(Part 2) Best decision-making & problem solving books according to redditors
We found 876 Reddit comments discussing the best decision-making & problem solving books. We ranked the 217 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
"Fairness" isn't a universal trait, it depends a lot on culture and this is a great example of it. They actually go further into this specific example in the book Sway, which is pretty cool and a super fast read.
> funding to economic departments to teach garabage
Really, have you read C Kochs book on MBM, it's REQUIRED reading for all employees of Koch Industries. An amateurish rehash of every mom and apple pie business school trope on squeezing the market that you have ever heard.
It is a perfect example of why citizens need a strong government in order to protect them from unrestrained capitalism, business is about competitive dollar victory, not social responsibility, and the Koch's are the epitome of what goes wrong when it isn't regulated by the will of the people.
Author is Albert-Iászló Barabási.
>$250 into $5k
Setting goals isn't a terrible idea, however I will say that a 2000% (non compounding) increase is something the best traders would give their arms and legs for lol.
For reference, this is something I was able to do after lots of learning and experience.
https://twitter.com/robswc/status/1093328001243189248
https://twitter.com/robswc/status/1082782861869109253
These were more done algorithmic than manually trading BUT point still stands.
With that said, you could hit 180% gain in one day with options.
The problem you'll find is that being consistently good is really really hard. What you're essentially setting out to do is consistently win an near random "coin toss".
That's going to take a psychological toll, its going to be grueling but not impossible.
>But I would like to learn the market. Any tips on how to start? What should I start researching? Can I even start trading with that little amount?
$250 is fine starting out. In fact its perfect as starting out there's a possibility you could lose it all, so starting with a small amount is fine.
Don't look at $, look at %. If you can make 1% you can make $100 or $1000. Once you consistently hit %'s, you can increase your position sizes. Keep risk in mind while doing this though.
I would start with paper trading first. Since you're 17 you're not legally allowed to trade. Also, with $250 you can't day trade (PDT rules). So paper trading would definitely be your best bet.
You could also give crypto a try, many exchanges don't really have KYC. A lot of the basics can carry over into any markets.
As far as stuff to learn, these are some of the best books I've read on the subject. You may notice they aren't technical or any "strategies" so to speak. I find those books never help, the mindset and thinking is going to be your biggest challenge.
Trading in the Zone, By Mark Douglas - https://www.amazon.com/Trading-Zone-Confidence-Discipline-Attitude/dp/0735201447
Fooled by Randomness, by Nassim Taleb - https://www.amazon.com/Fooled-Randomness-Hidden-Markets-Incerto/dp/0812975219/ref=sr_1_1?crid=13LH3VBFX62OH
Skin in the Game, by Nassim Taleb - https://www.amazon.com/Skin-Game-Hidden-Asymmetries-Daily/dp/042528462X/
Algos to Live By, by Brian Christian - https://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Decisions/dp/1250118360/
A Short History of Financial Euphoria, by John Galbraith - https://www.amazon.com/History-Financial-Euphoria-Penguin-Business/dp/0140238565/
Also, if you're interested in algo or strategy creation at all, I have a youtube channel dedicated to helping beginners make their strategies and learn more. Its on a bit of a hiatus but I'll definitely be getting back to it soon.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxokFZgGpztPTeQvBwIk2wQ
DM me here or on twitter if you have any questions! Love to help, questions also keep me on my toes and make sure I'm learning too!
Think of how many times you're on reddit, click a comment thread and see "this headline is exaggerated/sensationalist/inaccurate." It could be that views of Congress themselves are exaggerated/sensationalist/inaccurate, so reports like this are valuable.
Relevant: Everything Is Obvious -- Once You Know the Answer
You seem to be focused well on taking better care of the customers you do have, and as we all know, they're the cheapest and most effective advertising you can possibly get. That to me would be the absolute core of my marketing plan.
Also glad to see you're leaning on measurable marketing channels - Especially email. Email is your best converting tool (aside from word of mouth), period.
Have you thought about offering referral incentives to your customers? E.G. refer a new customer to us this month and receive <Y benefit> - again - there's that time limit worked in there.
Some Concerns:
"Too Good To Be True" massage price: This is a marketing mistake. You'd do much, much better to have the most expensive massage rates, but have some extra things added to them to make them just a little cooler and more luxurious than anyone else around. You'll never benefit being less expensive.
60 days is tight, but it does give you some time to test out some ideas on a smaller basis rather than trying to blanket everything with anything. I've recently helped a client start thinking of marketing in a lean fashion. They roast & sell coffee. First, I told them to assume nothing about their customers, because we're going to listen to them and learn about them. Second, (as you did) build that email list. Third, every marketing push is an experiment. Test it out, review it, and then refine it. Fourth, find excuses to communicate with your clients - what might seem trivial internally might be a great excuse to engage your customers and ultimately get them to spend money with you. Small marketing pushes are less costly, more manageable, measurable, and present a lower hurdle to short attention spans.
The study was posted here a while ago http://www.reddit.com/r/GirlGamers/comments/1o62c0/a_stanford_study_shows_that_after_women_wear/
I feel like the original study didn't really try to say all that much, it's really the article running with it and conflating it with a different study (this doppelgänger one) without much explanation as to why that is justified.
(that said, I do think that the study makes itself kinda weird by immediately going on about rape myths, is that really the only area where there was a difference in results? What about, I dunno, relationship myths? )
>This isn't good for us, this just makes us look like were easily influenced and easy to manipulate. I for one am not easy to manipulate.
