Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Black Swan

A wonderfully insightful book, strolls though history, academia, psychology, cognitive science, probability theory, philosophy, statistics and more. The back of the book claims that the book "will change the way you look at the world", and it does.

A Black Swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was.

Taleb argues that events and life itself are far more random than we perceive them to be - the human brain just isn't able to cope up with the complexities of the modern world, most of which have sprung up in the last couple of hundred years, while our brains still haven't evolved much further than the hunter-gatherer stage. This is the most interesting part of the book, where Taleb discusses various studies on how the human brain processes and perceives information, probability and data. We fit explanations to events post-facto - but the world is not so easily squeezable into the theories we built to describe the past and than extrapolate to predict the future.

Our brains are wired in a such a way that we construct linear narratives, or theories about events, in an attempt to simplify and understand - but real life is not linear, and these stories about how events happen are too simplified to be of much use when the next Black Swan comes about.

Tim Harford: The Logic of Life

Another great economics book from Tim Harford, exploring the hidden rationalizations we make during everyday life. "In this deftly reasoned book, Harford argues that life is logical after all. Under the surface of everyday insanity, hidden incentives are at work, and Harford shows these incentives emerging in the most unlikely places."

A great followup to The Undercover Economist. Thomas Schelling, a Nobel prize winning economist on the book: "This is a terrific read. It's one those books that forever changes the way you look at things. It proves economics is not a subject for dull textbooks; but is really a way of thinking that can shed light on all aspects of life."

A lot of newspaper editorials, opinion pieces and even the reporting consists of the proverbial blind man groping a herd of elephants, trying to figure out why things happen the way they do in Pakistan - Tim Harford lucidly explains that often even the most seemingly irrational acts have a logical explanation.

Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons

The book traces Pakistan's nuclear history, wherein Pakistan with Chinese, Saudi, American and North Korean help (and a whole lot of private contractors) developed numerous types of nuclear weapons and delivery systems.

The book is really interesting, not because of the exact details of how Pakistan developed the bomb, but the insight it gives on how Pakistan really operates. It was Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who kicked of Pakistan's nuclear programme, famously declaring "we will eat grass if we have to, but we will make the bomb". For the next 20 years this statement was literally and figuratively true - everything took a backseat was tens of billions of dollars were poured into two competing nuclear labs.

This is the most depressing account of Pakistani/American political history I've read. The old maxim "the end justifies the means" was the one and only motto of the Pakistan Army & the Republican Party, which ran the country for the next 30 years, sucking in practically every dollar of foreign aid and diverting it to nuclear weapons development and regular arms procurement. They had to let parts of the billions of dollars pouring in for the Afghan war though, under American pressure, but development aid money was mostly fully diverted to the bomb.

The Undercover Economist

This is the book which every Pakistani politician, columnist, drawing room warrior, TV talking head, the proverbial man on the street, newspaper & TV reporter, and just about everyone else breathing on the streets of Pakistan should read, now, before it's too late.

The lack of economic knowledge, and the number of economic things people get wrong even, even Harvard and Oxford educated politicians, is amazing. Newspapers, and TV especially perpetuates many economic myths and fallacies, and often make doom-laden statements which make no sense - though with our politicians it can be (and has been) said that they make no sense on anything at all, at least if you're viewing it from a logical point of view. This book cuts through all that nonsense and lay's bare the economic workings of much that we see going on around us.

For example, just today there is a report in the paper about how 6 major bridges are about to collapse in Karachi as the City government can't be bothered to fix them - the poor reporter rails and rants trying to figure out why this is the case - he/she will really benefit from reading this book.

The chapter on "Why Poor Countries are Poor" is a good explanation of how Pakistan works - though a lot of Pakistani's understand innately as to why we are where we are, Tim Harford logically lays it out, and the heuristics built up over years of dealing with bureaucracy and corruption make even more sense.

There are many other 'readable' books on economics being written today, but this book really stands out.

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy.

I hate to give the game away right here at the beginning of a whole book devoted to the subject, and I'm tempted to complicate matters in the interest of keeping things going for a couple hundred more pages or so. I'll try to resist, but will go ahead and add a few more details to flesh out the recommendations. Like, eating a little meat isn't going to kill you, though it might be better approached as a side dish than as a main. And you're better off eating whole fresh foods rather than processed food products. That's what I mean by the recommendation to "eat food," which is not quite as simple as it sounds. For while it used to be that food was all you could eat, today there are thousands of other edible foodlikesubstances in the supermarket. These novel products of food science often come in packages elaborately festooned with health claims, which brings me to another, somewhat counterintuitive, piece of advice: If you're concerned about your health, you should probably avoid products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a strong indication it's not really food, and food is what you want to eat.

