(Part 3) 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 41-60. You can also go back to the previous section.
Here's my rough list of textbook recommendations. There are a ton of Dover paperbacks that I didn't put on here, since they're not as widely used, but they are really great and really cheap.
Amazon search for Dover Books on mathematics
There's also this great list of undergraduate books in math that has become sort of famous: https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~abhishek/chicmath.htm
Pre-Calculus / Problem-Solving
Calculus
Linear Algebra
Differential Equations
Number Theory
Proof-Writing
Analysis
Complex Analysis
Functional Analysis
Partial Differential Equations
Higher-dimensional Calculus and Differential Geometry
Abstract Algebra
Geometry
Topology
Set Theory and Logic
Combinatorics / Discrete Math
Graph Theory
P. S., if you Google search any of the topics above, you are likely to find many resources. You can find a lot of lecture notes by searching, say, "real analysis lecture notes filetype:pdf site:.edu"
I'll take a hard left on the reading recommendations because the usual recommendations have been covered.
A lot of people going through these transformations do not understand nor internalize something more fundamental about how they work and misuse their most precious resource of all - time. So I recommend Tom Limoncelli's Time Management for System Administrators frequently for engineers that seem to get overwhelmed a lot at work. All companies are trying to do a lot more with a lot less than they used to only 9 years ago, and this means it is very, very common for people to be doing the jobs of what used to be 1-3 other people in the 90s or early 2000s. Additionally, look into some of the articles and events from http://www.humanops.com/
You may also want to read books from W Edwards Deming, one of the most commonly cited forefathers of Agile before they even made the term. This book should be a good introduction to improving quality output of products
and perhaps services if an organization is experiencing issues with declining quality of product https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Deming-Leadership-Principles-Business/dp/0071790225/
You may also want to read High Output Management by the late Andy Grove as well as Ben Horowitz's the Hard Thing About Hard Things. These are management books but if you're talking about methodologies and cultural transformations (forget devops for a moment), you're basically doing management consulting IMO rather than engineering consulting. And because there is no company cultural transformation that has succeeded without executive oversight, you should be trying to think more like a manager to succeed here as well. If your clients do not respect and understand the principles of successful technology company managers (I've never heard of anyone trying to do "devops" as a culture that wasn't also coinciding with trying to make a non-technology company more of a technology product company - this also includes software vendors that are fundamentally sales and marketing in core competency and culture), it is difficult to imagine that they will achieve something other than by following average / mediocre managers outside technology.
Oh sweetie, I think this is something everyone thinks about, and I don't know if you ever really feel "ready" to have kids. I know that I didn't--but 2 healthy kiddos later, we figured it out. We wanted to wait until we both had jobs, had our living situation figured out, and had been married for at least a couple of years. We felt "ready" and we started to try. I was still terrified when I found out I was expecting. Only you and your partner can decide when you feel "ready", but realize that it will never be the perfect time to have kids. Also, as a woman, you do want to keep in mind that the older you get, the harder it might be to get pregnant. (Not for everyone, but statistically.) It's something to keep in mind as you plan.
If you feel like you might be almost ready, talk to your partner about it. Talk about your hesitations. Are they big giant roadblock? of just little speed bumps? Does he have any ideas on how to work through them with you? Are you scared about being pregnant? having the baby? caring for the baby? What are your (and his) concerns?
Once you feel like you have worked through your major concerns, maybe set a date to stop trying to prevent (you have been using something to not get pregnant, right? that's important too) or a date to start trying. We waited until after a big trip we had been planning. Then, keep talking. Share your fears with him. Talk through them together. Maybe do some research or learning. It helped me to read about what to expect. Some books that I enjoyed or found helpful were:
​
Pregnancy Related:
Babies:
​
If you like to read, maybe give one or two a shot. You can also check out /r/Parenting and/or /r/BabyBumps to see what real parents are saying. Try to find some local moms to talk to about their experience--they can be a good support group later too.