I'm not the biggest fan of this article [like the selection of studies it draws from, or what kind of conclusion it draws] but I don't think think we should be that quick to just discount anything related to invisible influences. After all stuff like that has been studied in a variety of ways on both men and women, for example particularly in the study of advertising (like advertising agencies making studies about what kind of advertising will be most effective). An example is the book Nudge for example. Or the book Mindless Eating (which sounds like a creepy diet book, but is actually a pretty fun book that discusses all the weird various psychological effects related to eating. Like if you eat the same amount of food from a smaller plate you will feel more full than if you ate the same amount of food from a big plate. This isn't because you are "weak willed" somehow, that's just a human thing, for both men and women. It's just one of the million things that goes on in the background. I don't know this doppelgänger study precisely, but I could picture it being something like that, I have heard of a study where playing a game where the character works out supposedly did increase your desire to work out (by putting it on your mind presumably), it might be something similar with food.
BTW the reverse was studied as well, in the so called Buffy effect, which presumably shows a positive influence after watching something like Buffy.
I don't think that this field has been studied enough, like I have yet to see a study that can say for sure that these kind of effects impact you longterm or that they are indeed greater than let's say the effect of reading Twilight or thumbing through Vogue or reading the newspaper.
That's why I asked about this stuff in particular. It seems possible that effects we have in other media could be bigger in gaming, but that's precisely the problem, I don't think that I've read a study on that yet. So seeing the article state that as a fact weirded me out.
Har har. http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Is-Obvious-Once-Answer/dp/0385531680
But seriously. We would have no idea that three was the largest number of objects we could mentally represent without counting unless we studied it. How is it obvious at all that babies would lose all sense of quantity after three objects (treating four objects just like two, or even one)?
you don't need a business school to experience the core of this class ...
Here's a link to Steve Blank's HBR article on The Lean Startup. Also a series of free lectures that Steve Blank put up on Udacity, called "How to Build a Startup" a course that over 500,000 people have viewed. These lectures are supported by a book that Steve Blank wrote with Bob Dorf called The Startup Owners Manual, as well as a best selling business book by Alexander Osterwalder called Business Model Generation. You may also want to see Alexander's other book, Value Proposition Design for more input/insight.
Pls get started with statistics and probability theory, then python. Practice python to make sure you understand statistics correctly, on simple examples with known solutions/answers.
Otherwise you'll be another "algo trader" asking what's wrong with his "16 trades per 10 years backtest that yields 1000%" with tripple leverage.
There's a great book "Algorithms to Live By" (https://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Decisions-ebook/dp/B015CKNWJI/), ideally you'll need to apply similar level of problem solving approach to anything you develop
I wouldn't say it's about Neuroscience, but it covers ML/AI. The Master Algorithm is a really good book. It can also serve as an introduction to a ton of different AI algorithms, from clustering to neural networks. It's short and easy to read, I highly recommend it.
This one?
There's another book called The Science of Fear that talks about how people's perception of danger is highly inflated by the media reporting sensational, yet uncommon, events. Our minds evolved for tribal living with perhaps hundreds of people around. In that situation, seeing someone getting killed, raped, beaten or eaten would have a strong effect on you. Now that we are all interconnected through media, we are exposed to seeing terrible things happening all the time around us. So even though life is far safer than it has ever been for the vast majority of humans alive today, it seems like we are living in extremely dangerous and regressive times.
Our minds don't really account for the fact that the bad things that we see happening are statistically rare.
I've been reading this book called Everything is Obvious: *Once You Know The Answer that goes over applying historical significance to events as they transpire. Basically, you cannot apply a historical significance or label to a time or event until sometime down the line when the implications are settled.
Here are some quotes from the book:
> History cannot be told while it is happening, therefore, not only because the people involved are too busy or too confused to puzzle it out, but because what is happening can’t be made sense of until its implications have been resolved. And when will that be? As it turns out, even this innocent question can pose problems for commonsense explanations.
...
> Choices that seem insignificant at the time we make them may one day turn out to be of immense import. And choices that seem incredibly important to us now may later seem to have been of little consequence. We just won’t know until we know. And even then we still may not know, because it may not be entirely up to us to decide.
...
> In much of life, in other words, the very notion of a well-defined “outcome,” at which point we can evaluate, once and for all, the consequences of an action is a convenient fiction. In reality, the events that we label as outcomes are never really endpoints. Instead, they are artificially imposed milestones
Will this time be considered an enlightened time? Maybe. Maybe the world will collapse in a few decades and it'll be considered the apex of humanity. Maybe political and social logjams will free in a few decades ushering in an unimaginable golden age from which this current time will look like a time of stunted growth. Basically, history is hindsight so you can't really discuss history by extrapolating on the present or future.
EDIT: Formatting.
There are a few titles I really love. I hope you like a few things on the list, if you have any questions let me know.
I would recommend either Stone's Policy Paradox or Bardach's A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis as an introduction to public policy.
Nudge theory isn't really about drastic changes, it's more about making the "correct" choices the default ones. The book cites the example of making pension contributions default rather than employees having to actively opt into the system, as this means that people who are too busy/lazy get a pension. So to link this to your drastic lifestyle change, its more about modifying the environment to prevent you getting to the point where your doctor has to bluntly tell you "change your ways or die". If you have doubts about the idea, I'd highly suggest you pick up the book and give it a read. (Linking to the book's Amazon page is also an example of nudge, takes all the effort out of googling the book, finding out it's called "Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness" and looking for the Amazon page, so the only work you have left is to decide if you want to buy it or not).
Globally speaking.
And domestically, violence was on the decline - despite how many may have felt at the time.
Piggybacking off the guy below me's link, here's a relevant book recommendation - https://www.amazon.com/Science-Fear-Culture-Manipulates-Brain/dp/0452295467
Maybe try "The Master Algorithm" by Pedro Domingos: http://www.amazon.com/The-Master-Algorithm-Ultimate-Learning/dp/0465065708
Thats going to seem a bit weird but I will say: make your points before saying you are a feminist because anti-feminists are going to be more open about your ideas. That's how I usually discuss politics with my borderline fascist family. I've been smart enough to never express a clear position because I know it's counterproductive when someone is veeeery oppose to your position.
