Sunk costs, body image, and rationality

This week I'm reading a book on Rational decision making that claims that sunk costs should not be considered when deciding where to go from here.  By sunk costs, they mean time, energy, and/or money already expended prior to the current decision.  For example, suppose you have already paid for a weekend vacation.  Once you get to your destination, you get sick and realize that you would probably enjoy driving home and curling up in your own bed better than staying in the hotel bed.  In such a case, it would make sense to ignore the cost already spent and go home.  The sunk costs of the vacation should be ignored because staying at the hotel will only make you more miserable.  The sunk cost provides an opportunity, but that does not mean you should take that opportunity.  The rational question is "What should I do now?"

This past week, I read a similar idea in a Facebook discussion on body image.  Someone made a comment (I can't remember the specific comment that inspire my post, but it started with Kelly Elmore) that you should not set the standard for your body image based on where you may have been in high school or college, but accept where you are at now in order to move forward.  Anything less destroys your self-esteem.  Accept your body in its current form and condition.  Recognize the value that your current body brings to you.  While there may be room for improvement to bring more value, people should not conceive of their current body as a dis-value or as a negative.  Doing so is a common mistake, but a mistake non-the-less.

The similarity - the past is in the past.  While it might not seem appropriate to consider body image in terms of sunk costs, an alternative might be to think of it in terms of sunk opportunities.  Opportunities missed, passed up, and regretted.  Things we could of or should of done the last 5 years so that we would not regret the place we are in today.  Certainly, regret can inflict our conscious (that's not a bad thing), but it should not consume our conscious.  We should use regret as motivation to change, not as a reason to avoid change.  We should use the regret to identify what is of value, so that we may act to gain and/or keep it.  That is the rational thing to do and the rational way to act.

While we have a body we have inherited from our past, we are not controlled by our past decisions.  There may be limitations on time, capabilities, energy, and opportunities.  But we can change the hierarchy of our values and shift around priorities if need be.  The key take away - discover your hierarchy of values and act accordingly.  And above all, don't let your past stand in your way. 

Now that's thinking rationally :)

As a disclaimer - I found the books' discussion of rationality too pragmatic in nature.  Hopefully, I'll get a chance to write more about that later.

Review: Your Brain at Work

David Rock writes an intriguing review of neuroscience findings on how the human mind works and how we can use that information to help us do a better job at work.  While many of the topics it covers might be coined "common sense", there are a few nuggets of new information that add substantially to what we know about work, productivity, and cooperation.

The book is broken up into scenes which tackle a different topic of neuroscience.  The technique the author uses to discuss each topic starts with a fictitious couple who struggle with common productivity issues like information overload, procrastination, distractions, uncooperative coworkers, etc.  A discussion of the science follows in why these issues are common and how to overcome these limitations.  Then, the fictitious story is re-told, except this time the actors avoid the inherit limitations of our brain and instead perform the ideal actions that best take advantage of our brain's strengths.  I found this technique great for motivating the reader while concertizing the science into useful practices understandable to everyone.

For me, the first half of the book seemed to re-iterate much of what I already knew about productivity.  Such lesson as avoid distractions, stay focused on one subject at a time, break down big decisions into smaller easier to handle decisions, handling uncertainty, etc. are all practices I am aware of and practice.  The biggest lessons learned came in the last half of the book discussing how we interact with others.  In particular, I was struck by how to effectively deal with other people, especially when they feel threatened or intimidated.  When others go into a defensive mode, it is hard to get their cooperation.  And here, the science suggests something similar to what I learned from some parenting books of all places (Positive Discipline and Between Parent and Child).  In order to build cooperation, we should not direct but collaborate on answers to questions.  We should respect others' ability to find answers on their own (sometimes this requires directed questions).  If we want to change other people's behavior, we need to get them to see the need to change themselves without putting them on the defensive.  Using a stick is often NOT the best method.  Nor is using arbitrary rewards.

While there are many other great discussions in the book, I'll leave it up to you to find the rest.  I found the book to be a well written, practical guide to improving your productivity at work.  By aligning your actions with sciences' best practices, we can achieve high levels of capability to our work.  It's a great read for anyone interested in improving their productivity at work.

Crash Proof 2.0 review

I recently finished reading Peter Schiff's Crash Proof 2.0: How to Profit From the Economic Collapse.  In it, Schiff makes a prediction - in the next few years, the US dollar will experience a significant drop in value.  He makes this prediction based on huge trade imbalances and insurmountable governmental debt.  This debt bubble will eventually collapse causing a massive drop in the dollar's value, massive inflation, and possibly a full out depression in the United States. 