If you are a planner, do some checking on things that you might need to know about (daycare, pediatricians, etc) if that makes you feel better. Look at costs, locations, ratings, whatever you need to do to feel secure.
Realize that even if you decide you are "ready" you may still freak out a little bit once it happens. Having a baby is scary and life changing, but that's okay! You can do this! You are awesome!
Also, here's a little secret that no one talks about --no one knows what they are doing with raising kiddos, we all just fake it til we make it and muddle our way through the best we can. I still feel like I'm just pretending to be an grown up with kids.
There is no one-size-fits-all bonus-model.
Consider finding the most important things for the firm now and in the future. Profits, growth, happiness level, ...
//For some situations and roles, flat rate is the best. One can spend more efforts on searching performance than get from that https://hbr.org/2015/04/reinventing-performance-management , https://www.strategy-business.com/article/00275
Some other links:
https://hbr.org/product/wiser-getting-beyond-groupthink-to-make-groups-smarter/2299E-KND-ENG
https://www.amazon.com/Wiser-Getting-Beyond-Groupthink-Smarter/dp/1422122999
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6345949_Deep-Level_Composition_Variables_as_Predictors_of_Team_Performance
http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1938&context=articles
http://www.chabris.com/Woolley2010a.pdf
Buckle up! In my teams, leaders are readers.
Here's a short list:
Oh and here is Lincoln Murphy's book list.
Hi skunk,
Since everyone is remaining quiet I might as well give this a shot. I'm from a technical background but currently studying PM in my spare time in the hope that I can progress in this direction within my industry.
PMP
It seems like the global standard is the PMP with PMI which requires:
> A secondary degree (high school diploma, associate’s degree, or the global equivalent) with at least five years of project management experience, with 7,500 hours leading and directing projects and 35 hours of project management education.
> OR
> A four-year degree (bachelor’s degree or the global equivalent) and at least three years of project management experience, with 4,500 hours leading and directing projects and 35 hours of project management education.
I'm currently studying towards this. I've taken recommendations from this subreddit (and /r/pmp) and bought:
and
In order to obtain the required 35 contact hours, I bought one of several cheap Groupons for $99. I'm not going to link the course because I don't necessarily recommend it - it should be easy enough to find and people have linked to these in previous posts. It doesn't really matter anyway because it's just so I can "tick that box", as I've learnt everything I need to know from the books.
The exam however will have to be sat in person. I have yet to do this so can't give you any pointers.
CAPM
If you don't match the above criteria, you can always opt for the lower qualification of CAPM (also with PMI) and work your way up.
For this I reccommend CAPM/PMP Project Management Certification, Third Edition and the previously mentioned online course.
Please note that you can potentially pitch anything as a project in the right light, even washing the dishes. Aim high and try to get the hours for PMP if possible.
PRINCE2 & SIX SIGMA
What else? Well, if I'm successful with the PMP and still enjoy PM after the blood, sweat and tears, I'm looking at these two qualifications.
I've already added a few books to my Amazon wishlist but have yet to seriously look into these with enough detail to commit.
I know that the exam for the PRINCE2 foundation level (and possibly practitioner level?) can be sat online with a webcam.
Six Sigma I know very little about except that several colleagues have mentioned it and my industry takes it seriously. However, I don't believe you can do these Six Sigma "belts" online.
Sorry for the serious wall of text but I just thought I'd share everything I know about PM accreditation. This isn't a comprehensive list but I'm planning on doing 90% online so I'm in a similar situation to yourself.
I would be grateful for any feedback myself from experienced PMs on my plans going forward.
Although not about finance per se, you might check out Annie Duke's new book, "Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All The Facts."
She discusses some of the biases other books -- such as "Thinking, Fast and Slow" -- discuss, but she puts them in different contexts and has a lot of advice on how to mitigate them.