When they speak about politics I mostly try to make them question their positions and beliefs by asking questions of giving facts giving a impression of neutrality.
Don´t get me wrong I do proclame myself a feminist loud and proud but I know how and when its productive to do so.
This opinion might be a bit controversial here but This website gives a very interesting input on what I'm saying:
"People are irrational. One of the ways I know this is true because there’s an entire book written about it. An example of how we act irrationally is called diagnosis bias.
A particularly fascinating study showed that the smallest change in the way you describe someone can completely alter the way you perceive their behavior. How about an example?
A university class (unknowing lab rats) had a substitute professor. To introduce the professor, the class members were given short bios. What they didn’t know was that half the bios had been very slightly altered (e.g., exchanging warm, positive adjectives for cold, callous ones).
After the lecture, the students were asked to review the professor. The entire class saw the same man say the same things, yet the reviews were split 50/50 positive and negative. Half the class said he was personable, considerate, and engaged, while the other half said he was ruthless, would do anything for success, and didn’t care about students or people."
&#x200B;
There is another thread here that gives excellent advice on how man (in this case teenage boy) can help: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskFeminists/comments/dajc0u/how_could_i_be_a_feminist_as_a_teenage_boy/
ps: My boyfriend had the same issue on his work - it sucks.
I'm in the middle of reading Naked Statistics which is a pretty good and easy to understand intro. I've taken a few stat courses before and this book covers everything in really easy to understand terms.
I'm also a fan of The Drunkard's Walk which is mostly aimed at randomness, but because randomness is such a large part of statistics it really does cover many of the basic concepts.
Neither of these are textbooks, so they don't get too technical and instead neatly explain concepts. Enjoy!
If anyone else is interested in some of the underlying psychology of these faux epidemics, I'd recommend The Science of Fear by Daniel Gardner. The last line of your post is especially relevant to many of the underlying themes.
I played D&D when I was younger too. My parents didn't seem to mind... probably because my dad was into video games. I only vaguely recall the news hysteria, and that there were a few other kids I knew who weren't allowed to play.
one way to accustom yourself to coding/algorithms and software engineering when you are not a software engineer is as an example by reading this kind of books
https://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Decisions/dp/1250118360
About the IA thing, read this article: https://blog.safegraph.com/a-non-technical-introduction-to-machine-learning-b49fce202ae8
and if you want a more in deep reading about the AI, here's Google's articles about Machine Learning and AI
https://ai.google/education
Also, I recommend this recent book by Duncan Watts, Everything is Obvious: *Once You Know the Anwer. The book does a great job explaining that the often invoked "common sense" does not explain nearly as much of human behavior as people like to claim. Social science, when pursued rigorously, is a very powerful tool for making sense of social action.
Moreover, Duncan Watts is a terrific ambassador for the discipline of sociology , as he does come from a science background (he received his PhD in applied mathematics from Cornell), yet takes sociology very seriously. He changed the course of his career, because he realized that the problems that he found most interesting and worthwhile were social in nature
Actually, there a fewer and fewer accidents per passenger mile. Even if you don't take into consideration that more people are flying more often, you would see that accidents are flat or declining depending on how you count. (i.e., there are really just fewer and fewer accidents, period).
It's safer than ever to fly today.
http://planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_accidents_and_incidents
You might be surprised how commonly humans make this sort of computational error. This book is really good at breaking down how bad humans are at thinking about risk.
http://www.amazon.com/Science-Fear-Shouldnt-Ourselves-Greater/dp/0525950621
Had to look her up because I don't have the interests or talking points of a 13 year old virgin. And because your illiteracy and confidence of your awful comment irked me.
She looked nothing like Amy in 2010 or 2016.
And I suggest you get more mature interests. If you can read above a Trump level, for inspiration, read this book. It has great information on how to make better life decisions and how to invest your time and money more effectively.
Since Thinking Fast and Slow is already recommended, I also recommend Annie Duke's Thinking in Bets.
If you want a review, here's mine.
I recommend the book the science of fear: how the culture of fear manipulates your brain by daniel gardner - which I actually just started reading last week. it's pretty good. the book starts with 9/11 and this exact example of fear and road deaths.
Applied linear regression is AWESOME. I'm doing a PhD and literally every professor and student who has used that book keeps it in their bookshelf.
Applied Linear Regression Models- 4th Edition with Student CD (McGraw Hill/Irwin Series: Operations and Decision Sciences) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0073014664/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_QELBzbTXHSTE5
How much do you know about Ray or Bridgewater? I ask in a friendly conversational way so please don't take that as being smug.
While I don't claim to be an expert I've had a bit of a fascination with him and the cult of personality that is Bridgewater. I've read their publically available white papers, his book and I follow his posts on LinkedIn.
Generally speaking he/they are hyper-realists, hyper-adaptable, and hyper algo/data driven. Which means ... so goes the data ... so goes Ray/Bridgewater. They are pretty non-dogmatic ... sorta. Data is their dogma. So yes. I expect him to basically change as data changes. I was a bit surprised by the shift in just a week. But tbh there is definitely a change in the wind. We all sense it. We're all trying to forecast what it means. Get a feel for its intensity and direction.
I'm reading The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone by dr. dan ariely .
Basically everybody lies and rationalizes it one way or another.
There is another book Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dio that covers hiring the right people for the job. Basically the best thing you can do is interview at least 3 professionals for the job and choose the one that gives you the most information and the best course of action.