Now usually, I don't buy into these dooms day predictions.  However, there are several things about Schiff that made me pay attention.  First, he correctly predicted the housing bubble in 2006 when most other pundits were claiming a new era of prosperity.  In the first version of his book Crash Proof, published in 2006, he details his reasons why this bubble will burst soon.  And burst it did for exactly the reasons he stated. Second, Schiff predicted a rise of gold prices that in 2006 were already at all time highs.  Today, gold is almost 3 times higher.  Third, Schiff bases his predictions on the solid economic principles of Austrian economics.  He does not buy into the Keynsian approach that have shown time and again to be flawed.

So Schiff is certainly someone to take seriously when he makes a prediction about the imminent collapse of the dollar.  However, there are a few things that I found unsatisfactory with his overall argument.  First, I'm not convinced that the trade imbalance is as big a deal has he claims.  For every dollar lost in trade, a similar foreign dollar is invested in our economy.  This provides much of the capital he laments is missing from American savings' accounts.  I do not see it likely that foreign investors will quickly pull out that money as much of it is tied up in long term investments. 

However, the US government debt IS still a major problem.  And my understanding of his argument does seem legitimate.  My take is basically that with are growing debt, foreign governments are going to starting moving away from the US dollar as a reserve currency due to the danger of default.  As foreign governments stop subsidizing our currency, the dollar will start to fall in value.  This will encourage other governments to pull out, facilitating a crash.  Our Fed may try to buy all those bonds to keep the dollar afloat, but that will directly lead to sharp increases in inflation.  As far as this argument goes, I generally agree.  Schiff believes this crash to be imminent.  But this is my second problem with Schiff's book, it does not convenience me that such a crash will occur soon.  He seems to imply that it will occur sometimes in the next 5 years.  But why not 10 or 20?  That's a huge amount of time in investing.  What is it about the near term that he sees this collapse as something I need to be prepared for now.  It could greatly impact how I invest.

But probably the best thing about this book is that he gives good solid advice at the end of the book on what to do to make it through this crash in sound financial position.  If his predictions hold true, the advice is certainly logical and fuel for thought when considering investing strategies.  I know that I am reconsidering my investments to at least partially follow his advice.

Destroyer of Edison

I just finished reading "Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World" by Randall Stross.  And I must say, it was horrible.  I must emphatically do not recommend it.  The reason - Mr. Stross seems determined throughout the book to tear down Edison, to find every fault (real or imagined) and detail how Edison was not amazing.  Instead of reading about how Edison was able to achieve over 1000 patents in his lifetime, you read about how Edison was not a good businessman, not a good husband, not a good father, not a good friend, not a good philanthropist, and not a good employer.  You will read about how Edison over promised results, became insufferably conceited, sought after publicity, claimed credit for inventions he didn't create, and made hundreds (if not thousands) of bad decisions.  Stross meticulously documents every negative newspaper article printed throughout Edison's lifetime.  In every case where there are two possible explanations for Edison's behavior, Stross writes about the most negative one.  One has to wonder why Stross would want to write this biography.

What was noticeably absent was a detailed discussion of Edison's genius, of his innovative capacity, of his independence in thought, of his confidence in his own abilities, of his prodigous work ethic, or of his experience creating the world's first industrial laboratory.  It wasn't until the last chapter of the book that Stross even discusses the enormous values created from Edison's inventions, spawning several multi-billion dollar industries by the time of Edison's death in the 1930s.  But even then, Stross is quick to point out that Edison's net worth was only estimated at $12 million when he died, just in case you were not convinced of Edison's poor business skills.

All-in-all, this anti-hero book should be regulated to obscurity.  This destroyer of the greatness in Edison should be trashed and forgotten.  I regret the money I spent on it and will post most of this review to Amazon and B&N in hopes that others can avoid the same regret.

So now I am on a search for a biography to cleanse my mind.  If anyone knows of a biography about Thomas Edison that is positive and uplifting, I would love to hear about it.

The Art of Nonfiction

After reading about 3/4 of the way through the book, I can safely say that The Art of Nonfiction is the best writing advice I have ever heard.  It has filled all the missing links in my knowledge of how to write, enabling me to be a successful writer.  I still need tons of practice to perfect those skills, but now I understand the "why" for many of the best practices I have learned over the years, such as how to outline, how to write a first draft, and how to edit. She articulates the role of both your conscious and subconscious minds in writing and how to tap each at appropriate times for maximum effectiveness.  She discusses common writing problems (I have my share) and how to overcome them. 