Caveat: I was a little disappointed the first time I read "Thinking in Bets," as it seemed a bit lightweight. But I subscribed to her newsletter, and after a few issues I got re-motivated. So I gave the book a second shot, and the next time reading it I got a lot more out of it.
Speaking of "Thinking, Fast and Slow," I found it a bit ponderous. You might consider reading Michael Lewis's book, "The Undoing Project," which talks about the history of Kahneman and Tversky working relationship, and provides a more interesting (but less deep) introduction to the biases and heuristics they came up with.
I have the 2oz backpacker. It's okay, but if you go to the Amazon site you can browse related books.
Emily Oster is also releasing a new book on parenting in April https://www.amazon.com/Cribsheet-Data-Driven-Relaxed-Parenting-Preschool-ebook/dp/B07FZPTDJ3 , looking forward to read it.
Oh, it's from their book Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions - right at the end of the conclusion. Mostly just an accessible introduction to some basic algorithms that can be explained in interesting real-world terms.
https://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Decisions/dp/1480560367
I have camped quite a bit. You didn't mention shelter, but I think if you're rafting you should consider a hammock shelter. /r/hammocks for more. When I camp by a river it helps avoiding floods.
Stop by /r/ultralight if you're serious at all about your gear. They'll tell you the best way to spend your money to get the highest quality equipment.
Your USB charger should be any $10 AA battery-to-USB charger. Energizer is popular. By weight, unless you're long-hauling with no ability to mail yourself care packages ahead of time or make it into town, you don't want anything else. Not worth it by weight for energy or effort to go any other way. Hand cranks are terrible, solar requires too much sitting/orienting/waiting, Peltier/heat exchangers/Sterlings are all too heavy and annoying to run.
Consider reading The 2oz Backpacker. Odds are you don't need it, and shouldn't bother to bring it with you. I will disagree with one point that's a bit out of date in that book, and that is that you do need a hat and sunglasses, not just a hat. Wear both. Get polarized sunglasses and verify they are actually polarized by stacking the lenses of two pairs and rotating until no light goes through. If you can't do that, they aren't polarized.
Hast du zufällig dieses Buch gelesen? Passt wunderbar zu deinem Post:
https://www.amazon.de/Knowledge-Illusion-Never-Think-Alone/dp/039918435X
Diese Studie passt auch dazu:
https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Glueck-nicht-Talent-macht-erfolgreich-und-reich-3995595.html
estoy leyendo el libro "The art of choosing" de Sheena Iyengar, que menciona: "Recent studies have even found a stronger correlation between parents’ income and their children’s income in the United States than in Western European countries such as Sweden and Germany, showing that success in the United States is based slightly less on effort and more on the circumstances of one’s birth."
>edit: encontré esta gráfica, aunque no viene nuestro país.
>edit2: aquí hay un artículo interesante sobre la mobilidad económica, y viene nuestro país, aunque solo en la gráfica de relación entre posición socioeconómica de los progenitores y las calificaciones de su hijo en nivel secundaria .... según la gráfica en USA es más la influencia que en México ¿será por?
> He wanted to go somewhere else because of choice overload.
I'm actually reading a cool book about how much choice is too much... The Art of Choosing
Not lego related, but has lots of interesting anecdotes and studies related to the psychology, perception and culture of choice.
There's this, The Little Blue Reasoning Book - no religion involved.
Also this, Nonsense: A Book of Logical Fallacies. Also no religion involved.
The Fallacy Detective actually found a link to it on a Christian website, so you've got an in there.