You can see how quickly things can get complicated.

The above is from the introduction of a new book by Micheal Pollan, In Defense of Food. Read the whole introduction to the book here. It's the single best, most concise food advise I've ever read.

His last book was, The Omnivores Dilemma was eye opening, and this book is now on my list of must read books. The Google page on the new books has some reviews.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb: Fooled By Randomness

One of those rare must read books, the sort which you go out and recommend to people.

You could look up the comments on Amazon for a whole lot of reviews, opinion and just plain noise, but better yet, just read it!

In short - the world is a lot more random than we perceive it to be, for our brains just aren't wired to deal with what the world has become - our genes and brain patterns remain stuck in the past while trying to deal with a world which has advanced faster than we have.

Risk, probability, literature, how the brain works, wall street - just a few of the many topics the Taleb touches on.

The life and times of the Thunderbolt kid

Just plain wonderful.

Too wonderful for words. A kid-eyed travelogue through white middle-class America in the 50's, and what a world that was. The funniest book I've read a in long, long time.

A comment on Amazon calls it "This is a ray of sunshine in the literary world" and damn right it is!

All of Bill Bryson's books are great, and this one ranks at the top.

Jinnah of Pakistan

Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation state. Muhammad Ali Jinnah did all three.

Stanley Wolpert on Jinnah in his biography Jinnah of Pakistan. A fascinating read about a fascinating man.

Books everyone should read

There are books, and then there are books, and a big fat thick line which divides the great books from the rest. The divide between just a book and a great book is so vast that they should be called something else altogether. Too many literature published today, to take a popular one at random like the Harry Potter series, is damn good entertainment, but certainly not a great book. Probably the main difference between a regular book and a great one is that the regular one entertains for the duration of the book, while the great one stays with you for life, and has the power to potentially redefine the way you think.

Wikipedia definition of a great book:

• the book has contemporary significance; that is, it has relevance to the problems and issues of our times;
• the book is inexhaustible; it can be read again and again with benefit;
• the book is relevant to a large number of the great ideas and great issues that have occupied the minds of thinking individuals for the last 25 centuries.

There are many lists floating around the interweb, but the problem with them all is that they're not this list.

A Slightly Irreverent History of Technology and Markets

How we got here: A Slightly Irreverent History of Technology and Markets is a superfast history of capital markets and the computer industry. A free pdf copy is available at the publishers website. Most history books push a ton load of facts at you which sometime makes it hard to grasp the bigger picture(s). This book forgoes the details for a whirlwind tour of the industrial revolution, the evolution of capital markets, and puts today's IT revolution in perspective. The book jumps all over the place, but is very interesting nonetheless.

Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy

I've been waiting for this book for the last five years... the author has written bits and pieces of the contents in various articles over the years, but finally the entire book is done. There was a bit of drama at the book launch, which put it on the front page of Dawn.

Now, generally I write about a book after reading it, but this book has been banned in Pakistan! Someone high up to must have read in today's paper about the book launch,and ordered it removed from the shelves today in the morning. Liberty Books, the only major bookstore chain in Pakistan pulled the books from the shelves without selling a copy, while OUP, the publishers in Pakistan sold a few copies in the morning before closing sales. The author's friends and well wishers must have been congratulating her all day long, as the sales of the book around the world are going to shoot up drastically along with the credibility of the book.

It was a interesting time for the book to come out, as while on one hand the Chief Justice's illegal dismissal is putting a spotlight on the many constitutional transgressions by the military, while the book exposes the economic plundering of the country by the military. A second front, so to speak, and no army wants to fight on two fronts at the same time.

China Inc: The Relentless Rise of the Next Great Superpower

An interesting overview of China's rising industrial might and how it came to be. Misses out on quite a bit, but throws a new angle on things. It is a bit alarmist, but than, any non-Chinese should be, the book points out - for what will the rest of the world do once China makes everything?

What's interesting is that China has industrialized so far so fast because of it's people, not so much the government. Another interesting aspect is that so many companies there operate illegally, or started with illegal financing, that circumventing rules is like breathing in China - the many years of breaking the law under communism just to survive has drilled it into the people. Hence the total disregard for intellectual property rights (and all other laws which they can get away with). The interesting aspect is that it's not just the software companies who suffer - it's all the other companies who buy the software and compete with China who also end up with the short end of the stick.

