What I’ve Been Reading

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A few recent reads:

1. The Myth of the Rational Voter by Bryan Caplan. Tons already written about this on the blogosphere. One of the most influential political science books in recent years. Here’s Bryan’s article length summary on Cato Unbound which is a good starting point. I liked this book. I’ll be writing more about it in a future post.

2. Who’s Your City? by Richard Florida. Richard is a provocative thinker and always presents fascinating insights on cities and how place affects our well-being. This book continues the tradition, as he discusses why, contrary to popular belief, place matters more than ever in the age of globalization, how and why clustering happens in certain geographies, and the relationship between where one lives and happiness. I highly recommend the book.

3. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. This had some fun moments and insights, but frankly didn’t meet my expectations. I know by now that humans are irrational and we undergo all sorts of weird mental jujitsu when making decisions. I guess I have some fatigue with the behavioral science / pop econ genre at this point.

4. How’d You Score That Gig by Alexandra Levit. Here’s my blurb in the book: “First, Alexandra Levit broadens your imagination about what kinds of careers are possible, and then after tantalizing you, she provides specific tips for breaking into the field. Enormously valuable!” It’s a good resource for any young person wondering what s/he could do for a job…

5. Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives by Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek. If you’ve heard me speak you’ve heard me talk about “entrepreneurship as life idea.” So I smiled when I got introduced to the authors of a new book on the topic. Christopher and Gregg take a slightly different tack than me — they emphasize the “purpose” part of life, I talk more about the nitty gritty of entrepreneurial approaches to activities. If you liked Bill George’s and Peter Sims’ True North, you’ll probably like this book as there’s some overlap.

6. Three Moves Ahead: What Chess Can Teach You About Business by Bob Rice. Bob and I share a publisher and shared an editor. He’s not only a very successful businessperson but also an accomplished chess player and founder of the Wall Street Chess Club. This book explores the chess-life analogy. He creatively explores how chess concepts and pieces (bishop, knight, etc.) map to business. The problem with the book is it tries to appeal to non-chess players, too, hence preventing him from going deep on chess examples. And though he smartly acknowledges the limits of a single analogy driving the book, there are still moments where the analogy is a stretch.

7. Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up by Patricia Ryan Madson. This is the Stanford drama / acting teacher abstracting life lessons from the world of improv. Amazon reviews are all five stars and someone recommended this to me. I found her advice good and endearing but ultimately not very impactful or original.

This list was largely motivated by trying to keep up with friends’ books and whatever is hot off the press. This summer I’ll be reading more novels, and longer / older books.

The Saddest Paragraph I Read Today

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The first and second time her husband shot her, the distressed woman in her 30s rejected advice to file a complaint. To do so, she explained, would require the presence of her obligatory male guardian, who happened to be…her husband. Without him, her testimony would not be legally valid. Besides, the all-male police might accuse her of “mixing” with the opposite sex, a crime in the eyes of most Saudi judges. The third time her husband shot her, she died.

That’s from the Economist on the status of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia.

Why China’s Infrastructure Projects Zoom

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Paul Goldberger had a piece in a recent New Yorker on why and how airports are so poorly designed from an aesthetic perspective. Near the end he expresses awe at size and pace of construction of China’s new airports. I myself remember being stunned by the sheer capacity of China’s airports — dozens of unused gates, built in anticipation of expansion. Goldberger makes this important point when comparing the new Beijing terminal to Heathrow’s new BA terminal:

The Beijing terminal cost $3.65 billion to build, which in China bought a structure bigger than all five terminals at Heathrow put together, for less than half the cost of the new Terminal 5. The project was conceived, designed, constructed, and opened in four years, whereas the Heathrow terminal, from conception to completion, took twenty years…These widely divergent timetables are not a matter of Chinese efficiency versus British dallying: the British, like the Americans, pay the price of democracy. The Chinese government does not have to contend with environmentalists, financing problems, or recalcitrant airlines; the public hearings over the Heathrow terminal took the same amount of time as the entire construction of the Beijing one. China simply decrees what it will build, and floods the construction zone with migrant workers whose daily pay probably wouldn’t buy a British construction worker’s lunch.

And that lack of democracy, of course, is what makes China so different from emerging-market rival India. China kicks India’s butt from an infrastructure perspective. But perhaps India has the more sustainable political infrastructure in the long term.

What People Remember or Relate To: Other People

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What people remember, and relate to, quite simply, is other people.  There are few truths in marketing more important than that.

That’s Tyler Cowen, as told to Kevin Gentry and included in his "Fundraising Tip of the Week" email. Kevin goes on to say that marketing your personality is key in business.

All good bloggers are able to in some way convey their personality through their blog. If your blog has no voice or personality, readers will flee. What makes blogs fun to read is that they’re personal and don’t pretend to be Objective (aka, the Voice of Death). Many people who have shown up to the blogosphere recently, particularly academics and journalists, write like they would in a newspaper. Usually doesn’t work.

Tyler is one of the best at conveying his personality through blogging.

People Who Make You Want to be Smarter

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A commenter on this YouTube video clip of David Foster Wallace says:

He makes me want to be smarter. He makes me want to hit the library and not leave until I pass out from reading.

A powerful image. I myself have had moments like this. It’s usually when I have an overwhelming desire to take out a tape recorder and record every word the person is saying — that’s when I know I’m really being inspired to soar. Not every person who’s smarter than me inspires me to want to be smarter. But there are some who do, it’s a short list, and I try to talk to them (or read them – if I don’t know them personally) as much as possible.

Do you have a list of people who make you want to be smarter?

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The Wallace clip is from a series of readings / clips taken at the Harper’s 150th Anniversary. Tom Wolfe, Annie Dillard, Lewis Latham, Richard Rodriguez, George Saunders all have their own YouTube pieces.