Simply because of the fact that we are all biased one way or another, there will always be knowledge gaps. So, it's important to find the right person and ask the right questions.
I've heard lots of good things about "Thinking in Bets".
https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Bets-Making-Smarter-Decisions/dp/0735216355/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1521503411&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=thinking+in+bets
I'll take that as "no, I don't have any evidence that specifically supports my claim."
On the subject of the obvious--turns out it's not all that easy to guess. More here
here's a book that talks about the variance of luck vs skill in sports and how it affects the eventual outcome. the author essentially states that the variance of luck and skill is greater between players in basketball than hockey. the elite basketball players in the NBA are greatly better than the worst NBA players and the margin between elite hockey and bottom level NHL is not as great. plus the basketball players are allowed to have more time/possession of the ball than hockey players, which would lead to their skill being utilized more.
https://www.amazon.com/Success-Equation-Untangling-Business-Investing/dp/1422184234
Speaking as an entry level analyst in the US, college internships with government or policy nonprofits/think tanks/advocacy groups are a good pathway to get basic experience and start making a network. Some of these positions will be paid, but many won’t. Public policy is definitely not as rigged as other fields when it comes to your credentials, so most social science degrees at the bachelors level will be considered the same for entry level. At higher levels, they start wanting you to have an MPP although it can occasionally be substituted for some similar practical social science masters degree. I can’t think of any specific non-degree credentials though that would really give you a leg up or be widely recognized in the field.
You should focus more on getting a bit of relevant experience under your belt so you can talk about how you’ll apply that experience to whatever task you’ll have in the job you’re applying for. Also, skills like being a good writer and statistics data analysis are really valued. Have a few public policy-style memos you can share as a portfolio, and take a few classes on how to do statistical data analysis (at college or even just an online class). Public policy writing is very different than academic writing, as your audience is totally different. I really recommend this book is you haven’t even taken a class on public policy as it explains how to write public policy really well and a lot of theory and methods commonly employed in the field.
It seems like you're interested in UX design but not entirely sure what it entails. The role of a UX designer varies between companies and has changed over time. You can think of UX designer as someone who is skilled in interaction design, creating wireframes & protypes, user research, information architecture, etc. A bunch of skills smashed into one job title. Some skills of a UI designer includes visual design, color, layout, typography, etc.
From what I've seen, what companies are looking for these days when they say what a UX designer is that they want someone who can do both UX & UI to define, maintain, and grow a product with Product Managers. Product Managers are driven by business goals, you are driven by user goals. A Product Designer is becoming a popular term for this type of job. It's hard to find a UX job where all you do is wireframes, user research, and information architecture (as least with the big companies).
First, you need to think like a designer. Time to start reading some material. I took a class on Design Thinking at my university, and it has really helped me put into words what designers do. Link to the course materials.
You can find a bunch of lists of UX design books out there on the web. I started out by reading The Design of Everyday Things, a classic. Other books on my shelf are Design is Storytelling and Value Proposition Design. Not related to design, but during one of my internships I was given Everybody Writes and I recommend it because, well, everybody writes.
After you have a better understanding of what UX design is, start thinking about what it means for you and what you want to focus in. If you ask a bunch of designers why they do UX, you will get different answers.
From there, you need to start practicing. You can look up examples of side projects you can do as a UX designer. The most important thing here is to get critique from other people, learn from it, and iterate on it.
One common side-project is to redesign an app like Yelp. One thing I personally don't like about these projects is that they are typically "blue-sky" redesigns, or designs without constraints. This is fine to do when you're starting out, but to think like a Product Designer, you need to think about the business goals, make assumptions on why it's the way it is, and create constraints for your re-design. What's the user problem? What are the business goals? What are some ways I can solve these problems? What assumptions am I making for these designs?
Lastly, I think all UX/Product designers need to have some visual fundamentals down. Typography, layout, color, etc.--visuals are a huge part of the experience (along with copy, but thankfully I've had the chance to work with great copywriters). To get you started, Thinking with Type is a great book. I'm constantly looking at designs on Dribbble and Medium - Muzli for design inspiration. See something you like? Steal it and make it work for you.
Look at design blogs from big companies like Facebook, Google, and Airbnb. Stay up to date on what's happening like Mailchimp's redesign. Look at works from famous agencies like Collins. Watch YouTube videos from channel like The Futur.
Notice that I never mentioned any tools in this post. You won't become a UX design by learning html or js, those are for front-end devs. It may be nice for you to know, but not critical. You won't become a UX designer because you learned how to use Sketch or Adobe XD. Tools are constantly changing and are easy to learn. It's everything I mentioned above that's hard.
This might help.
I think I read an article which referred to this book as something like their management and culture bible: http://www.amazon.com/The-Science-Success-Market-Based-Management/dp/0470139889
4th edition? Wow.
I have the original on my shelf. May need to pick it up.
My thesis and dissertation involved SNA.
The Development of Social Network Analysis: A Study in the Sociology of Science https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594577145/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_s7zzCbGZ0J0B2 was useful for a history and methodology. Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465085733/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_c9zzCb73X5640 was good for understanding approaches to structure. Same author has several peer reviewed articles that are good. Then give some thought to what you want to measure existing on those networks. Coming up with good measures of the qualities that you find present and social networks is the hard part.
I’ve been dealing with the same issue for years. I recently tried something that seems to help in a peculiar way. I also have no issues sleeping or staying asleep (averaging 8.5 hours a night - SleepCycle and OuraRing).
Try taking a form of B12 (or other B vitamin) before bed. For example, I have recently added MTHFR to my nightly sleep stack (usually take 400mg Magnesium and occasionally 100mg of L-theanine and/or 500mg Ashwagandha). (Note that the link I provided is the actual supplement I buy and use. I have no affiliation other than I have seen this doctor and like his products. You can find similar B vitamins from other sources such as Thorne or on amazon).