While I don't apply her suggestions much to this blog (because I write more extemporaneously here), I have noticed an impact in my research articles I'm writing.  And if/when I start writing books, theses skills will provide the foundation for completing the books effectively.   The Art of Nonfiction is a book I will have to revisit often over the coming years to remind myself how to be a good writer and to avoid pit falls that many writers succumb too.  I highly recommend it to anyone that writes any nonfiction. 

How to do Abstract Integrative Reading

Inspiration flowed while reading Study Methods & Motivation Chapters "How to do Abstract Reading" and "How to do Abstract Integrative Reading".  I realized that much of his commentary mirrors what I've learned about "meaningful learning" theory proposed by Ausubel.  Besides implications for my own reading, I brainstormed how I can create class exercises for my students that would facilitate this type of reading.  My take away is that I'll spend the first day of class showing students the following process, perhaps even giving them worksheets to fill in.  I provide my own analysis to "How to do Abstract Integrative Reading" below.

1. Start with a definition of the concept you read - but state in your own words.

2. Why is the concept important?

3. Describe the concept (this is where you integrate the concept with your current body of knowledge)

4. Provide examples

1. Definition

Abstract Integrative Reading is a skill used when reading where a book's ideas are integrated into one's current context of knowledge.

2. Importance

Abstract integrative reading is critical for developing a deep understanding of ideas.  This skill makes reading purposeful and useful for thinking and reasoning.  Improving this skill will ultimately help me gain knowledge systematically while reading, allowing me to make better decisions and live a happier, more successful life.

3. Description

Abstract integrative reading includes the ability to define a term appropriately, neither too broad nor too narrow - neither too vague nor too concrete - and avoiding subjective interpretations.  Although Locke never explicitly states it, this approach to study compliments Ayn Rand's theory of concepts.  What I mean by deep understanding of ideas is that this process for reading will make sense to me on many levels.  If I can identify cause/effect relationships, similarities and differences, implications, or categories for concepts, then I can communicate those concepts with ease because I can rephrase my words depending on the context.  Its important that these concepts be integrated with one's context of knowledge because like all learning, concepts should not be floating in the ether regions or else they will fall victim to rote memorization. For example, I identified the similarities with abstract integrative learning with Rand's theory of concepts and Ausubel's Meaningful learning.  I've further integrated his suggestions into another context, my teaching, by developing this process.  Abstract integrative reading provides me with the mechanisms for meaningful learning such that readings will persist in my mind for the long-term and can be used to help me make decisions in the future. 

4. Examples

If a book provides examples, I can brainstorm my own examples that fit within the concept. 

This blog post is an example of the output from abstract integrative reading.  

Notes I take on books or articles I read help facilitate abstract integrative reading.

Developing habits

I have been reading the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin the past couple weeks.  Great book, by the way, written by the man how signed the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the peace treaty with France, created a success printing business, owned a newspaper, printed and sold Poor Richard’s Almanac for 25 years, discovered lightening was made of electricity, invented the Franklin stove, helped many young men start printing businesses in multiple cities, and dined with a King.  Part of his prodigious productivity stems from his approach to developing good habits.  In his book, he states that he identified thirteen virtues that he deemed appropriate and then each day kept written record of success and failure at maintaining those virtues.  Then, a week at a time, he would focus on improving one of the virtues in his every day dealings – 13 weeks to cycle through all the virtues, repeated 4 times a year.  This idea of regular self-reflection and focus on improvements is witnessed in a variety of self-help books since that time, including the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Reading Franklin’s book and a conversation I recently had with a good friend of mine, made me realize that I can do much more to improve my habits such that I can accomplish my goals more effectively.  To that end, I am considering how to implement the habit of self-reflection for the goal of self-improvement.  Like Franklin, I recognize that this needs to be a daily practice.  For it to work, I need to find a regular time and place to review.  It would be great if I could include my family in on this, just not sure how to implement so that we all could gain value from it.  Maybe start every morning off with a discussion on how to make today a “Great” day and get them to start thinking, not so much about specific goals and activities, but behaviors that will make the day great (not that thinking about specific goals is a bad thing).  But ideally, I should not get any grandiose ideas about developing a self-reflection system.  The bigger it is, the harder it will be for me to develop the habit quickly.  If I start small and work at improving the system over time, the greater chance it will be a success.

What type of habits do I want to focus on in myself?  Here’s a start to the list in no particular order:

• Independence
• Principled living
• Justice
• Purpose driven
• Conscientious
• Self-Efficacious
• Productiveness

James P. Hogan - Rest in Peace

One of my favorite sci-fi authors passed away July 12, 2010 - James P. Hogan.  I was turned on to Hogan 10 years ago after reading his The Giants Novels - a three book series "Inherit the Stars", "The Gentle Giants of Ganymede", and "The Giant's Star".  I was wowed by his ability to make the scientific method into a gripping suspenseful novel.  Imagine if you will, a recent discovery on the moon of a human man dressed in a space suit of unknown origin.  Upon carbon dating, they find the man to be 50,000 years old - a fact that does not fit within any accepted theory of human origins.  So begins "Inherit the Stars".

A series of excellent books followed, including some of my favorites:  Code of the Lifemaker, The Immortality Option, Bug Park, The Genesis Machine, Entroverse, Cradle of Saturn, and Voyage from Yesteryear.  In these books, Hogan often employed the scientific method as a plot element or took forgotten and ridiculed scientific theories as drivers of the plot.  His heroes always displayed a respect for facts, a prodigious productivity, and a self-awareness of their accomplishments and pride there-in.  In the Code of the Lifemaker, Hogan shows how religion is nothing more than early attempts to understand the universe, but ultimately are self-defeating. When discussing political environments, Hogan often supported a limited role of government in controlling our lives.  It may not come as a huge surprise then, that in one of his novels, the main character dreams of his own heroes, one of which is Ayn Rand.

Hogan, born in London in 1941, was an engineer by training, but started writing science fiction after seeing a the movie 2001.  Upon completion of his first few novels, he moved to the United States and lived the life of writer, enjoying ever minute of it. As a great admirer of science, he was continuous dismayed at the junk science advocated as truth.  When not writing fiction, Hogan applied his writing abilities to cataloging junk theories and defending the proper method of scientific inquiry that leads to solid theories.  His boundless energy, gripping novels, and defense of science leave a legacy for many to admire and enjoy.

Capitalism, I love you

The recent headlines about Michael Moore's new movie and a several recent discussions on Facebook has left me, quite frankly, distressed about the misconceptions of capitalism and the love affair people have with socialism in spite of the evidence of its depravity and abject failure to improve our lives. Why is it that so many people can not see or choice not to see the blatant force necessary for socialism to succeed? Why do they feel entitled to force people to do things against their will, violating individual rights?

People like Michael Moore would have us feel guilty for our cars, our restaurants, our big houses, and our fine clothes. They would rather private property be taken by government to whatever ends they deems appropriate. The flagrant disregard for our lives is staggering. Force, for Moore and his ilk, is the answer. They want to force people to act the way they want - forced recycling, forced education, forced medical care, forced purchase of more expensive goods, etc. They want to force people to give up their property - forced income tax, forced sales tax, forced property tax, forced personal property tax, forced business tax, etc. They want to force professionals to do their bidding - from doctors, to bankers, to business executives, to home builders, to lawyers. While their primary target is the rich, I've noticed they often have no qualms demanding the same from everyone.

In a fit of desperation, my wife asked me the other day what can we do against such blatant irrationality and refusal to see. If there is an antidote, its name is The Capitalist Manifesto.

In this book, Andrew Bernstein addresses three major perspectives of capitalism - the moral, the economic, and the historic. In each perspective, Bernstein provides a compelling case for why capitalism is the only viable political philosophy with regards to protecting private property and individual rights. He demolishes the alternative theory of socialism and demonstrates how even mixed economies are ultimately immoral, inefficient, and nonviable.

Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned - Ayn Rand

I was already familiar with the moral and economic arguments Bernstein uses, through the works of Ayn Rand and Ludwig von Mises among others. Bernstein does not disappoint in those sections. Capitalism is the only moral system because it respects the individual and does not try to force him to act against his own judgment nor his own life. But more than anything, I savored the exciting historic narrative that, for the first time, pieced together disparate facts I have learned over the years into a picture of capitalism as a monumental success story. Starting with pre-industry revolution England, Bernstein weaves a story of a country struggling to emerge from abject poverty to a country of wealth and leisure. All due to the pursuit of individual self-interests, enabled by laws protecting private property and respecting individual rights. The story then continues with America, which fully embraced the capitalist mentality, enabling us to become the richest nation in the world.

The characteristic mark of economic history under capitalism is unceasing economic progress, a steady increase in the quantity of capital goods available, and a continuous trend toward an improvement in the general standard of living. - Lugwig von Mises

The wonderful world around us is all thanks to Capitalism. All the billions of individuals working hard toward their own ends has lead to the wonderful inventions like Google Wave, Spaceship one, Segway, and robotic surgery. It has lead to the New York skyline (pictured on the left) and 1/5 mile long cruise ships. Poverty in America is considered under $12000 a year, which is more than the average income of most third world countries, all of whom reject capitalism as an economic system. Our incredibly complex business world can bring thousands of food products from thousands of locations from thousands of miles away working with thousands of different businesses to our local grocery stores, such that the shelves are always filed and I can buy what I want, when I want. Because of capitalism, my biggest worry of the day is remembering to pick up some groceries on the way home, not will I starve tomorrow.

I would recommend Bernstein's book to anyone interested in hearing the true story of Capitalism, why it is moral, its effect on wealth, or anyone wanting to gain a better understanding of why I LOVE CAPITALISM!

Food and Nutrition - 3 books on its history

Over the past few months, I have read a three books on nutrition covering its history, its effect on physical development and economic growth, and the current controversies surrounding proper nutrition. These three books were:

• The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700-2100: Europe, America, and the Third World by Robert Fogel
• Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston Price
• Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health by Gary Taubes

I must admit, that after reading these three books, I have a different outlook on the food in put in my body. As I child, I was lucky to have parents that feed me a very healthy diet - little junk food, lots of food from the garden and from grass feed cattle and chickens. Now I understand why it was so healthy and why I should be vigilant about the stuff I put into my body.

In Escape from Hunger and Premature death, my main take away was that the agricultural revolution (which closely coincided with the industrial revolution) lead to increasing calories available for consumption in Western European nations. The starting point was abysmal low levels of calories, close to starvation for large segments of the populations. With increased calories came greater energy and greater health. Greater energy and health led to greater productivity, further helping transform Europe's transformation into industrial society.

In Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Weston Price chronicles his decade long quest in the early 20th century to find primitive peoples and document their diet and physical condition. In particular, he establishes what happens to these people before and after the introduction of western diets with large quantities of white bread, sugar, and canned food. Traveling throughout North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Pacific islands, Price found that regards of the indigenous diet, all primitive diets resulted in strong health adults. Upon introduction of the Western diet of white bread, sugar, and canned foods, these primitive groups started experiencing degeneration of dental and bone health and increased occurrences of tuberculous and other diseases.

In Good calories, Bad Calories, Gary Taubes reviews the past 50 years or so of medical, nutritional, and diet research. In this review, he questions conventional wisdom that fat is the cause of modern diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. After navigating thousands of studies in a variety of disciplines, Taubes paints a convincing picture that fat is not the boogiman that its been made out to be. In fact, its carbs that are the most likely the biggest culprit in the increasing occurances of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Sugar in particular.

From these three books, a new picture of nutrition has formed in my mind. This picture consists of a simple view of food - each and every thing I put in my body should be for a purpose. Every thing should have nutritional content. Its not just the number of calories that I consume (although the number is important to maintain my energy levels), its the quality of the calories. In general, the more processing conducted on a food product, the less its nutritional value.

I've come to recognize that fat is not something that I need to be afraid off. In fact, many vitamins are only fat soluible, meaning that can only be ingested in fat. I've also found that pastas, rices, and breads have very little nutrition, so I have little motivation to eat them. Ingestion of simple carbohydrates like table sugar and high fructose corn syrup are perhaps the most damaging of to our bodies by creating widely fluctuating insulin levels.

Luckily, I have an understanding wife who has been trying to accomodate my change in diet. Her home cooking, besides being speculatory yummy, is also very nutritional. I still struggle at times when it comes time for me to make my own meals, such as breakfest and occasionally lunch, mostly because I like the convenience that comes with pre-processed foods. But as I discover ways to eat healthy with quick prep time foods (that are yummy), I'm sure I'll be on the road to maintaining my health in optimal ways.

I would particularly recommend Good Calories, Bad Calories if you are interested in personal nutrition. The other two books offer a good history of nutrition and a context for understanding Taubes book. Escape from Hunger is interesting from an economic point of view. It adds a perspective to the industrial revolution.

Why I love Drucker

In a previous post, I have recommend Peter Druker's The Practice of Management. In my opinion, he is by far the best business writer to have lived. One of the things I love about Drucker is his clarity. Take for instance his definition of business purpose:

"There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. "

Whether or not you agree with this definition, there is no question what his definition is. In the next paragraph, he goes on to say:

"Markets are not created by God, nature, or economic forces but by businessmen. The want they satisfy may have been felt by the customer before he was offered the means of satisfying it. It may indeed, like the want for food in famine, have dominated the customer's life and filled all his waking moments. But it was a theoretical want before; only when the action of businessmen makes it effective demand is there a customer, a market."

Drucker directly ties the purpose of business to reality. His objectivity makes Drucker stand head and shoulders above the rest. He writes in a style similar to Ayn Rand. He makes bold statements, but proceeds to justify his statement with analysis of reality and identifying the essentials. He explores all the major options (God, nature, economic forces, and businessmen) and proceeds to explain why it must be businessmen that create markets, hence customers. It is the actions of businessmen, of creating products where none existed previously, that creates the market.

Beyond just the clarity of his writing, is the recurring message throughout his works that management requires reason. Take, for instance, his excellent summary of production:

"Production is not the application of tools to materials. It is the application of logic to work."

In this one sentence, Drucker challenges philosophers of the Marxist persuasion by relating the role of thinking managers to productivity. An unthinking brute swinging a sledge hammer is not being productive. They are merely swinging a sledge hammer. It takes a mind, applying logic to work, that transforms a chunk of metal into a V8 high performance engine.

While not perfect philosophically, Drucker has done more good for businessman than all of the Harvard MBAs of the last century. In the 1950s, he identified the need for management by objectives...a trend that caught on in the 1980s. By thinking in essentials and applying reason to observations of reality, Drucker became a visionary that executives like Andrew Grove (Former president of Intel) says "Peter Drucker is a guiding light to a whole lot of us. When I see an article of his I drop everything else and read it on the spot." Now that says a lot.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

For the past few months I've been reading the abridged version of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Penguin Classics). Its part of my new interest in history that has fueled my purchase, but the book tends to drag on in parts. So I'm torn between periods of boredom and periods of extreme fascination. Last night, I found one of the periods of extreme fascination.

Gibbon details how barbarian law differs from Roman law. It follows the fall of the Western Empire (~500 AD). My takeway was that with Roman law, while far from perfect, still had strong elements of a rule by law and at least a nod towards justice, rather than a rule by muscle. The barbarian law that took effect after Roman jurisprudence left. The barbarians worshiped strength, bravery, and fighting skills. When it came to law, what mattered was not evidence of a wrongful act, but your character. So, to be acquitted of a charge, you needed to have people stand up and vouch for your character. Depending on the severity of the crime, the more or less people that needed to vouch for your character.

And even if you committed a wrongful act, you could compensate those wrongly hurt with money and be done with it...even murder. So basically, a priced was levied on everyone's head. If you had enough gold, you could kill whomever you wanted, as long as you paid in gold.

In this one chapter, I found the evidence of the connections between several parts of Rand's politics as she described in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. The relationship between rule of muscle and mob rule. The relationship between rule by force and rule by faith. The relationship (or lack thereof) between rule of force and justice. The relationship between morality and politics. And why rule of force is morally evil...hence the description of this period as the "Dark Ages".

As others have said more eloquently then me, in order to understand politics today, you should study history. Here indeed is a great example.

Family cooking

If you're anything like my wife and me, you are contently short on time but still desire yummy food. If so, try The Best 30-Minute Recipe by America's Test Kitchen (ATK). My wife swears by this cookbook.

The basic premise behind ATK publishing is that ATK chefs will make a standard recipe (say Mac and Cheese) 101 different ways, varying the amounts of each ingredient and using basic culinary knowledge to scientifically design the best tasting version of each recipe. A few years ago, I gave my wife a gift of the magazine Cook's Illustrated, the main magazine published by ATK. She (and I) immediately fell in love with their franchise. The only times we have been disappointed with a recipe is when our ingredients were poor quality (not the fault of the recipe, but of our grocery). But as we started having kids, my wife ran out of time to make some of these delicious meals. Hence the recommendation for the Best 30-Minute Recipe book.

The company also produces a TV show called America's Test Kitchen, which airs on local PBS channels.

Management books for the O-activist

Recently on NoodleFood, I recommended a book for Objectivist activists that may be helpful in designing activism campaigns for maximum effect. In response, Diana asked me: "Do you have any other books on business management that you think those of us interested in spreading ideas should definitely read?"

This is my (slightly edited) answer to her.

Although my initial recommendation of Diffusion of Innovations was from the perspective of how best to spread ideas, I thought it might be useful to suggest books about management that may be helpful when speaking or writing to/for businessmen and women. I also thought it might be useful to suggest books on how to run activism campaigns as a business. I've mixed each perspective, but hopefully you can find what you need.

In all honesty, there really are not a lot of management books I would recommend for the express purpose of spreading ideas. I had a seminar in strategic management where we read many of the classic management books. Except for the one by Peter Drucker, they were a cesspool of bad philosophy propagated as intelligent thought. Peter Selzinck, in Leadership in Administration, gives explicit credit to the pragmatists, Dewey and James. Herbert Simon (noble prize winner in economics) has a chapter in Administrative Behavior titled Fact and Value in Decision-making that would probably make Peikoff's head explode. It was pure philosophic torture getting through that seminar. Interesting enough, most of the authors were Harvard professors of business. According to the professor of our seminar (who was himself a DBA from Harvard's school of business), these books were all part of a seminar required of all Harvard DBAs back then. I'm not sure if these books are still taught at Harvard, but the influence of these authors are felt in the business schools and business research studies throughout the U.S. today. The Harvard influence over the business research has lead to few useful business books, in my opinion.

I mentioned Drucker's above as the exception. Pretty much anything he has written I would recommend. His first book, The Practice of Management, is superbly written and the one best books on management and decision-making that I have ever read. While written in the 50s, it largely defined how business evolved over the next 30 years and the best at describing businesses as they are run today. I would recommend it to any Objectivist activist that plans on speaking to business executives and/or business professionals.

I would also recommend a newer book, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Friedman. This book is about globalization and the role technology has played in changing the world workforce, particularly in the past 10 years. While not as essentialized as it could be, it does offer a good view of the changing nature of information exchange and how its effecting businesses, cultures, and personal experiences. I use parts of his book in my Introduction to Information Systems class.

For running your activism as a business, I would recommend Drucker's book as well as The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber (Chapter 1). The E-Myth (entrepreneurial myth) posits that most entrepreneurs fail because they get into business for the wrong reasons. Its been quite a few years since I read it, but my take-away was that many entrepreneurs fail because they are good technicians, but poor businessmen. They think that just because they know the skill or subject (for O-activists, read philosophy), they can be effective entrepreneurs (read activists). This book offers various ways to overcome these common failures. For example, think turn-key when designing your activism. Also, use metrics to measure effectiveness.

I don't know much about marketing, but I imagine a good introductory book on marketing may be useful to activists as well.

From other fields:
I've already mentioned Diffusion of Innovations, which is actually from the field of sociology.

Another book from sociology and psychology fields that uses many of the ideas from Diffusion of Innovations without giving it much due is a recent best seller called The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell. The focus again is on how ideas spread through society, from cool shoes to Sesame Street. It isn't a great book (not as good as Diffusion of Innovations), but it may be of some value.

I give a very limited recommendation of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. If you have ever heard the phrase "paradigm shift", Kuhn is the one who invented it. Philosophically, the book is way off base. Essentially, Kuhn claims scientists fail to integrate new facts of realty due to their adoption of inbred intrinsicist thinking. The only way to overcome this inbred intrinsicism is with outsiders who come up with new ideas and create scientific revolutions. This leads Kuhn to suggest the cure for intrinicism is subjectivism. That being said, the book contains a number of interesting historic examples about how radical new ideas are rejected and/or adopted by a community. If you can ignore Kuhn's philosophy and focus on the facts illustrated in the book, you may be able to take away something of value.

I've also read several other good business books, but I'm not sure how useful they'd be for O-activists, unless they plan on doing a lot of activism with businesses and business professionals. And I'm sure there are plenty of good books I haven't read. So any suggestions would be appreciated.

China for a day

On Wednesday, I attended a speech by famed author and NYTimes columnist Thomas Friedman. His book The World is Flat sits on my desktop and I often use it in my classes because of the insightful ideas about how information systems have changed the global economy. Now he is on a speaking tour promoting his new book Hot, Flat, and Crowded, which is what brought him to Eastern Michigan University. While I believe a great deal of this book is missing the big picture, its his conclusion that I find terribly frightening.

From the first word in the title of his new book, it may be obvious he's talking about global warming. Friedman believes we are experiencing global warming and that it is man made. He even jokes that he told Al Gore that he should apologize because the results have been much worse than he predicted. Friedman argues that CO2 released from fossil fuels is causing this problem, so we need to find alternative energy. The second word "Flat" refers to the information revolution and resulting impact on globalization which has allowed a middle class throughout the world to grow astronomically over the past ten years. The implication, in energy terms, is that the middle class will require vastly more energy than fossil fuels can provide safely (in terms of global warming). That, along with his third term "Crowded", means that the total world population is expected to strain every last once of current energy production past its capacity.

These strains, he argues, is why energy technology will be the next great revolution in industry. His argument so far is interesting and has some plausibility, even though I believe he is wrong about global warming. He wants to see America lead this revolution. And to that I say, you betcha. I love to see America lead any technological revolution. But Friedman's argument about how we get there is downright scary.

He then argues that America has lost its edge after 9/11. Not economically, but politically. The security we demand at airports, at embassies and consulates, and at our borders, is shutting down our capacity to innovate. This argument is incredibly weak and is designed more as a shot at Republicans than anything else. He goes on to say we need government to lead the way in creating the energy revolution here in the U.S., rather than waiting for some other nation to lead the way. How can our government do this? By being "China for a day" (his words!). And he is explicit about what he means...our government should be as authoritarian as China is, but just for one day, just long enough to set the standards, finance the research, and discourage the use of fossil fuels that will lead to an energy revolution.

China for a day! In Friedman's mind, individual rights not only can be suspended for a day, they should be. He acknowledges that people will bitch and moan about this action. His response "so what?". Let them bitch and moan, because the world is at stake. Never mind that people are bitching and moaning because your killing them slowly but surely by taking away the legal protection needed to live. Never mind that the reason why the world is becoming "Flat" is because nations are recognizing and establishing legal protection for individual rights. That the very thing he wants to take away is the very thing that has allowed billions of people to move out of extreme poverty. China, India, and Eastern Europe are becoming wealthier because they are less authoritarian, not more. It is his blatent disregard for the individual that I find truly frightening. China for a day! How about the U.S. for a lifetime?

Philosophy of Education

This summer I plan on conducting a thorough review of education philosophies (one of my goals for 2008). Below are the books and subjects I plan on reading. Does anyone have further suggestions?

Philosophy of education study plan

Plato

• Republic

Montessori

• The Montessori Method

Piaget

• Inhelder, B. and J. Piaget (1958). The Growth of Logical Thinking

from Childhood to Adolescence. New York: Basic Books

Steiner

• The Education of the Child

Froebel

• FROEBEL'S CHIEF WRITINGS ON EDUCATION

Dewey

• Democracy and Education (1916)

• How We Think (1910)

Peikoff

• Philosophy of Education lecture series

Great Books of the Western World
Trivium/Quadrivium
Taking Children Seriously
Unschooling

As I review each book and subject, I'll write up my analysis here.

Goodkind and Mises

Two books I have been reading lately, Soul of the Fire and Human Action.

Soul of the Fire is the 5th book the fantasy series by Terry Goodkind. Terry describes himself as an Objectivist, which you can catch glimpses of in his writing. My wife, who has completed the series, informs me that some of later books in the series are far more obviously written by an Objectivist mind. Overall, I really like the series. His first two books kept me riveted throughout. And my wife spent a little of 2 months reading all 11 books (I bought her the first three for Christmas and she purchased the other 7 almost immediately). However, books 4 and 5 have become bogged down in minutiae of the story at points and bored me into speed reading over a couple of chapters (not a usual occurrence for me).

Human Action I picked up again after reading portions of it 2 years ago. Mises is a man I either cheer for or scream at, depending on the chapter I'm reading. One of the lone economists who was critical of communism, socialism, Keynesism, and a starch supporter of Capitalism, Mises is often dismissed from academy because he seemed reject empirical evidence in his methodology of praxeology. This leads to Mises to some rationalistic explanations of economics. For example, he claims it was only the advent of birth control that leads to higher standards of living (p. 667-672). This is only a partial truth because an increasing population also, over the long run, allows for greater division of labor, resulting higher standards of living as well. If it weren't for this striking resemblance to naked rationalism, I would definitely sing the praises of Mises. I'm sure fans of his won't like to hear me say he's rationalistic, but how else can you explain praxeology? But given this fault, the book is loaded with excellent discussion of economics and a throughly effective critic of the failures in planned economies and all socialistic endeavors. When he does start with the correct assumptions, his analysis is dead on.

Human Action is a weighty book, just shy of 1000 pages, but I'd like to study it in more detail along with George Reisman's book on economics. I am sure between the two of them, they could provide a foundation in economics unlike any class I could receive in school.