Thanks for the Kuhn suggestion, I will look that up. I recently read Alan Jacobs' "how to think", it's a very succinct short book https://www.amazon.com/How-Think-Survival-Guide-World/dp/0451499603 . Prior to reading it, I was a bit of a "facts vs feelings" guy a la Shapiro- although reading some things about Kant's "turn to the subject" had seeded doubts in me. After reading Jacobs' book, I was convinced that we are highly influenced in our thinking by our culture and other external forces. Not just in obvious ways, but very deeply through language and the psychology of human interaction. So I agree with most of what you said, but I would go further and say that everyone is ultimately religious. No one holds an emperically rigorous worldview that can be proven from the ground up. In fact, attempts to dothis are perhaps what is criticised in the Bible story of the Tower of Babel. So I think it is important to recognise the assumptions and axioms that others have, such as JP and Pageau. But we all need to be aware of our own axioms too. Our set of axioms, stated or not, form our own personal religion, regardless if we believe in the supernatural or not. In the Christian worldview, God is the "top axiom" in the heirarchy and other values are subordinate.
I now believe that it is impossible to "prove" any worldview beyond doubt and it is inconsistent to demand proof of others' axioms when we can't prove our own. I think that we are not left in a nihilistic post modern chaos, because we can still pick a worldview and examine it for internal consistency in the light of it's own axioms. I personally hold a Christian worldview and I find that in my experience, it is logically consistent and rational. To the best of my ability, I've looked at what I consider to be viable competing worldviews and they are not internally consistent. I acknowledge that I may be in error, however I will maintain my position until I see something more convincing.
I'm an old fashioned man, I've used Zapier and google spreadsheets before.
Pen, paper and calculator is always a good thing to do to rough figures at first. Also learn some of the basics of accounting, balance sheet, p and L, etc.
Aswath Damodaran has a decent book and videos.
Lean Analytics gave me inspiration for using the important "One Metric That Matters" combined with a physics degree + "How to Measure Anything" by Hubbard and Drummond is a good way of playing with it all. Dimensional analysis is always useful when thinking about it all.
It will be more difficult, of course, but if you stay focus and keep pushing, you will eventually earn more and more shares.
The first example that comes to my mind is web browsers. When Internet Explorer had more than 95% of the market (back in 2004, source), anyone deciding to build a competitive browser would have been out of his mind ... And then, Firefox came along, on started taking some market share, more and more. Up to a point where they had more shares than Internet Explorer (well, with only 14.4% vs 13.4% but it's something). In the meantime, Chrome joined the competition and started winning even more share, up until now where Chrome is the most used browser in the world. (same source).
The key element to take into consideration here, is HOW they did it. For me, Firefox main reason I did the switch was how easy it was to search on a web page. In a more general point of view, both Firefox, then Chrome, brought new and easier way to browse/use the web, which leads users to switch to that user.
A perfect example about succeeding in a crowded market is, if I'm not mistaken, the case used in the book "The innovator's solution" where the authors takes for example the mini mills that starts to do the work of bigger mills for small client or small parts (the crumble of the cake). These actions are accepted by the bigger mills simply because it often is small contracts, with a small profits at the end. This leads the bigger mills to focus on their core work, and loose the edge contrats they aren't interested in.
The problem risk with this, is that those mini mills tend to accept bigger and bigger contracts up to the point where the bigger mills, that have now specialized in a specific domain, find themselves in difficulty to compete with the originally mini mills.
It's the same with IE vs Firefox vs Chrome and it's the same in all the domains.
All of that to say that you can compete, absolutely. You "simply" have to provide something worth making your potential clients switching from your competitors, to you :)
I personally like Learning Tableau as a great primer and refresher on understanding how Tableau works: http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Tableau-Visualization-Business-Intelligence/dp/1784391166 -- follow along with the book where you can.
If you haven't already walk through the videos here: http://www.tableau.com/learn/training -- and by walk-through I mean use Tableau and follow along.
Visualisation in general I need to do more reading but I like:
Stephen Few : Show me the Numbers http://www.amazon.com/Show-Me-Numbers-Designing-Enlighten/dp/0970601972
Accidental Analyst: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1477432264/
There's a few more books recommended here: http://www.tableau.com/about/blog/2013/7/list-books-about-data-visualisation-24182
edit: and for blogs I currently like http://flowingdata.com/
Someone emailed me yesterday and asked a similar question. I responded with this reading list:
These aren't novels, of course. All of it is non-fiction. But I think that is what you meant. And they aren't textbooks either. I'm also guessing you were looking more for applications than pure theory.