Results for me (n=1): I don’t feel like I go into deep restful sleep when I add this B Vitamin to my nightly stack. However, I do feel awake in the morning and ready to go. I almost feel like I do not need coffee! (And I LOVE coffee in the morning). Ive also noticed the same/similar feeling after I have taken a 5hr Energy Shot/drink at night when I go out to the bars or in Vegas (I hate Redbull, but for some reason a 5hr energy reduces my hangover in the morning and again has me ready to go when I wake up).
Interestingly, 5hr Energy has a similar makeup as the MTHFR vitamin I take.
pros/cons of B Vitamin before bed: pros: I wake up feeling “awake”; cons: I don’t feel like I got deep/restful sleep.
Additional recommendations: use the SleepCycle app to try and target/hack what’s going on with your sleep. I have “sleep notes” in the app (eg. What I ate before bed, supplements taken, etc). SleepCycle asks you how you woke up in the morning (green = good, red = bad, white = n/a) and graphs charts based on how you report how you woke up (green vs red vs white). I love SleepCycle for this reason. It’s all in the data. Data, Data, Data!
Last recommendation: try to take a cortisol/adrenal test if you have a doc that will help you do that. It’s a saliva test. You spit into a tube when you wake, and then throughout the day. It measures your cortisol levels.
One more recommendation: there’s also a body of research regarding Timing (some people are morning people and some people are night owls). This book has some insight into the timing of decisions and morning/night people: [WHEN: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing](When: The Scientific Secrets of... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0735210624?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share).
edit: words/spelling and formatting
I'm about to finish up reading Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. I plan on reading Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian.
However, I'm looking for an nice fictional book to read alongside it. Any suggestions?
I think you'd like this book
You want to see Koch astroturfing, check out the reviews for Charles Koch's book on amazon. There's a few really interesting low-star review by tea-party members who thinks the book is horrible, despite agreeing with the premise. The histogram of star-reviews is highly suspicious.
The Science of Fear is a really fascinating book all about this. Highly recommended.
Not necessarily workshops but the following books helped me out with my career significantly.
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing - Talks about the importances of time and how you can be the most effective. Very good if you have a problem with burning out constantly and not good at taking breaks. Also good if you're looking for information on what times of the day are best for certain activities.
Stealing the Corner Office - A little more corporate BS but a good way to check yourself to find out why you keep getting passed on promotions and why being a "go-to-guy" is a very bad idea for your career.
Nudge - which is about how to use and influence the irrational decision making
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nudge-Improving-Decisions-Health-Happiness/dp/0141040017
Depends on the cost and how many times I get to make the decision.
For a taco, I'll be happy to search to find one of the better taco places that is convenient to go to.
If I buy an expensive camera, I'm going to find the best camera in my price/feature range.
But for dating, I don't see the point to exhaustively searching the population to find an optimal match.
For starters, you'd need a very large sample of the population to identify what the best match is, and once you've passed on a person (sampled and moved on) you're not really able to go back and say "now I'm ready for a second date". Alternatively, you could spend ages browsing and filtering profiles, but that's even less effective since you're going to be dating a person, not a profile.
For dating the appropriate strategy is to "Look then leap" -- spend a period examining the options (learning the distribution), then "leap" for the next best/sufficient/outstanding candidate.
^* [^Algorithms ^to ^Live ^By*](https://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Decisions/dp/1250118360/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1511970494&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=algorithms+to+live+by)
Can't find it either, but they use this textbook: www.amazon.com/Applied-Linear-Regression-Models--Student/dp/0073014664/
Maybe not as serious as some people prefer but I really liked Shmueli's book on data mining.
http://www.amazon.com/Data-Mining-Business-Intelligence-Applications/dp/0470526823/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1415284973&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=shmueli
I also enjoyed Innumeracy and How to Measure Anything - these are not rigorous at all but if you want to bring stats into the boardroom/conference room you better be able to translate things into digestible chunks for the lay audience. In my professional experience, the biggest challenge is not the math (that's the easy/fun part) it's explaining the math to people who think gut feelings are more useful.
I'm not advocating violence towards parents. Just stronger messages.
And yes I would pursue the same line with parents that don't use seatbelts, text while driving, drive drunk, etc.
It's not about avoiding activities, it's about using proven and easily available methods to make activities safer.
>In the United States during 2011, more than 650 children ages 12 years and younger died as occupants in motor vehicle crashes, and more than 148,000 were injured. source
>In the early 1940s, there was an average of 175,000 cases of pertussis (whooping cough) per year, resulting in the deaths of 8,000 children annually. In 2002, 9,771 cases were reported. [source](In the early 1940s, there was an average of 175,000 cases of pertussis (whooping cough) per year, resulting in the deaths of 8,000 children annually.2 In 2002, 9,771 cases were reported.) source
Less kids die from diseases than crashes because vaccines have worked. People can be afraid of the rare scary things because they no longer have to worry about the big scary things. It's a luxury, it's also normal.
I suggest you read The Science of Fear
>I can't imagine what qualities a result must have for to find it interesting then.
For me, the essence of interest is novelty. Either you are proposing some new way to understand the world, or you are proposing some innovation in an existing understanding of the world. Documenting the obvious is the grunt work of science; it is important and useful work, but it's not going to change the understanding of an expert in the field.
>I kind of disagree. The real world data are the measures of wealth inequality, and this paper's results demonstrate that such data is compatible with a world where luck alone determines success. I think you're being unfair if you also expect such a paper to prove luck actually is a causal factor in the way the model suggests it could be.
This paper gathered no such data. A paper that proves that luck is the primary causal factor in success would be a truly impressive work, but I have no such demand. What I would like to see is some method of testing the presented hypothesis outside of a laboratory setting. Hopefully that's the next paper.
>If you have links to other work of this type, please share!
This is an extremely well covered ground, so I would recommend doing a paper search. I'll just hit some highlights. This is another excellent read, possibly more in line with your interest than the second two links I provided earlier. I think the Black Swan book is really excellent though. For some attempts to study real world data sets, I recommend this and this and this.
Ok /u/ACfireandiceDC, here goes:
I was diagnosed ADD a few years back after I read an account of someone describing their ADD symptoms on a Humans of New York post, of all things.
I read their life story and thought, shit, this sounds awfully relateable.
As soon as I was diagnosed, it became obvious I'd suffered since I was a child, and in-fact my Dad had, too - ADD is often genetic.
In being diagnosed, I was able to start better understanding why I acted in certain ways, and therefore able to start deploying strategies to navigate the challenges I faced.
This included starting on medication, initially Ritalin, but at this stage, I take Dextroamphetamine as I find it's much kinder to me later in the day during the 'crash' associated with amphetamine stimulant meds (note: the effects are entirely personal and vary greatly from person to person).
With hindsight, it's now obvious to me that ADD, and many other similar 'labels' are a general attempt to describe a group of symptoms that can range wildly from diagnosee to diagnosee - what I'm trying to say is that similar to Autism, I believe ADD and other similar disorders are sub-sets of a spectrum.
In my case, and by that I mean my individual 'genetic' traits which are associated with ADD, I suffer from the following things:
There are probably a few more I could squeeze in, but for the most part that's my slice of cake.
Now, at this stage of the game, a few years into the diagnosis, I've spent much time and effort reading books, studies, anecdotes and so forth which have lead me to some interesting conclusions (that I have no doubt will continue to evolve):
Overall, I think most of my symptoms are a manifestation of a type of anxiety, not dissimilar to what I imagine you experience with OCD.
As a designer, if I can't get something 100% spot on within my own idea of 'perfect', I'll quickly end up grinding to a halt and giving up.
Likewise, if I mess up a deadline early on, I'll lose all ability to continue, instead, becoming stuck in a bottomless pit of self-loathing and procrastination.
My point is, I can trace most of my symptoms back to this type of 'anxiety'.
I think, in many ways, this stems back to a conflict between my self-image and the reality of productivity requiring the suspension of 'perfection' in order to get things done.
What I mean is: in my head, I want everything I do to be perfect because my ego constantly tells itself that it's special and unlike everyone else - when I look around, I see everyone elses work that seems mediocore and average, and I 'know' that I am capable of so much better, but then when I am working on something, as soon as I faulter and begin to struggle to get it 'just right', I am no longer capable of working and the procastination sets in - perhaps just a sub-conscious defense mechanism against the realisation that I, too, am mortal, and not as 'perfect' as my ego so desperately needs me to be - a form of cognitive disonance.
As a side note, I've often wondered if this insecurity stemmed from my parents, or perhaps from bullying during my formative years - a question I fully intend on getting to the bottom of as soon as I can afford to see a professional.
With this realisation under my belt, I've slowly but surely been able to make great strides in the last few months towards something that finally seems like an effective counter-attack.
When starting a big project, I let myself spend hours, if not days, engrossing myself in the details and getting comfortable with the task set out before me. I find this helps silence many of the 'voices' (metaphorical) before they have a chance to bring me down and derail the train.
The aim is to understand what I need to do, how I'm going to do it, and importantly, that I can do it, alongside a light but constant reminder that I need to focus on finishing something over lower quality rather than giving up on something nearer to perfection (in my industry, a common phrase is 'Just Fucking Ship It' (ship = launch) and 'Shipped is better than perfect').
Alongside the effective medication, frequent cardio, no longer drinking alcohol, a good nights sleep, meditation and a quiet, healthy work environment, I'm starting to see real change.
I'm no-where near the 'utopia' of productivity I have in my mind, and honestly, I likely never will be - that's okay.
But as someone who has spent literally years hating myself for not being able to command myself into action, the slightest signs of a 'pulse' are incredibly exciting.
It's taken a lot of effort and time to get here, but I firmly believe that if I can, anyone can.
If you have any further questions or think I might be able to share some other useful information, please feel free to message me or simply reply here (this applies to OP and anyone else who might stumble across this reply, at any point in the future).
As much as I hope you find this reply useful in some way on its own, I also want to leave you with some actionable steps:
If you haven't already, take a look at the GTD 'Getting Things Done' methodology. Regardless of whether you implement it or not, learning the 'science' behind it will help you on your journey.
Here's a good place to start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOSFxKaqOm4
Then here: https://blog.zenkit.com/a-beginners-guide-to-getting-things-done-3cc1a5123b98
Some brilliant books I'd suggest are as follows - I'm not great at reading a book the whole way through these days, so I find Audiobooks to be a God-send (mainly Audible):
Mindset by Carol Dweck
https://www.amazon.com/Mindset-Psychology-Carol-S-Dweck/dp/0345472322
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip & Dan Heath
https://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752
Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
https://www.amazon.com/Ego-Enemy-Ryan-Holiday/dp/1591847818
Principles: Life and Work
https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Life-Work-Ray-Dalio/dp/1501124021
Honestly, the mechanics of options trading won’t actually determine your success and profitability. So, before you nerd out on the Greeks and investigate negatively skewed distributions of return, you need to overcome bad psychological habits that plague piss-poor gamblers like us degenerates on this subreddit ... So, yeah, check out this book first: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Bets-Making-Smarter-Decisions/dp/0735216355
Stop thinking about everything you need to do all at once, start with something incredibly, hilariously small. You don't get to the second floor by jumping up the fucking stairs, how can you expect to begin fixing any of these things when you are thinking about all of it at once? Just take the first step.
