Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Good bang for the buck

Payoff by Dan Ariely

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Strange to read such similar books back to back, but doing so highlights how much better Payoff is than the similar Drive I reviewed in my last CBR post. Both are short explorations of what motivates people, and how the simple answer (money) is often not the correct one. Payoff is even shorter than Drive was, having stemmed from a TED talk, but it feels more fully realized than the longer book as Ariely explores the same topic more thoroughly. He’s an engaging writer, and […]

“We study natural stupidity instead of artificial intelligence” (a Bromance)

The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis

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Behavioral economics is such a popular topic nowadays that noted economist and student of human behavior Richard Thaler was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in the field in 2017. I first became interested in the topic that same year when I was asked to give a presentation at work, and I started by reading Dan Ariely’s book Predictably Irrational (read my review here!). Back in the 1970s, though, the suggestion that people, as a general rule, behave irrationally in all sorts […]

Interesting Theory, Needs Some More Support

Bullsh*t Jobs: The Rise of Pointless Work and What We Can Do About It by David Graeber

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Best for: People interested in labor issues and economic theory. In a nutshell: Some jobs don’t serve a purpose. They’re usually paid fairly well, but they don’t need to exist. Why do we as a society allow these jobs to exist, and what are they doing to the people who hold them? Worth quoting: “We can probably conclude that at least half of all work being done in our society could be eliminated without making any real difference at all.” “The underlying assumption is that […]

Maybe we don’t think so good

The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis

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This book, by the author of Moneyball, is essentially a biography of the two men who did more to change the way we think about thinking.  Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman are Israeli psychologists who discovered heuristics and connected the fields psychology and economics, helping create the new field of behavioral economics.  If you recognize either name, it is probably Daniel Kahneman who wrote the outstanding book Thinking, Fast and Slow a few years ago.  At the beginning of that book he writes about his […]

Thoughtful content, less thoughtful structure

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I’m a recent new listener to a variety of podcasts, as I now find myself with a long commute, and Freakonomics is now in my standard rotation. As such, my partner suggested I check out the book, so I dropped it into my audiobook queue (see previous: long commute) and I knocked it out fairly quickly, as it is a short listen clocking in at just under seven hours. If you are unfamiliar, here is the description of the podcast, from their website: ” Host Stephen J. […]

What made, and still makes, America great.

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First and foremost, I’m sorry for the sensationalized header. I hope I didn’t make your eyes twitch but I think it is an accurate title independent of the political climate. Back in February, I had the opportunity to ask a question to a Two-star Army General and I asked him what books he recommended.  He said this was the most recent book he finished and that he highly recommended it so it entered the queue.  A few months later, the Army Chief of Staff added […]



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