Book Haven discussion
Non-Fiction
>
Executive Summaries of New Popular Non Fiction Books. This Week: 'Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt' by Michael Lewis
date
newest »
newest »
Just finished reading the new book by Chip Walter called Last Ape Standing: The Seven-Million-Year Story of How and Why We Survived. The book makes use of the latest fossil finds and DNA analysis to chart the evolution of our species from chimp to the present. It's an excellent account of our evolutionary story. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/02/26...Cheers,
Aaron
Just finished reading the new book by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier called Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think. The book traces the history, present and future of big data, and argues that the phenomenon will transform our world. It's a good overview of an interesting and important topic. I've written a full executive summary available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/03/21...Cheers,
Aaron
Just finished reading the new book by Jonah Berger called Contagious: Why Things Catch On. The book explores social pandemics and brings a scientific approach to understanding why things go viral. It's a fun and interesting read about an intriguing topic. I've written a full executive summary available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/04/03...Cheers,
Aaron
Just finished the new book by Google big wigs Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen called The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business. The authors prognosticate on how digital technology will impact everything from the domestic sphere; to government and international relations and conflicts; to the developing world (where 5 billion people are expected to come online in the next 20 years). The authors have some very interesting perspectives on how the digital age will play out. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/05/23...Cheers,
Aaron
Just finished reading the new book by Ben Way called Jobocalypse: The End of Human Jobs and How Robots Will Replace Them. The book explores the present and future of robotics and its impact on the economy, and argues that automated technology will come to increasingly usurp jobs from us humans (as well as what we can do about this). It's a fun and very interesting read. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/07/24...Cheers,
Aaron
Just finished reading the new book by Jeff Stibel called Breakpoint: Why the Web will Implode, Search will be Obsolete, and Everything Else you Need to Know about Technology is in Your Brain. The book is about networks, and how networks evolve; and it focuses on the internet (which is one enormous network). Stibel argues that the internet is still in the early phases of its evolution, and that based on how other similar networks evolve (such as the ant colony and the human brain), we can expect some big big changes out of the internet in the coming years (including the development of real intelligence and consciousness). This was an extremely interesting read. I've written a full executive summary available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/08/07...Cheers,
Aaron
Just finished reading the new book by David Epstein called The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance. The book explores how genes and environment interact at every step of the way in the development of elite athletes. This is without a doubt one of the best books I've read all year, and I highly recommend it. I've written a full executive summary available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/08/21...Cheers,
Aaron
Just finished reading the new book by Amanda Ripley called The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way. The book explores the education systems of 3 countries that perform very well on international tests: South Korea, Finland and Poland (with the aim of helping America find a way out of its education woes). Some very interesting insights here. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/09/12...
Just finished reading the new book by William Eggers called The Solution Revolution: How Business, Government, and Social Enterprises Are Teaming Up to Solve Society's Toughest Problems. The book explores how businesses have recently joined governments and non-profits in addressing public goods and social goals. It's an interesting discussion about an important and timely topic--though the reading experience leaves much to be desired. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/10/08...
Just finished reading the new book by Malcolm Gladwell called David and Goliath. The book explores the curious nature of advantages and disadvantages and how each can (under circumstances) become its opposite. Gladwell gets bogged down in his anecdotes at times, and his arguments are occasionally overly-simplistic (as usual), but there’s plenty of interest here to keep you going. I’ve written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/10/22...
Just finished reading the new book by Uri Gneezy and John A. List called The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and The Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life. The authors have become famous for applying controlled field experiments to everything from education, to charity, to business, to healthy living, to discrimination etc. and in this book they update us on their experiments and results. The book is a fun and very interesting read. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/11/05...Cheers,
Aaron
Just finished reading the new book by Howard G. Buffet called 40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World. Buffet draws on his 25+ years of humanitarian and philanthropy work (and 30+ years in farming) to detail what does and does not work in the effort to fight global poverty and hunger. This is a very enlightening look at the fight against hunger, and a must read for anyone interested in making the world a better place for everyone. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/11/19...
Just finished reading the new book by Charles Montgomery called Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design. Montgomery takes us through the history of the modern city, and argues in favor of the new urbanist movement in design--which advocates moving away from suburban sprawl and towards mixed-use, multi-income communities; laced with parks and plazas of varying sizes; and tied together with transportation networks that reintroduce walking, cycling and public transport as real options. The book is fantastic, and a great introduction to the ideas of the new urbanists. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/12/17...
Just finished the new book by Dan Hurley called Smarter: The New Science of Building Brain Power. The book gets past the hype of the brain-boosting industry, and explores the actual science on which it is based. Many types of interventions are explored, from brain-training exercises and activities (including meditation), to physical exercise, to diet, pills and even zapping the brain with electrodes (a la transcranial direct-current stimulation, tDCS). A timely look at a very interesting topic. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2014/01/14...
Just finished reading the new book by Erik Brynjolfsson called The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies. The book charts the rise of digital technology and how it contributes greatly to economic productivity (but also how it contributes to the growing gap between the rich and the rest). Brynjolfsson also offers up some recommendations on how the increasing inequality of the second machine age may be mitigated. It's a very insightful look into digital technology and its consequences. I've written a full executive summary available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2014/01/28...
Just finished reading the new book by Mckenzie Funk called Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming. The book explores all the ways people are profiting off climate change (which partly helps explain why we're not doing much to stop it). A very interesting book on the most important environmental issue of our age. I've written a full executive summary available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2014/02/11...
Just finished the new book by Alex Pentland called Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread— The Lessons from a New Science. Pentland addresses how digital sensors and big data are revolutionizing the social sciences. This includes Pentland's own work, which focuses on the importance of social learning, and how creativity and productivity are generated in individuals, groups and cities. It's a fascinating look at an up-and-coming science. A full executive summary of the book is available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2014/02/25...
Just finished reading the new book by Michio Kaku called The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind. Kaku explores the advances that have occurred in neuroscience since the brain-imaging revolution of the 1990s; and also details the advances that are to come (including telepathy, telekinesis, uploading and downloading memories, and AI). It's a fascinating discussion of one of the final frontiers of science. I've written an executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2014/03/11...
Just finished reading Michael Lewis' new book Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt. Lewis reports on how Brad Katsuyama (a broker from RBC) uncovered a massive (and legal, for now) scam on Wall Street made possible by high-frequency trading. Katsuyama has now started a new type of stock exchange in New York (called the IEX--it opened in October, 2013) with the hopes of eliminating the scamming--and Lewis reports on the progress of the new stock exchange as well. This is an incredible story, and an incredible book that I predict will win the Pulitzer Prize. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2014/04/15...
Book Haven
Books mentioned in this topic
Flash Boys (other topics)The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind (other topics)
Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread— The Lessons from a New Science (other topics)
Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming (other topics)
The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies (other topics)
More...
http://newbooksinbrief.com/
Cheers,
Aaron