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

The most interesting book I've read in a while, and one all species who eat should read. It's an eye opening account of the food chain which feeds us all. The basic gist is that all food is not equal, and vegetables and animals provide very different nutritional values depending on how they're grown. The author in an interview said "Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living, but what about the unexamined meal? Industrial agriculture depends upon us not examining-in fact, knowing as little as possible about-the food we eat."

This really is a staggering simple concept, and is obvious that the real wonder is that after a lifetime of evolution how a few decades of frankenfood much of humanity completely forgot to think about one of the most important activities we do - eating. Industrial farmings over reliance on fertilizers and pesticides is destroying the very food grown, along with destroying the environment and weakening those who eat it, whether man or animal. Fast Food Nation told the horribly sad story of the modern industrial animal, but this book tells the entire story of how food reaches you.

Freakonomics

A brilliant book. Economics isn't just about monetary policy, inflation and trade - the book applies it to everyday situations and really brings to life the power of economics. Clicking on the book image will take you to it's website - so here is the requisite amazon link.

Thomas Freidman: The World Is Flat

A good overview of globalization. In short, Friedman dumbs down the complex issues of globalization and makes them understandable for all. Highly recommended, especially for people who haven't read much about globalization before. It's reads more like a super long newspaper column than a book, but it gets the globalization message across. There is quite a bit of criticism, for it goes on an on saying much the same ad nauseum, but worth while reading along with something by the likes of Joseph Stiglitz.

Pervez Musharraf: In the Line of Fire

In the days of mashups, this book is fittingly Web 2.0: A misture of several old speeches, an infomercial and a biography all rolled into one. For the low, low price of Rs. 1295 you get 3 books all rolled up into one nifty hardcover!

Fast Food Nation

An eye opening book on what lies behind the shiny facade of most fast food restaurants today. The book pokes deep inside the modern American meat packing industry, which the race for the ever cheaper and larger McMeal has turned into a monstrosity. Micheal Pollan's brilliant interview on modern meat covers the some of the basics talked about in the book very well. A key factoid: By the time a modern American beef cow is six months old, it has seen its last blade of grass for the rest of its life. Industrialized meat farming is more akin to medival europe back in the dark ages than something out of this day and age.

Charlie Wilson's War

This is the book on how the US got involved in Afghanistan supporting Islamic militants against the Soviets. Highly recommended. George Crile's Charlie Wilson's War is the story of how one man, U.S. Congressman Charlie Wilson, almost single-handedly launched the several billion dollar CIA/Saudi operation in Afghanistan to force out the occupying Soviets, without a vote in Congress, and without the clear approval of the President. What started as barely a nuisance campaign turned into the greatest covert operation in CIA history.

Besides the Afghan war, this book gives a brilliant insight on how the US government works. Those from the third world will find themselves at home with all the congressional wheelings and dealings. The amazing thing is the amount of power US congressmen and senators have. Thirdworld senators are barely able to push around a few million dollars, while their US equivalents are dealing in the billions.

The Human Story : Our History, From the Stone Age to Today

The most easily readable history of the human race, by far. This is the dumbed down, eurocentric cliff notes version, aimed for those who haven't read any history at all. Ideal for those who run screaming from anything like a history textbook.

In the author's words, "This book tells how ancient wandering peoples settled down, and how they founded cities, conquered neighbors, formed religions, found out who they were and where among the stars they lived, did some good and many wrongs, thrived, and journeyed into space." Like in all such histories, much is left out or glossed over, but there's nothing wrong with that - for more details there's a thousand other history books - there's a reading list for every chapter for further details.

Wind, Sand and Stars

This book is number 1 on Outside Magazines list of The 25 (Essential) Books for the Well-Read Explorer and National Geographic magazine named "Wind, Sand and Stars" the third best adventure book of all time. So it had to be good... and turned out to be jaw droppingly amazing. This is not just a book - it's sheer poetry. See Outside magazine's review below:

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• History of the Indian Subcontinent - Posted 07 Nov 03 in Books
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• Faery Lands Forlorn - Posted 08 Jul 03 in Books
• Pakistan pirates hit Harry Potter - Posted 05 Jul 03 in Books
• Free Ebooks - Posted 01 Jul 03 in Books
• Sowing the Wind by John Keay - Posted 27 Jun 03 in Books
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