A few interesting books have crossed my desk recently.
Garry Kasparov’s Deep Thinking (UK) (US) promises to reflect on “Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins”, although on that particular point it is not especially profound. Nevertheless Kasparov does say a lot that is interesting about innovation and risk-taking (like me he’s concerned that we’re favouring the marginal gain over riskier basic research) and there’s a terrific history of AI in chess. The heart of the book is an account of Kasparov’s battles with Deep Blue, and reads like a thriller. Great stuff.
Tali Sharot’s brand new The Influential Mind (UK) (US) discusses the social, emotional and rational cues that persuade us or deter us from taking action. It’s a familiar formula of anecdote, argument and research, but some of the research is new to me and it’s well-written and combined to good effect. Recommended.
Depressingly relevant at the moment is The Ostrich Paradox (UK) (US) by Meyer and Kunreuther; in a brief, expert book the author apply the cognitive biases literature (familiar from Kahneman and others) to disaster preparedness and crisis management. Very much focused on hurricanes and tsunamis but there’s much of relevance to other catastrophes (banking crises, industrial accidents) too.
And some great podcasts for your delectation. Tyler Cowen’s Conversations With Tyler is fascinating – he asks unusual and often revealing questions. The conversation with Kasparov was particularly good. Russ Roberts’s EconTalk is an old stalwart (I’ve been on twice with another appearance scheduled) but it’s often excellent. Two recent episodes – with John McWhorter on language and Benedict Evans on self-driving electric cars – were superb, perhaps because only tangentially related to economics.
Meanwhile the US edition of Fifty Inventions That Shaped The Modern Economy is out as of six days ago. Buy, buy! A few more days available to suggest what the 51st invention should be (details here) or pick up the UK edition here.