Also, go get the book ["Sway"] (http://www.amazon.com/Sway-Irresistible-Pull-Irrational-Behavior/dp/0385530609/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1373163890&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=sway) and read about Loss Psychology. That will help you understand why you can't motivate yourself to do anything at all, because you don't have a mentality that you are losing anything tangible to ignore these things you don't like about your situation.
Ever heard of the five minute rule? When you have a task you don't want to do, you risk five minutes doing it and drop it if you are still in those five minutes feeling like it is a waste of time. 80, 90% of the time you will do more than you would have done otherwise (which is nothing).
Look, fixing these things isn't about fixing these things... Its about developing habits that lead to progress, developing habits that if you don't do them, you'll feel like you wasted time that day. Just start small, try a little, and be habitual.
It wouldn't hurt to start practicing gratitude for what you do have that you like, and that's easy to do if you compare your life and its comforts to someone sitting in a third-world prison right now.
The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465065708/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_g9SrDbYJW7GRQ
I can also strongly recommend Cairney.
If you're interested in how we make policy I recommend reading Eugene Bardach's Practical Guide for Policy Analysis: The Eightfold Path to More Effective Problem Solving, which offers an intuitive analysis of policymaking that's beginner friendly.
If you want something more academic and detailed, I'd suggest picking up a secondhand copy of The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy.
> she had a good idea (that kids would respond to more complex stories than the publishing industry was putting out at the time) and the skills and determination necessary to see it through.
Everything is Obvious (once you know the answer). I don't think there's a simple one sentence explanation for why HP in particular took off. A lot of unforeseeable things went right.
The funny thing is our perception of randomness.
Yes, if you look at it from your unique angle, it's a one in a bazillion chance, and very surprising.
However, since there are a bazillion BL2 players that have been playing BL2 and drawing loot a bazillion times, it's statistically certain *many people* will have amazing drops like that.
Check out "The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules our Lives" (book) and Radio Lab's "A Very Lucky Wind" (podcast) for some great explanations.
> finding science based evidence for law of attraction, mind over matter, and we are all one consciousness etc and I think we are now entering a new paradigm where science and "woo-woo" are finally meeting.
This statement is spot on, I couldn't agree more with your suggestion that we are approaching a "new dawn" of understanding of ourselves and how we are all inter-related. Reminds me of this book I read back in college called Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life.
I feel that the Law of Attraction is a very powerful and real thing and I fear that many may loose faith in it when things don't go their way straight off. Too often we seem sort of stuck on this idea of instant access, on-demand type of solutions to our problems. There doesn't seem to be a more guilty party than social media who dresses up everyone to be this version of themselves that they want the world to believe.
Without backstory my biggest problem with meditation is the fact that I had been involved in an accident earlier last year. The injury renders my right leg nearly worthless and while it is still fully intact and whatnot, I cannot bend it more than 45° or so. Does being unable to bend certain ways destroy the idea of meditation or yoga as a whole?
Thanks for your comment as well. Your knowledge of LOA is as impressive as your proper grammar. Something I only one day dream of having. Thanks again! (:
Here's a link to the book I used:
https://www.amazon.com/Data-Mining-Business-Intelligence-Applications/dp/0470526823
Buy the book Value Proposition Design: http://www.amazon.com/Value-Proposition-Design-Customers-Strategyzer/dp/1118968050
Apply the book
If you, perchance, liked the Harry Potter series, you might enjoy Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, as a fairly pain free and enjoyable introduction to cognitive biases, logical fallacies, and other useful tools to better thinking. Elizer Yudkowsky, the author of HPatMoR maintains several resources that can also be useful in training your mind to be more rational, and a better critical thinker.
&#x200B;
The Demon-haunted world: science as a candle in the dark by Carl Sagan is a fantastic book in praise of science, a primer for the scientific method, and a decent guide to why and how science works. Further, it covers the nature of conspiracy thinking and pseudoscience, how to identify these things, and why they are harmful to society. Available in audiobook, ebook, and paper formats.
&#x200B;
Algorithms to Live by is a bit off to the side of your requested topic, but it's an interesting treatise on how computer science can teach you some of the optimal ways one can make certain types of decisions. It's a bit counterintuitive, in the advice given, for example: messiness is often more efficient than spending a lot of time organizing everything, humans can't really multitask, and hunches are sometimes your best tool for deciding a course of action. I've read the book and posses the audiobook, both are great.
&#x200B;
Almost anything written by Richard Feynman is accessible, humorous, and wise, in an askew sort of way. He's good at approaching topics from odd angles.
&#x200B;
The Great Courses offers many resources on Audible: I've read and enjoyed Your Deceptive Mind, Skepticism 101, and Your Best Brain, which cover cognitive biases, and logical fallacies in detail, how to think more clearly without false, misleading thought, and how to take care of you mind through better lifestyle choices.
There is no such thing as common sense
https://www.amazon.com/Linked-Everything-Connected-Business-Everyday/dp/0465085733
There is a bunch of engineering stats books out there. The one we teach out of at my uni is the one by Devore. I think it does a good job of teaching what it does. I know Ross has an engineering stats book out there, and so does Montgomery, and they are both people who have written good books in the past. The one by Ross seems to have some good topics in it from reading the table of contents.
Also, you probably want to pick up a regression book. I like the one by Kutner et al., but it is ungodly pricey. This one has a free pdf. I don't like a lot about it, but the first few chapters of every regression book are pretty much the same.
If you want to go deep into statistical theory, there is Casella and Berger as well.
