Category: Books

Figured I’d give something different a shot at the library, so I checked out Blink. It is pretty much about the first 2 seconds of making a decision. It was pretty interesting stuff.

There’s a ton of real world examples and how split second decisions are usually as good and many times better than a well researched decision. The whole simulated battle with the side with all the additional information losing to the less informed one was really interesting. More information means more time to process, and many decisions just don’t have that much time available.

I kept thinking to work where I see areas that need to form a committee to form a committee to evaluate everything, etc. I see it all the time, and usually the result is no decision seems to be made. Perhaps I should recommend this book to some people I know ;-)

Working on the web, and constantly analyzing a users behavior really has a lot of similarities with the Blink theory. It was weird, I felt as though I had read this book before since so much of it has been applied to when I develop things for the web.

Interesting read.

I figured I’d visit the non-fiction area downstairs in my local library for my next book to read. I happened to stumble over the biographies, and began to scan for someone who might be interesting to me. Being a Yankees fan, and hearing so many different stories about Mickey Mantle over the years I figured I’d give this one a shot.

Though I’ve heard it many times, I must say that after reading this I’m still amazed at how much of a jerk Mantle was through most of his life. The way he treated women, fans, kids, etc. it’s really shocking at times. Granted, just because you can crush a baseball and are idolized doesn’t require you to be perfect, but he just did some very trashy stuff.

It’s very sad to hear of his and his families unfortunate luck throughout life. With the exception of his amazing athletic ability, they really weren’t dealt good health. Unfortunate short lfes seemed to be the Mantle norm.

While the book does cover much of the scummier side of Mantle through the years, it does also do a good job of pointing out what a great teammate he was. He really did give that organization his all (well when he wasn’t showing up to games drunk that is).

This was a very interesting book. However if you grew up idolizing Mantle you might want to consider if you want your childhood hero’s image to be tarnished or not.

Since the original book I was interested in wasn’t available at the library I decided I’d give the recent arrivals section another look. I noticed The Psychopath Test, and figured it might be something different than what I’ve been reading as of late.

I really am glad I gave this one a shot, it was a very interesting book. The author interviews some extremely interesting people on the topic of psychopaths. Including doctors, patients, Scientologists and conspiracy theorists. His writing keeps an open mind, and isn’t too slanted to any one side.

The use of a checklist in determining a psychiatric disorder is covered a great deal, both the pros and cons of such a system. As well as touching on the possibility of psychopaths rising to CEO type positions.

The correlation between the publishing of the DSM-IV and the early 80’s really does make sense why so many more people are being diagnosed with a condition. Whether they’re accurately identified or not is another topic that I’ll leave up to the individuals to decide.

A very interesting read.