I’ve just published my annual round-up of my non fiction reading for last year here. Do go and read the whole list, but here I’ll just mention my absolute favourites for the year (or at least the ones I keep telling people to go and read). A variety of topics, so I hope you’ll find one you like. They’re not in any particular order.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
When this came out, Julia Gillard was on all the podcasts promoting the book, and I was a bit sceptical about it – as I always am about books from former politicians – but it was very insightful. Gillard and Okonjo-Iweala interview eight world leaders (plus each other) about their experiences of being a woman in leadership. And then they analyse those interviews into carefully chosen categories, and compare the view of the real leaders they’ve interviewed with what the research says about women in leadership more broadly. Gillard is Chair of the Global Institute for Women’s leadership, and the research background really shines through the book.
In the context of many people pointing out how successfully women have led countries through the pandemic, they point out that women face quite a tightrope of acceptability between being ‘man’ enough to do the job and feminine enough to not be viewed as unlikeable, or even held in contempt. A woman who has managed to be in the right place on that tightrope does seem to have the right skills for managing this pandemic – the ability to listen, and be empathetic, but at the same time to be decisive.
This was true of Ellen Sirleaf, President of Liberia during the Ebola pandemic.
A horrific disease requiring courageous decision-making…. Elle is convinced that the fact women leaders do not tend to be viewed as likeable is a benefit, not a burden. It means they are more likely to do what is right rather than care about burnishing their image
The very high level conclusion that I took away from all of the thoughtful interviews and research was that women as a gender are not necessarily better at leadership, but those who make it to the top jobs probably are better leaders on average, because the filtering process to get to that job is so much tougher than it is for men, in general, but also specifically for a more balanced profile that is advantageous when actually doing the job.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
This is a great book about making decisions, and how poker helps you think about it. Konnikova is a writer with a doctorate in psychology, who decided to learn to play poker at world championship level to understand how to make decisions better. Because of her background, she manages to persuade some seriously amazing poker players to teach her.
Because she has studied psychology, and in particular decision making, the lessons she learns along the way about poker, and its applicability to life are very insightful. It is hard to summarise, but here are a few quotes:
“Even terrible players make the plays they make for a reason and its your job to figure it out… Don’t judge them. Don’t berate them, even in your head… Just try to figure out the why behind it.”
“Our thinking about luck has real consequences in terms of our emotional well being, our decisions, and the way we implicitly view the world and our role in it… Do we see ourselves as victims or victors? A victim: The cards went against me. Things are being done to me, things are happening around me, and I am neither to blame nor in control. A victor: I made the correct decision. Sure, the outcome didn’t go my way, but I thought correctly under pressure. And that’s the skill I can control…. Sure you can’t actually change the cards, and the variance will be what it will be – but you will feel a whole lot happier and better adjusted while you take life’s blows, and your ready mindset will prepare you for the change in variance that will come at some point, even if that point is far in the future.”
“Never feel like you have to do something just because it’s expected of you – even if you’re the one who expects it of you. Know when to step back. Know when to recalibrate.”
Konnikova is an engaging writer, and weaves decision theory, psychology and general good sense into this story of becoming a poker player.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Ketan Joshi writes about many science related topics, but particularly about the economics of energy. His background working for wind generators, and renewable energy more generally means he has a lot to say in this space. I particularly enjoyed the sections where he looked at how to get communities on board with renewable energy.
It is easy for a city person to roll their eyes at a farmer who worries about the non existence sound pollution from a new wind farm. But that kind of protest rarely happens in a community in which all members fully share in the benefits that accrue to wind in their neighbourhood, whether or not the right spot for a windfarm happens to be on their land. As Joshi says on his website;
I also think the political, social and cultural context of technology and science should be front and centre – own it, don’t avoid it.
Joshi takes climate change as a given, and asks how the necessary changes to our energy sector should happen – not just technically, but socially and politically – how should the benefits and costs be shared, and what has worked around the world.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
I’ve reviewed this book here. You’ve probably seen Rutger Bregman before. He was the Dutch historian who provocatively asked the billionaires at Davos why they didn’t just pay their taxes instead of talking about complex philanthropic initiatives:
“Just stop talking about philanthropy and start talking about taxes. … We can invite Bono once more, but we’ve got to be talking about taxes. That’s it. Taxes, taxes, taxes. All the rest is bullshit in my opinion.”
Well he’s now written a very positive book which I enjoyed reading, and found quite hopeful in the current circumstances. It is enjoyable and engaging, although I do find myself arguing with the conclusions in my head quite a lot now I have finished it.
The premise is basically that human beings are generally much more positive, helpful and friendly than we generally give ourselves credit for. He argues convincingly that we have evolved for friendliness, and helpfulness, even more than intelligence.
Since reading this book, I have been looking out for positive examples. It is much easier to see the negatives – examples of humankind at its worst. I thought of listing some, but I’m sure you can think of your own that make it hard to believe in humanity’s basic goodness. So how do we help ourselves and our fellow humans bring out the best rather than the worst? Bregman does have some quite nuanced thinking about this.
Humanity’s biggest weakness comes in our need for social validation. And if the validation comes from a group seeded with sociopaths, then we will follow them. But in the right circumstances, which are very broad, humans will revert to our fundamentally helpful, friendly and supportive natures.
So what is the call to action? It is to trust more, and accentuate the positive. We are a species that ultimately is friendly, and looks to the positive. We rise to expectations, and lower to them, in many fields, including friendliness, and trustworthiness. If we assume that people are untrustworthy, they will live down to our expectations surprisingly often.
So the more we accentuate the positive and trust each other, the more of us will rise to those expectations, creating a better society for all of us.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
This book is by my favourite economist author, about how to think about numbers, and how to use numbers to communicate what is really happening in the world.
Harford is passionate about using numbers to illuminate rather than conceal, and this book is a set of rules about how to use numbers and statistics to scrutinise the world. While statistics can be used to mislead and conceal, they are also illuminating and helpful. How to tell the difference? This book will help.
I’m not going to summarise all ten rules (you need to read the book for that, and it is worth it) but my favourite rule was rule Eight – Don’t take statistical bedrock for granted. As Harford points out, it is easy to take for granted the statistics collected by governments, until they aren’t there. The numbers produced by government statistical agencies (here in Australia, the Australian Bureau of Statistics is the peak body, and there are many others). Harford has a number of stories of places where statistics have gone wrong, and some truly impressive cost benefit analyses of the benefits of accurate statistics.
Public discussion of data science tends to take all this information for granted. But sexy statistical analysis of data is impossible if the data doesn’t exist.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
This memoir of life in Silicon Valley, by Anna Weiner is much more than I was anticipating. There is the story of what it is like being one of the few women in a room of tech bros, but there is also much about data, privacy, robots, founder culture, and the arrogance of people who assume that because they are smart and good at one small thing (such as coding), they don’t have much to learn from people who have studied whole fields.
The writing is sharp, crisp and insightful, and I found myself ploughing through this at a very quick speed (always the sign of a good memoir).
_________________________________________________________________________________________
And for anyone I had a meeting with this year, you’ll probably recognise these bookshelves, so they seem an appropriate picture for this post.
