The Perils of Perception - Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything - BobbyDuffy

-

ISBN: 978-1786 494566
Verdict: 👍👍 

A nice short read, with some great facts, that make one think about the general perceptions we have a bias for  about 'stuff' across the globe.

I think this is a good follow on read from FACTFULNESS by Hans Rosling  (See previous review) - it builds upon the same outcomes i.e. the world is not as bad as we all think it is .


The reference to recent events (Brexit/Trump etc) adds great value and below are my favourite bits 
    • over 90 percent of the data on the internet was created in the last 2 years;44 billion gigabytes of data were created on the internet every day in 2016 (p10).
My favourite quote in the book was on p43 ;
    • A story is most important to us in how it ends, and thus the ending effects how we remember it and its lessons for future decisions. (p43) 
    • A lot of our fear is driven not by the unknown, but by an apparent misunderstanding of the facts (p96)  
    • we've known for a long time that we'll accept things that are utterly false if we have sufficient motivation (p172)
    • we also shouldn't kid ourselves:we are travelling towards a world where disinformation has more opportunity to be created and travel faster - (p237)
Its one of those books that you pick up and read and walk away thinking - why don't people believe the data when presented to them .. its because of the context and way information is presented and the surrounding biases - again a nice read.
Location: London, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Surrounded by Idiots – The Four Types of Human Behaviour (or, How to Understand those Who Cannot Be Understood) – Thomas Erikson

-
Image
ISBN:  978-1-78504-218-8 Verdict :👍👍 I enjoyed reading this book with its elaboration of the concepts that centre around the D ominance, I nducement, S ubmission and A nalytics ability (DISA) system for  human  communication which the Author breaks into 4 Color Types ( Red , Yellow , Blue & Green ) and says that " behaviour.Its like a  recipe  - we need to understand all the ingredients before we bake the cake " p13 The book discusses the various  behavioural  traits of individuals which the author centers around a 4 square color model, with each color representing a specific trait and some behavioral patterns associated with the colors - here are some snippets; The Quote "Only Dead Fish Go with the Flow" to describe Reds is classical where Reds are quick thinkers and one on long before everyone else. Yellows can be amusing, creative and elevate the mood regardless of who they are with         p64 " Greens are easy to hangout with..
Read more

IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation - Edwin Black

-
Image
ISBN :  978-0-609-90899 Verdict :  👍👍   👍👍 I actually read this book when it was first published, about 19 years ago, hence the ISBN number does not correspond to that on Amazon ( weird ). However, I decided to revisit this book after reading a misleading post from an IBM Employee promoting the historical credentials in a positive way.  So I picked it up again and scan read taking note of the bits I had previously highlighted approx 2 decades ago to write this review. I t’s one of those books that one should read if interested in the link / connection between business and political regimes.   IBM and its German subsidiary custom-designed complex solutions anticipating the Reich's needs. The amazing thing is that IBM did not sell the machines and walk away. Instead, IBM leased these machines for high fees and became the sole source of the billions of punch cards Hitler needed to execute the functionality of the machine - execute being an key word ! For me the one thing that stic
Read more

Red Teaming ( Transform Your Business by Thinking Like the Enemy) - Bryce G Hoffman

-
Image
  ISBN: 978-0-349-43146-6 Verdict: 👍 👍   👍   👍   I picked this book up in a charity shop in London’s Portobello Market and after reading it I felt guilty for not paying the full price as this book is definitely great value in terms of both information and advice provided. As you may be aware I judge a book by the number of insights I highlight as I read a book and in this case the book was ruined by my highlights – Thus, I would strongly recommend reading this book.   The core concept of Red Teaming is nothing new, i.e. the role of the devil’s advocate , however what this book promotes is structure and how to provoke as opposed to formal assessments of strategies, plans, assumptions etc. I will not , as my usual pattern, share some quotes from the book as having purchased this at a charity shop I want to encourage others to get a copy and look at it - It will be very much worth it !
Read more