William Nichols

Like Nassim Taleb's "Skin in the Game" but polite

Revisado: 10-21-22

The substance is identical, the only difference is presentation. NTT is passionate: deductive and efficient with as much literary wit as he likes with no regard for perceived offensiveness. Sowell is dispassionate: inductive and exhaustive with rare touches of subtle wit, and with such a neutral tone that one forgets that offensiveness was even a possibility.
... Sowell presents the ideas so logically and inescapably that 'style' would be a dilution. NTT uses style to get the ideas past the mind and into your belly. But it's the same ideas.
... Neither is less convincing than the other.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

"long, boring, didn't get anything out of it"

Revisado: 02-15-22

I've put down better books than this for being all sizzle and no steak. But this book is no sizzle and no steak.
I can forgive the author for being full of crap. For such types, they can't help it. I cannot, however, forgive the author for being boring.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

a great prequal to "the big short"

Revisado: 01-24-22

you should read this (well, listen to it). it is worth the time, I think

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

better better better than the movie. listen.

Revisado: 01-23-22

I liked "flash boys" but wasn't crazy about "liars poker", so I avoided this book a long time even though I loved the movie. the movie is just so sliver of the juicy story though, by no fault of it because a movie is inherently limited. this book might be his masterpiece.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

great, but cd version is better

Revisado: 09-30-21

I had to take off a star because I used to have the CD version of the New testament, and at the end it has a short but tremendous orchestral piece after the last chapter of Revelation, followed by a very beautiful song with vocals, the lyrics are about the hope of God coming for his people. after so many hours of listening it's very satisfying to conclude with that, and it gives you a sense of closure. by contrast this seemed like a very abrupt transition to some copyright credits and audible's "thank you". that being said there's no complaints here, to get the entire old and New testament in theatrical audio for one credit is a sweet deal.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

a great shallow treatment of a deep concept

Revisado: 09-01-21

The idea is a 10. The depth of exploration of that idea is a 1.
I wish the author had gotten some real life experience and taken an extra 15 years to think about this before writing this book. Then it could have been something people keep reading in a thousand years. As written, this is basically a self-help book for academics who want to spin their wheels writing even more papers that no one reads (except other wheel spinners for the purpose of writing even more useless papers).

The breadth of treatment is a 4. I think he explored the idea as widely as he could have given the small academic world in which he seems to live. But that is not to be mistaken for depth.

Aesthetically it gets a 2... It has literary quality of your standard five-step-self-help book. Disappointingly, he seems to have read all the right people one would have to read in order to write interesting literature, but his literature still doesn't seem that interesting (aesthetically). Again, if he had some real life experience he probably would have been able to work in better anecdotes and illustrations, etc., and maybe this would be more fun to read.

But the book is definitely worth reading, especially for someone who is pretty well rounded already and knows how to chew the meat and spit out the bones. That modern rarity: a decent book, is worth many many times more than what you pay for it, and this book is certainly decent.

As far as a critique of the content, the only things worth mentioning are:
1. He might have a distorted view of value, probably due to academic bubble syndrome. A lot of work that he calls shallow is the very things that make the world go round, including the real source of his own tenured salary (i.e. the "shallow" efforts of salesman in his institution's admissions department).
2. Dang... I forgot the second point. I know you don't care, but this is going to drive me crazy now.
1a. To be fair, he does make mention of a third category of work that's not deep but also not what he calls 'shallow'. It seems like this third category is jobs where quality decisions are necessary with no anticipation and in real time, or on the spot. Someone should develop this model some more.

Overall, this book was helpful and caused me to implement some stuff into my lifestyle, and I'll likely go through it again from time to time. That should say it all.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

how can they be so smart and yet so blind?

Revisado: 07-03-21

this book is super helpful to get general exposure to the kinds of scams that are around so that you identify them when they're around you in your life, but while the authors are great at getting to the heart of the problem of what they refer to as a phish (a scam), they're really awful with their prescriptions about a solution. most of the solutions are just other scams. so they're very selective about the fishes or scams they will identify as such, and the scams that they're gullible toward. it actually reinforces the point of the book: Even the authors of this book can't help themselves, they fall for scams like we all do. well worth the listen, I'll probably return to it now and then.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

fantastic

Revisado: 05-25-21

well researched, fun to listen to, inspiring. I've listened twice, probably will always keep coming back to this from time to time.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

you might not get it all in the first try

Revisado: 10-30-20

Naseem to lab talks about a Lindy effect, basically that for some things the longer they're around the longer they're likely to be around (technology is, works of literature, etc). there's a similar effect between me and this book: The first time I listened to it I figured I hope there's something good in there I might only read it once. The second time I figured there's some stuff in there and I might do it two more times. The third time through the book I took my time studying the accommodating PDF for some of the meaty chapters in the middle, and now I think I'll have to read it at least another three more times doing the same thing. so with each successive read my projection of how many more times I'm going to have to read it goes up twice. huh.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

read "The Black Swan" first

Revisado: 09-02-20

I love NNT, but sometimes I don't like him. going to reread this now. good day.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña