Insights on Insights: A Review of Gary Klein's Seeing What Others Don't (Draft)

I wanted to read Gary Klein's books as his work was referred by many of my favorite authors. When I came across his latest book, 'Seeing What Others Don't', I went through the same. The reading of the book has been a highly rewarding experience.

Based on my observations, the narrative of Malcolm Gladwell has been highly engaging. In fact, Gladwell, Tim Harford, Nassim Nicholas Taleb and score of others get perfect score! I could notice that Tim Harford broke new ground in his latest title, 'The Undercover Economist Strikes Back' through 'the dialogue style' of writing. The titles by these authors expand the intellectual horizons of the readers. When reading Daniel Kahneman's 'Thinking Fast and Slow' the narrative scored perfectly; over and above there was the benefit of vantage view into the the mind of the Nobel Laureate. The reading was highly rewarding. I was equally rewarded while I read Martin Seligman's 'Flourish' so was the case with Taleb's 'The Black Swan'. While reading this title by Klein, I got the similar rewarding experience.

I share the detailed account of the experience here. Gary Klein has been one of the pioneers of the Positive Psychology movement along with Martin Seligman. Klein has done seminal work on decision making. The present book is a Positive Psychology initiative in the field of decision making. There has been exhaustive study on improving efficiency, now there is a need to leverage the positive aspect of our mind. The outstanding aspect about Gary Klein is in the research method itself. While the thrust of the research used to be in 'Laboratory Methods'; Gary Klein focused on 'Natural Methods' by interviewing the veteran fire fighters about their decisions in the worst fire events, a quarter century back. He could arrive with great insights.

In this book, Gary Klein goes deeper into the insights. Not only he applies 'Natural Methods' in the study; he pulls his readers into the process. In the process he helps readers find their own insights!

(To be continued...)

A User's Manual for Macroeconomics - A Review of Tim Harford's The Undercover Economist Strikes Back (Draft)

There are very few authors who do a great job in making even an arcane subject seem engrossing. Tim Harford is one among them. I found his Adapt to be not only entertaining but also insightful. Though I had heard about The Undercover Economist, the prequel covering 'Microeconomics', I could not read. But I plan to read it! In my view, the authors who dish out such blockbusters on hard topics have a distinct style. Each chapter in such books takes off  from fascinating facts from different parts and times  and take the readers on a joyride through the wonderful world. I could see this pattern in Tim Harford's 'Adapt', Malcolm Gladwell's 'Tipping Point' and 'Outliers', Taleb's 'Black Swan', amongst others. In this book Tim Harford betters himself! He puts you on the driver's seat in the joyride! Go ahead and enjoy the drive!

The beauty of Tim Harford's book is such that I loved reading the introduction also, which I generally skip! Harford takes us through the foundation of Macroeconomics by introducing the real 'Indiana Jones' of economics, Bill Phillips, the inventor of economics simulator MONIAC (Monetary National Income Analogue Computer). It is interesting to read the exploits of Bill Phillips as an engineer in the Empire Star ship, defending against the Japanese planes by improvising the mount of the machine gun and fending off the enemies for hours, The immersion heaters, concealed radio sets built while in Japan's PoW are some more examples of his ingenuity. 

Tim Harford puts us on the driver's seat of the economy and gently guides us through various fundamentals of macroeconomics. 

(To be continued.)