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July 08
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Stephen
is currently reading:
The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq (Paperback)
by George Packer
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July 05
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Stephen
gave
to:
Cities and the Wealth of Nations (Paperback)
by Jane Jacobs
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read in July, 2007
Stephen said:
" Jane Jacobs loves cities. In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, written in the Sixties, she blasted u...more
Jane Jacobs loves cities. In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, written in the Sixties, she blasted urban-redesign efforts that were based on the assumption that people actually didn't like cities and would prefer to live in the country -- millions of city-dwellers to the contrary. In "Cities and the Wealth of Nations", she argues that the misunderstanding of what makes cities great extends to a national level. She says that macroeconomists have misunderstood for centuries that all the energy and economic development in a country come from its cities. It's powerfully argued and beautifully presented. Conversations in subsequent days, however, have suggested that the economics is rather questionable....less
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Stephen
gave
to:
Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis---and the People Who Pay the Price (Hardcover)
by Jonathan Cohn
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read in July, 2007
Stephen said:
"Cohn follows lots of people who've been screwed by the U.S. health-insurance system. Rich or poor, employed or not, it doesn't seem to matter: if you come upon hard times, the system will screw you. Cohn argues -- by example more than by axiom -- tha...more
Cohn follows lots of people who've been screwed by the U.S. health-insurance system. Rich or poor, employed or not, it doesn't seem to matter: if you come upon hard times, the system will screw you. Cohn argues -- by example more than by axiom -- that only government-sponsored health insurance, which spreads risk over everyone, will ever solve our health-insurance problem....less
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June 27
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Stephen
gave
to:
A Future for Socialism (Paperback)
by John E. Roemer
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read in April, 2007
Stephen said:
" Lays out the case for "market socialism," whereby most
functions are left to the market but centralized control
is added in where helpful. A clear, well-thought-out
vision without the slightest chance of ever becoming
reality.
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Stephen
gave
to:
Passions Within Reason (Paperback)
by Robert H. Frank
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read in May, 2007
Stephen said:
" Argues that even if you accept the premise that people are
selfish maximizers of their own utility, it does not
follow that every action they perform is selfish. Being
altruistic can, in fact, guarantee your long-term well-being
-- virt...more
Argues that even if you accept the premise that people are
selfish maximizers of their own utility, it does not
follow that every action they perform is selfish. Being
altruistic can, in fact, guarantee your long-term well-being
-- virtue really is its own reward. Argued economically
and evolutionarily, in a non-BS way. Very geek-friendly.
...less
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Stephen
gave
to:
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (Hardcover)
by Max Brooks
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read in May, 2007
Stephen said:
" Imagine that a plague of zombiehood has befallen the
entire world, turning the vast majority of your neighbors
into bloodless braaaaiiiiinnnnnsss-eaters. Now be very
specific about how, exactly, the world would respond --
how unprepared...more
Imagine that a plague of zombiehood has befallen the
entire world, turning the vast majority of your neighbors
into bloodless braaaaiiiiinnnnnsss-eaters. Now be very
specific about how, exactly, the world would respond --
how unprepared we'd all be, and how we might eventually
defeat the zombies. This is "World War Z" in a nutshell.
It turns too much into a military procedural by the end
("We vanquished them zombies with an MX-9119 claymore
mine..."), but it's great up to that point.
...less
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Stephen
gave
to:
The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time (Paperback)
by Jonathan Weiner
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read in May, 2007
Stephen said:
" Using Peter and Rosemary Grant's annual studies on
the Galapagos Islands as a jumping-off point,
fleshes out the idea that Darwin didn't begin to
understand the power of his own theory. Evolution happens
on short, observable, human-size...more
Using Peter and Rosemary Grant's annual studies on
the Galapagos Islands as a jumping-off point,
fleshes out the idea that Darwin didn't begin to
understand the power of his own theory. Evolution happens
on short, observable, human-sized time scales; it's not
just something that shows up in fossils and stopped 10
million years ago.
...less
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Stephen
gave
to:
Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions, and Evolution (The Roundtable Series in Behavioral Economics)
by Samuel Bowles
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read in May, 2007
Stephen said:
" Uses the fairly recently-developed (1970's) tools of
evolutionary game theory (specifically evolutionarily
stable strategies) to study more-realistic economic
situations than what we normally learn in Econ 101. Bowles
demolishes the ide...more
Uses the fairly recently-developed (1970's) tools of
evolutionary game theory (specifically evolutionarily
stable strategies) to study more-realistic economic
situations than what we normally learn in Econ 101. Bowles
demolishes the idea that a frictionless market of
independent price-taking utility maximizers even makes sense; he
replaces it with a far more dynamic model of humans with
realistic psychology. In his treatment, standard von
Neumann-Morganstern-Nash game-theoretic equilibria become the
*endpoints* of a far more complicated process where
institutions evolve. Behavior is defined by institutions;
Bowles studies how institutions change behavior, and
conversely. One of the most mind-changing books I've read
in a long time.
...less
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Stephen
gave
to:
The social sources of denominationalism (Living age books, LA11)
by H. Richard Niebuhr
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read in May, 2007
Stephen said:
" Despite the academic-sounding title, this is a passionate
work. It argues that the distinct Christian churches
(Lutheran, Presbyterian, Catholic, ad infinitum) prove the
church's ethical failure. Sects form because existing
churches bec...more
Despite the academic-sounding title, this is a passionate
work. It argues that the distinct Christian churches
(Lutheran, Presbyterian, Catholic, ad infinitum) prove the
church's ethical failure. Sects form because existing
churches become an entrenched middle-class institution and
abandon the poor who founded them. The church has thus
come to mimic the social and economic divisions in the
society at large, rather than speaking with the single
voice of Christ. To truly teach Christ's word, says
Niebuhr, the churches will have to rediscover their true
unity.
...less
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Stephen
gave
to:
Evolution and the Theory of Games (Paperback)
by John Maynard Smith
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read in June, 2007
Stephen said:
" This is a founding work of evolutionary game theory. It
introduces the evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) --
namely, the game-theoretic strategy which, if played,
cannot be invaded by any rival strategy. Maynard Smith
used this to ans...more
This is a founding work of evolutionary game theory. It
introduces the evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) --
namely, the game-theoretic strategy which, if played,
cannot be invaded by any rival strategy. Maynard Smith
used this to answer lots of questions in a very
mathematically tidy way -- among the most interesting
questions being, "Why are there approximately as many men
as women?" If the game-theoretic payoff is defined as the
expected number of grandchildren, then half-and-half is
uninvadable by any other ratio. The book is filled with
little discoveries like this, and it's explained
throughout by a master scientific writer; JMS learned from
J.B.S. Haldane, whose "The Causes of Evolution" brought us
the Mendelian-Darwinian synthesis.
...less
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