Here you will find a chronicle of what I’m reading right now, the ideas that are shaping my ever-changing world view. Feel free to read along with me.
Things are transformed one into another according to necessity, and render justice to one another according to the order of time. ~ Anaximander The Order of Time is a mind-expanding little book. Part physics, part philosophy, the book is packed with strange and wonderful ideas about how the very fabric of the universe works and … Continue reading The Order of Time
It's no secret, Terry Pratchett is my all-time favourite author, and has been since I was an 11-year-old girl-child, told by my English teacher to "go read this book [Lords and Ladies] at the back of the classroom. You're too smart for what I'm about to teach the rest of them." (true story). Although dismissed … Continue reading A Slip of The Keyboard
"Appraising the book by the peak-end rule, I overconfidently urge everyone to buy and read it." ~ Jim Holt, New York Times I concur with the quote. Daniel Kahneman's seminal work on behavioral economics and decision making, Thinking Fast and Slow, is one of the world's least-read best sellers. This puts the book in good company, also on the … Continue reading Thinking Fast and Slow
The monstrously complicated monetary system we have today is responsible for the greatest leaps and bounds of human prosperity, and for the most depressing of depressions suffered by civilisation to date. Want to understand how it works? The Ascent of Money is a good place to start.
This is a strange and wonderful book, filled with strange and wonderful people, and their strange and wonderful ideas. Read this book to be inspired by the power of thinking differently to everyone else - and the marvelous, amazing inventions that can be wished into existence through sheer willpower, imagination, and tenacity. You will meet … Continue reading The Odditorium
Although Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins was written over 100 years ago, it is still brilliantly readable and packed with astute instructions on what makes marketing work - and how to measure it properly to make sure it does. As the old adage goes, "what gets measured gets managed" (The quote is attributed to management … Continue reading Scientific Advertising
In a world where this is possible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmUC4m6w1wo Seeing is not believing. We can no longer trust our own eyes. Photographic evidence, of course, has been questionable since the distant days of the Cottingley Fairies scam which fooled countless Victorians over 100 years ago. Now, not even authentic video "evidence" can be trusted (as is so … Continue reading More Lies (A Field Guide to Lies and Statistics)
This book by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz covers the lies we tell ourselves, our employers, our families and our countries; and about how the data crumb-trail we leave behind us all over the Internet through our search history and our social media likes and posts reveal who we really are. The case studies in this book cover … Continue reading Everybody Lies
This strange little book is a story of magic and mystery. The author, Jim Steinmeyer is a designer of magic, who has designed illusions for the likes of David Copperfield. In Art & Artifice, Jim Steinmeyer goes back in time to pull back the curtain on some of the most perplexing magic tricks of the … Continue reading Art & Artifice
I'll be honest. I bought this book because of the title. I was bored, stuck in an airport with a delayed flight, killing time in a bookshop and the title called to me from across the store - after all who doesn't like a good conspiracy? Despite its random impulse purchase status, I loved this book. … Continue reading Conspiracy (with a very interesting cast)
