish author's work. At times it is evident that Tor over-reached in the scope of the book and you sometimes wonder about the point of the book. All in all though it is a fascinating read and for someone interested in Human Computer Interaction as I am, it is a very good survey of a number of excellen
This book is a quick read but Dan Roam has packed an incredible amount of information into a small package in The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures. This book presents an excellent overview of data visualization and communication. Roam presents it as a new way to "think" about problems which is an interesting concept, but I found his ideas on communication more relevant for me. The book has a little bit of "business fad" feel to it and I suspect the author w
Lt. General Romeo Dallaire was the UN commander in Rwanda during the genocide debacle in 1994. In this intense accounting of the UN actions (and inactions) during the 100 day civil war, Dallaire doesn't pull any punches. He places blame squarely where blame is due, even pointing the finger at his own blunders and short comings. He pointedly deals with his own mental health degradation towards the end of the conflict and makes no excuses for himself or anyone else. In his final conclusions he
Stephen Baker is a senior writer for Business Week magazine and a while back I read an article he wrote entitled "Managing by the Numbers". Turns out much of the material in that article was research for this excellent book, The Numerati. The book explores the world of mathematicians who are charged with parsing the growing databases of information that contain information about everything from what kind of cars we like to drive to which co-workers we are most likely to share the latest gossip