For programs, I know MATLAB has a stats package that should be sufficient for the time being. If you want to go further in stats, you might want to consider R because it will have vastly more stats functions.
A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis: The Eightfold Path to More Effective Problem Solving, 4th Edition- $4USD OBO.ugh, that guy sucks. try this one: http://www.amazon.com/The-Drunkards-Walk-Randomness-Rules-ebook/dp/B001NXK1XO -- similar story without all the narcissism.
Barabasi's "Linked" could also be great for whetting readers' appetite.
En meget relevant bog, for dem som interesserer sig for dette, er Nudge, som er et langt argument for, at vi skal have et frit valg, men vi skal ikke være tvunget til at tage det, medmindre det faktisk er vigtigt, og at default-valget skal være det, som er bedst for de fleste. Dermed har man mange af de fordele, som der er ved frie valg, men samtidig undgår man paralysen der kommer fra at skulle undersøge alt for mange forhold for selv at kunne træffe de mindst betydningsfulde valg. Det går ud på at designe valgmulighederne således, at borgeren er gavnet.
Et godt eksempel fra bogen er pensionsordninger: hvis alle bliver sat i en default plan som er god for de fleste, men som de godt må melde sig ud af eller skifte ud, så har man præcis det samme frihed som hvis defaultløsningen er ingen pensionsordning. Men empirisk set kommer der til at være flere, som sparer op.
This may not be helpful for your midterm, but if you want a good reference for the future you could check out Applied Linear Regression Models by Kutner [https://www.amazon.com/Applied-Linear-Regression-Models-Student/dp/0073014664/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1540747831&amp;sr=8-1]. You could probably find a PDF online if you can't find a copy in the library.
When I was an undergrad I took an MBA data mining class where we used Data Mining for Business Intelligence. I found it great for explaining why you'd use a technique to solve a particular problem. The only issue is it uses XLMiner to teach, which is an Excel add-on sold by the authors. But you should be able to follow it just fine without it.
There is a great book called “When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing” by Daniel Pink that has a chapter discussing this exact idea. He talks about the importance of recognizing where you fall as an early riser, night owl, or somewhere in the middle and how to capitalize on your type. He has a quote that’s something like he believes “the modern schedule was created to make night owls miserable” which seems pretty true at times.
https://www.amazon.com/When-Scientific-Secrets-Perfect-Timing/dp/0735210624/ref=nodl_
It comes from this book.
Not to mention, you're the one who made the initial claim. So maybe YOU should provide a source? Instead of just shitting on someone who actually bothers to provide some information.
Buy this book and [this book]9http://www.amazon.com/Informal-Logic-Pragmatic-Douglas-Walton/dp/0521713803/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343375779&sr=1-2&keywords=informal+logic) and this book and this book.
I know that's a lot to read but you asked a question that has a really big answer to it. If you attempt to rush through a subject like "how to argue well" you'll just end up not achieving what you wanted to be able to do in the first place. I would start with Philosophy made simple first. It has summaries of major philosophical ideas and at the end introduces logic. Taht's where you'll get your feet with modus tolens, modus ponens, affirming the consequent, necessity, sufficiency and all that jazz. Good luck!
Reading tip for you: The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives. It gives you a perspective on how chance affects your life. It's a much bigger factor that most people think. The book is interesting and may be an eye opener in many ways - I can recommend it to anyone.
Especially the last 20 years we've had this economic and technical boost (despite the two big crises we had), and it seemed like the sky was the limit. For many people this didn't happen. That includes me, even though I'm still above the average, so doing above average compared to the rest of my country, but not so good compared to my expectations. And apparently it includes you.
If you say that you worked in three countries, many people will be impressed, find it interesting, think you have a more interesting and successful life than they have. You probably only see your failures, the expectations you had but didn't meet.
Meeting other people's expectations - that's not the real problem. The risk is spiraling down into a burnout, especially if you do this really slowly.
Reading your story another time - do you have a shitty job, a narcistic boss? I don't read that in your story. You have a younger boss, and... you're not the boss. You have to learn to accept your situation. Depression, struggles, sleepless nights... do you think that will get better when you're the boss? Probably it will get worse. Is the job a problem, the people not nice?
How to accept your situation - that is a job in itself. Maybe you get therapy for your depression and suicidal thoughts? If not, find someone who can help you. You have two things going for you: an income, and a happy family and I assume that includes kids.
Another suggestion is to find a hobby for yourself, something you can do on your own, outside the family, not related to work. And I don't consider gaming a hobby (and I don't mean to say that you shouldn't game btw). But go biking, woodcarving, wall climbing, preferably something physical that puts your mind off the bad stuff and makes you sweat a little.
The Master Algorithm by Pedro Domingos.
Impressive breadth and depth. Also great writing that explains complex ideas understandably.
https://www.amazon.com/Master-Algorithm-Ultimate-Learning-Machine/dp/0465065708/
People assign probability to threats in a stupid human way. We assign overly low probabilities to threats where the impact hasn't been recently felt. We also are seem to incorrectly assign higher probability and greater impact when calculating risk related to man-made disasters.
This recent disaster and its ongoing consequences has damaged their ability as humans to rationally calculate and mentally accept the low-risk result of nuclear risk calculation.
It's a flawed trait all humans share. Just like after 9/11, when people decided to drive instead of fly, resulting in more deaths than had they just flown because driving carries greater risk. The recent events had damaged their ability to estimate probability. The Japanese have seen first hand the impact of this risk, and here we sit criticizing them for being fearful.
My point is that it's no longer about rational argument or doing the "right" thing. The people won't accept it, until they somehow get over their incorrect estimation of risk.
If you're interested, there's a great book about this exact subject.
I can't tell you yet, but I just ordered Annie Duke's Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts and I expect it to fit the bill.