Interesting Books

08/12/2008 21:39:00
tags: art, books

Some books I have read that were interesting. In general, I will leave out most medical stuff and fiction. I’ll try and focus on books that are applicable to different aspects of life, science, and business…

I read most of these books looking for ideas that could be used to help improve medicine and medical education.

BTW, my blurbs below don’t really do the books justice. It’s worth looking at the full Amazon page and seeing other reviews…

  • Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

    An interesting look at the way we make decisions, and how this process sometimes goes awry.

  • Chances Are by Michael Kaplan, Ellen Kaplan

    Discusses some fundamentals of statistics in an easy to read, readily applicable manner. Despite what could be a dry topic, it’s a pretty good read.

  • Descartes' Error by Antonio Damasio

    A look at the way in which social understanding is used by the brain to contribute to logical decision making.

  • Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham

    A collection of essays from Paul Graham, author of “A Plan for Spam” that inspired a host of Bayesian spam filters, speaker, and venture capitalist. Somewhat computer oriented, but worth reading.

  • Linked by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi

    This book describes characteristics of networks (social, business, natural, and computer) and points out properties that are shared by networks in disparate fields.

  • The Medici Effect by Frans Johansson

    Johansson examines various breakthroughs in history and points out a number that came from combining fields that would at first glance appear to be unrelated.

  • The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

    In this book, Gladwell discusses the large impacts of small changes.

  • The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki

    Surowiecki discusses ways in which group dynamics can lead to better decision making than any individual member of that group, and ways in which groups can be destined to make poor decisions.

If you decide to purchase any of these books from Amazon.com , I welcome you to do so using the links above. This will contribute a referral fee towards the support of my web site and software, at no cost to you. Thank you.