OK, sure. Please bear in mind these are my own personal recommendations, everyone's understanding and learning styles are different.
Something like this will be very handy for your documentation.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1598638688/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_of_20?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=96RQCVP9B9T0XYWX9G7J
It covers the latest UML version and will stand you in good stead for you future as a BA. I've not read this but it's been on my wish list for a few months and it will be my next purchase. The reviews seem to be pretty positive and apparently it has some case studies within it. This would be ideal for you because you can actually practise your learning using these in preparation for your role. UML is a common buzzword found on job descriptions so knowing it is handy.
The next book I'd recommend would be this:
https://www.amazon.com/Business-Analysis-Malcolm-Eva/dp/178017277X
I actually got this book free with a bcs course I did but I've recently bought it again as a soft copy so I don't have to lug it around with me. I consider it my Bible to be honest. It pretty much goes through the spectrum of BA work across an end to end project lifestyle. In the real world it's unlikely that you would ever need to use all aspects of this book on all projects. The idea of it is more of a reference to pick and choose the relevant parts for the state of your project and apply the BA skills that it describes and the experience you already know.
Finally, there is another BCS book I often use, specifically for gathering and documenting requirements:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1780172737/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_of_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=MSPTS21P7KVGTZ0YJ4C5
I used this book a hell of a lot when I first started out and it literally has what it says 99 tools and techniques. Best of all, it has examples and some basic templates to start from. Which were so useful for me.
Don't be afraid to use Google, linked in and the websites listed on here. They are all invaluable sources of information to help you.
It's worth noting that there are a number of BABOK books out there that could be out benefit to you.
None of the companies I have worked for have been particularly bothered about this but it is something I'll study at some point. Anything on agile would be a bonus. Agile seems to be the new buzzword lately.
Hopefully some of the other guys on here will comment too.
Hope this helps, apologies for anything that's unclear, I'm writing this on my phone.
Good luck,
Andy
Look at the references at the end of The Art of Choosing , it's full of experimental/ behavioural papers.
I really like the area of competition maths, I got into it much too late (not until I was at university), I really wish I had been made aware of it when I was younger (there never seems to be enough time at uni).
At 10, I think the place to start is a book like
http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Problem-Solving-Vol/dp/0977304566
Which covers rather a lot of stuff (though I believe it is at the right level) and doesn't linger on things for ages or have millions of the same exercise, and has a big section on geometry, which is a really fun area that people don't do much in school.
> the requirement to have statistics that are always higher each week than they were the week before is literally impossible to do. Even very successful staff members are therefore eventually regarded as unsuccessful.
This was among the stupidest things Hubbard every came up with.
The initial idea was fine, and to his credit Hubbard was early in the practice of using statistics. Because yes, it's far better to measure work contributions with dispassionate numbers than emotional responses (like, "You aren't a team player"). And some things can be turned into useful statistics relatively easily, such as sales dollars and number-of-auditing-hours delivered. And "number of hotel rooms cleaned."
But in other cases, the statistic is meaningless. And since in most cases the statistic valued number and not quality, the use of stats did not encourage production. When people are measured on numbers, they deliver numbers without regard to quality. The best example is a public one that we all find unfathomable: hand-written letters that say, "Hi how is it going?" and are sent to people who bought a book 30 years ago. The person who works in Central Files has a stat of "number of letters sent out" and so is motivated to create lots of "letters." It would be far more useful to find a statistic that measures the result you want, such as "number of people who respond to letters," because that might encourage people to do a job so well that recipients write back.
And when your production is measured on your job's statistics, it does not make it valuable to help other people.
The only place where quality is part of the statistic is in auditing, where there's a distinction between "well done auditing hours delivered" and "very well done auditing hours delivered." (IMO the best of his management practices had to do with Auditing and Qual. That's not too surprising because it was the heart of what was delivered, and he actually knew those workflows.)
But the dumbest part of the "management by statistics" theory was the idea that it should be measured on a weekly basis, and the graph should always be "up and to the right." That's patently ridiculous, on an individual level. There are finite number of hours in a week in which anyone can deliver auditing for instance; and "hotel rooms cleaned" has a hard stop when a hotel has a fixed number of rooms.
More importantly, quality results have ebbs and flows. In most professional endeavors, someone can spends 3 weeks or 6 months on a task before it becomes a visible, measurable statistic. There are healthy trends that are more visible when looked at on a monthly or quarterly basis -- but that's not part of Scn stats. And there are yearly trends, such as "lots of sales before Christmas" which, in a week-to-week measure, suggests that every Org's stats will crash in January. But they never looked at "How did we do in December this year compared to previous Decembers" the way that retail businesses did.
And then there's the whole notion of using stats only up to a point, and rather to focus on improving quality. It was quite a head trip when I read the works of W. Edwards Deming and learned about his "red bead rule." If you spent any time on staff working on a stats-based mindset, I highly recommend reading one of Deming's books.
I've long wondered what would have happened if Hubbard discovered Deming. A lot of things might have been quite different.
I just started How to Think by Alan Jacobs. Really enjoying it so far.
Check out this book for detailed ways to create blueprints/maps https://www.amazon.com/Mapping-Experiences-Complete-Creating-Blueprints/dp/1491923539/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=customer+mapping&qid=1573039349&sr=8-2
Thanks. Yeah, I think that being self-sufficient seems like somewhat of a myth if you consider ideas in the book The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone https://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Illusion-Never-Think-Alone/dp/039918435X (I'm skeptical about a lot of psychology research, but they still make some interesting points, I think). I mean, I think that maybe valuing solitude, taking time to yourself and also being with other people at times (finding a balance) is a good idea. Solitude seems to help with creativity at times (some amount of it) and not falling into a herd mentality. But hey, I do think Nietzsche is worth reading.
Counterpoint, Measuring Intangibles in Business.
I highly recommend reading two books asap:
These two books have both shaped me tremendously in terms of how I interact with an treat people and making those changes has only changed my life for the better both in business and personally. The first one is a more positive restore your faith in humanity type and the second is a more ruthless Machiavellian type but they both take an insightful look at people and how they influence each other. They also can both help guide you in decision making in certain situations.
Other than that, just relax, enjoy the ride, and do your best. Confidence is key.
Bonus book (nerd alert)
Some great points here but from the sounds of your post that you are now "in charge of Salesforce" there aren't people telling you what to do in it. It sounds to me your job role has changed from "The Admin" to "The Consultant/BA". Yes go for some certifications but mostly I think it's about moving more into the Consultant/BA role. Find how Salesforce can be used more effectively in your company to add value and measure it!. Actually, sit with some of your users who are advocates of Salesforce and understand how they do their job. I always look for people who use Excel/paper forms or are chasing different people for the same information again and again. Excel and paper forms can be turned into Salesforce objects, the chasing emails can be turned into workflows/process builder/automation. Work out how many times they have to copy/paste/send emails etc based on what you have automated. Then go to your boss and say hey I just saved the company $$ by automating this process. Maybe go look at common processes that the company does as a whole where you can make a bigger saving.
IMO That sounds a million times more compelling to your boss than hey look I passed the Salesforce Admin exam and completed 100 badges on Trailhead. I'm not saying not to do training but once you have identified the need for Salesforce its time to fill in your knowledge gaps with Trailhead/Certs etc and what better way to learn than on a real life scenario.
This sounds like a great opportunity and if it doesn't work out you can always put on your CV I saved the company $xxx,xxx in automating their processes using Salesforce.
Some books which I've had for YEARS but are (IMO) the bibles on Business Analysis:
https://www.amazon.com/Business-Analysis-Techniques-Essential-Success/dp/1780172737
https://www.amazon.com/Business-Analysis-James-Cadle/dp/178017277X
> “Do YOU take the effort to try and understand the reasons why people disagree with you and regularly use critical thinking to refine your own opinions, even entertaining ideas you strongly disagree on in your gut in order to evaluate if part of them connects to your existing knowledge?”
I’m fairly confident I do a better job of that than most average people (not saying I’m perfect at it, and its some I try to keep in my mind on a daily basis and something I try to practice in a daily basis).
I have an entire bookshelf at home that has all sorts of “brain” and psychology books on it (again, not saying that to brag, because I’m definitely not perfect at it). I just try to build up a wide enough variety of resources so any time I’m struggling with something I can use the resources I have to brainstorm innovative or alternative approaches or different understandings of an issue.
Books like:
(theres alot more but to be honest I’m already in bed and its been a long day and I’m to lazy to get up and skim across my bookshelf).
> “Listening to people we disagree with is HARD. “
Its not hard if the person is respectful and can back up their different opinion or preference with good legit factual evidence and common sense reasoning. Its one thing to say:
Thats a completely logical and purpose-driven choice that makes sense.
But if a person says:...
I’m not going to waste my time “trying to understand” that persons point of view. Sorry, I’m just not. Its not worth my time.
> “ something as trivial as if you prefer dogs or cats or neither.”
I generaly try to completely avoid those conversations. People can have different preferences. That typically doesnt effect me. So I dont care. Whether someone prefers chocolate ice cream or sunny days over rainy days,.. is entirely irrelevant to me.
> “Maybe it's just plain time to retire the idea of "us vs them" and recognize that there's just "us" in a wide range of configurations.”
Totally agree. Although I’m not sure thats an issue of “not understanding each other”. Thats certainly 1 aspect of it,.. but I can help other people without understanding them. (Hell, I can help complete strangers without even knowing a single thing about them).
Societies problems these days have a lot more to do with narrowmindedness, selfishness and laziness. “Whats in it for me?” is heard a lot more often than “What can I do to help?”
I highly recommend Annie Duke's "Thinking in Bets", it's a great reference on this topic and helped me build a better formula for ascertaining truth from falsehood. If you're curious or skeptical about it, here's my review from my own blog.
No, ma mi hai dato una grossa mano nel ricordare il titolo inglese: The Knowledge illusion, di Sloman e Fernbach. Grazie comunque!
Per gli interessanti,ecco il link di Amazon.
Links!
Effective Data Visualization
Storytelling With Data
The Accidental Analyst
Data At Work
Effective Data Visualization and Data At Work are in the driver's seat. I really want to try Data At Work, but I struggle to find enough reviews to convince a purchase. Thanks!
It's a question of personality. I am all for Innovation, Innovation, Innovation.
> Which are better in your opinion?
Innovation
> What examples do you have?
If you want more, read this: https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-Change-Business/dp/0062060244
and this: https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Solution-Creating-Sustaining-Successful/dp/1422196577
The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators https://www.amazon.com/dp/1422134814/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_2kWKzbZH8JEGA
The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Beating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385512074/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_imWKzb0R9Z6GV
Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas https://www.amazon.com/dp/0738205370/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_MjWKzbS473XHB
These are three of my favorites that aren't focused on advertising. Each one has incredible insights. If possible, I would start with Blockbusting, then the 10 faces of innovation and I would finish by reading the innovators DNA alongside the power of habit. The power of habit is not a book on creativity but it will help you see how you can create habits that will drastically improve your creative outputs. The innovators DNA has a lot of cool exercises and specific habits that all creative leaders have and the power of habit will give you the know how to integrate those habits into your daily life.
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business https://www.amazon.com/dp/081298160X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_XsWKzbZXS0TP6
One of the relatively few recent pop and business books i like
http://www.amazon.com/Innovators-DNA-Mastering-Skills-Disruptive/dp/1422134814/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416173563&sr=8-1&keywords=Innovator%27s+dna
Nah, you brought up "tumblr/jezebel feminists" in a liberal zone - you should've seen that coming.
The IRONY is I just saw the episode where he interviewed the author of Wiser - Getting Beyond Groupthink. Give yourself a pat on the back.
Learning to See is a pretty good tool... it goes over VSMs, but it gets into Toyota Production Methods and is basically just a good place to start. If you know absolutely nothing about Six Sigma, Six Sigma For Dummies isn't awful - my trainer kept a copy on his desk.
https://www.amazon.com/Prealgebra-Richard-Rusczyk/dp/1934124214 | 978-1934124215
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Geometry-2nd-Problem-Solving/dp/1934124087 | 978-1934124086
https://www.amazon.com/Intermediate-Algebra-Art-Problem-Solving/dp/1934124044 | 978-1934124048
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Problem-Solving-Vol-Beyond/dp/0977304582 | 978-0977304585
https://www.amazon.com/Precalculus-Problem-Solving-Richard-Rusczyk/dp/1934124265 | 978-1934124260
https://www.amazon.com/Calculus-Problem-Solving-David-Patrick/dp/1934124249 | 978-1934124246
https://www.amazon.com/Competition-Math-Middle-School-Batterson/dp/1441488871 | 978-1441488879
$7.50 per book, $10 if you find the solution manuals too please pm me and comment pm'ed if you have any
Need pdf:
https://smile.amazon.com/Art-Problem-Solving-Vol-Beyond/dp/0977304582/
https://smile.amazon.com/Art-Problem-Solving-Vol-Solutions/dp/0977304590/
https://smile.amazon.com/Problem-Solving-Calculus-Textbook-Solutions/dp/B0083CJSH8/
If you have other aops books pm me which one and I'll see if I want that one.
~$5 per
Then you know “A change of perspective is worth 80 IQ points.”
Check out How To Think.
To offer a different perspective, what made Japan's recovery so amazing is that they had something to offer most other industrialized countries didn't have at the time: quality. Japan has been the world's leader in quality standards ever since the 1950's.
After world war II, Japan was the first country to say "Quality over quantity". They implemented quality management as the basis of their new economy. To achieve this, they hired quality contemporary "guru's" (for lack of a better term). Willam Edwards Deming probably being the most well-known of them.
There have been books written about quality management (and tons of books about Deming alone), so I'm not going to focus on his philosophy here. The main reason for Japan's economic recovery is quality management however. When the entire world was still focusing on mass-production, they started focusing on quality production.
Eventually the new philosophy started to produce results. In the 1970's, people simply began to realize Japanese products were way better in quality, and Western producers realized there was a competitive gap, and Deming's work finally began to receive recognition in the 80's.
Deming's focus wasn't only on product quality, but also on quality management. Continuously upgrading/testing/innovating the product became the new standard.
Other quality leaders were Genuchi Taguchi, Walter Shewart, and Joseph Juran
Some links on quality management:
Main Wikipedia page
Quality Function Deployment
Toyota Production Systm
Kaizen
Books on Quality Management:
Gemba Kaizen
William Edwards Deming
Juran's Quality Control Handbook published in 1951, Japanese scientists liked his work and invited him to implement his system
To summarize, Solow's growth model might provide a basis for the Japanese economic recovery, but the decision to focus on quality for products instead of quantity was way more important. The West only started to catch up in response to that in the 1980's (e.g. Motorola's Six Sigma programme). Yes, the help of the US did give Japan the ability to improve their economy, but their huge economic growth and how well they used that aid was due to