Science
Leonard Mlodinow takes us on a delightful journey through the fascinating history of probability and statistics. On the way he manages to sneak in a very practical explanation of the basics of the field. Mingling stories of Pascal, Fermat, Bayes and others with the Law of Large Numbers, Bayesian Probability and confidence levels, Mlodinow makes The Drunkard's Walk a coherant and entertaining read. He tops the book off with a very practical application of what chance and probability can mean t
While true to part of its sub-title (it is definitely short) this book leaves somewhat to be desired if you are looking for an "Introduction". Binmore is an expert in using Game Theory so in his book by that title, he definitely gets into the meat of actually applying game theory to real life. He talks about biological evolution, public airwave auctions and election politics. Unfortunately he dives into game theory far too fast and too deep for this to be a good introduction. A more appropri
I confess that it's been 2 months since I read this book so these notes are stale so I apologize. Decoding the Universe: How the New Science of Information Is Explaining Everything in the Cosmos, from Our Brains to Black Holes, is a very fascinating read, although if you have read The User Illusion you will notice a great similarity between the books. In my opinion, Decoding was an easier read, albeit perhaps not as thorough as Illusion.
R. Keith Sawyer brings a sense of workmanship to the study of creativity in his book Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation. Rather than treat creativity as a mytical quality that only certain humans are embued with, Sawyer points out that creativity is within reach of mere mortals. He begins by debunking the common myths surrounding creative genius (insane people are more creative, creative geniuses work alone etc) and ends by giving some very practical advice on how to become
"A Whack on the Side of the Head" is a great little book to get you thinking creatively. Von Oech takes the reader through a list of 10 mental locks that keep many people from using creative thinking to solve problems. It is a very quick read but full of many little gems of ideas. Von Oech doesn't waste any words in introducting each mental lock and some very practical and yet insightful ideas on how to unlock your brain.
Jeff Hawkins is the founder of both Palm Computing and Handspring. His lifelong fascination with the brain and how it works led to his study of neuroscience and ultimately to this book. In "On Intelligence", Hawkins presents what he believes is a solid framework for understanding how the brain works. Specifically he explores what it means to "have intelligence." Many of the artificial intelligence efforts underway today focus on ways to mimic the way the brain behaves without regard to how i
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
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
In The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, Peter Senge takes us through a fairly practical application of systems thinking to the business organization. This is an important shift in thinking that more business leaders should understand but few seem to. Working in an Agile Software development shop as I do, I daily see the value of using systems thinking to analyze both product requirements and the processes by which we fulfill them. Peter Senge does a decent j
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.
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,
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.
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.
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
Copyright: 2006
Publisher: Viking Penguin
A fascinating look at the many facets of noise. This book has plenty of information for even the casually interested reader in the first half of the book. Topics covered include the legal issues of noise, the harmful effects of audible noise and the impact of new types of noise such as email spam. In the second half, the "professor" in Kosko comes out and he delves into some of the equally fascinating, if not technically more difficult aspects o