The Irrational Decision: How We Gave Computers the Power to Choose for Us

The Irrational Decision: How We Gave Computers the Power to Choose for Us by Benjamin Recht

The book explores the rise of algorithms for decision making. The results are not very positive. In a lot of cases, we use algorithms to make decisions because we can. Are they really the best way to make decisions? Not necessarily. Algorithms can only take advantage of the data they have. We can feed them more and more data but does this really help us? Algorithms can continue to steer us in weird directions with the apparent objectiveness hiding biases.

Murder at University Park

Murder at University Park: A Novel by Cheryl Miller Dellasega

The protagonist is on the tenure track in a college town. If she does not get tenure, she is toast. Her husband has a nice accounting job in town and there are no other prospects for her locally. Alas, her department head is a jerk and a womanizer. A specific study is his claim to faim. She receives some data which indicates that the study may be flawed. She enlists an IT friend to help trce it down. Then the friend ends up dead. The friend had almost no family and little standing in town. The police seemed to think that she committed suicide by consuming some drugs. The protagonist really wanted to find out more, but she was mostly on her own in the investigation.

Sometime later, she is at a party with the department head and another high-ranking guy in the department. They are among the last to leave. As they are leaving, the very drunk department head sexually assaults her. She and the high-ranking guy push back and the head falls down. He seems injured but implores them not to call ambulance. High-ranking guy encourages them to comply and they leave. The next day, department head shows up dead in the snow and high ranking guy becomes interim department head.

Later, interim head drives with protagonist out to a remote vet. On the way back, he confesses to having killed IT girl by sneaking some of the medications his psychiatrist wife has access to (and replacing them with look-alike pills so nobody would notice.) He was the one that planted the fake data and just wanted protagonist to report it rather than going to IT girl. The dead department head had stolen his work and he had plotted this revenge. Just in time, the dog in the back lunged, the guy swerved and crashed into an oncoming vehicle and he died instantly, with her coming to many days later in the hospital.

After all the events, a woman is taken from another department to head up the department. The protagonist's husband gets a job in Seattle. The kids are nervous, but the boy sees that there is a space museum there. (What? Museum of Flight has an exhibit, but that is pushing it.) She interview for a position at University of Washington. It seems that good has won out.

Then there is a final bit that the woman who ended up heading the department at the end had whacked the original department head with a terra-cotta warrior to kill him. This makes this seemingly "good person" the one that had actually committed murder in cold blood. So much for the good ending. So the moral is university people are vicious killers, especially the women? The protagonist had also witnessed this killing and never spoke up about it. Even in the 1990s, this is extremely heartless. This all seemed to bring down the story a notch.

Blightfall

Blightfall by Brandon Sanderson and Janci Patterson

There is peace in the Skyward society. They are now going on a mission to meet a human colony that never seemed to be under the Superiority. It seemed simple. However, they ran into problems. There was a dangerous debris field and they were attacked by an AI. The AI is controlling the society with a gladiator game to get the best fighters who she supposedly sends out to fight human enemies. Through some difficult spying they discover that the AI is actually freezing these people as she accumulates a frozen army. The AI has been programmed to save humanity. She had done this by moving earth through the "nowhere", which in the process destroyed the Americas (which became a debris field). Those that survived the earth moved over to this new planet which included walking trees. The Skyward crew manage to get out as they also struggle with relationships among each other and the awkward communication challenges, especially across species. They explore relationships and as "joy" vs. population necessity as well as gender expression as they try to save themselves and this other world. Tone is light, though it does feel a bit long. 

Memoirs of Hadrian

Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar translated by Grace Frick

The Roman emperor Hadrian was a real man. This book contains many accurate events of his life wrapped in a fictional narrative addressed to his successor. This brings the emperor to life in a way that a simple non-fiction work cannot.

Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea: Journeys Through Ancient Literature

Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea: Journeys Through Ancient Literature by Emily Wilson

I have heard that in Japan, translators are well known and respected almost as much as authors. In the English speaking world, they are almost treated as an afterthought. However, translators play a huge role in how we experience works of literature. This can be especially important with ancient works. Most of the popular Greek works of today were experienced as popular culture. They were in the vernacular of the day and would be more akin to a superhero movie than work of literature. Alas, we often experience them in archaic translations. This causes a barrier to their understanding. Translators also struggle with the feel of the work. One word may be translated exactly with a 30 word phrase, but then you've lost the flow. A single word may be better even if it is not exact. How do you get the rhythm and meter in different languages? What about slang and scatalogical language? And what about different dialects present in the original?

In this book, the author explores her experience with different ancient works and the art of translation. It is filled with interesting examples of trade offs made in translation and how she feels about it. I would love to see more translated works accompanied by a discussion from the translator.

Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men

Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men by Lundy Bancroft

The book focuses on husbands that abuse their wives. The author takes a line-in-the-sand approach that only men can be abusers. However, he then says that with gays and lesbians it can be different. This is quite a bit of waffling. It is likely in response to some past psychological believes that abused women "asked for it." In reality, many of the systems of abuse described could happen to anyone. There are reasons that people can abuse and reasons while they are susceptible to abuse. Historically, the males were the aggressors. As society has changed, the patterns have also changed. The strict line given in this book weakens the argument.

Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America

Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America by Chris Murphy

Chris Murphy is a Democrat and is upset with what Trump has done to the presidency. However, rather than jump into partisan attacks, he looks at the root cause. Trump is able to tap into resentment felt by many in America. The town where people know each other and work together has been replaced by a homogenous culture. People don't have the community and the desire for the common good. People are much more siloed. Community organizations and churches are much less present.

He sees the problems as many "cults". Cult of Profit, Cult of Globalism, Cult of Technology, Cult of Consumption, Cult of Credentialism, Cult of Corruption. Given his political leaning he left out the "Cult of Other" - the look for somebody else (like the government) to solve the problems. He tries very hard to be politically neutral, and for the most part succeeds, though the partisanship does occasionally eek out.

In one section, he stated that he would like for the government not to provide any services dependent on income. He was focussing on "fast lanes", but it would be a great idea for all services. There is a huge application needed to apply for low-income housing or rent assistance. Other resources require regular validation that you are in fact poor. This is demeaning and encourages one to keep income low to maintain benefits. What if we just provided everything to everyone? The administration costs would go down. The negative aspects would go away. It would cost more, but everyone would benefit from it. It is similar to the public library. Wealthy people could just buy the books (and many do.) However, everyone has access to the library regardless of how much they earn. What if we did that with our many other programs? Instead of charging low-income bus riders $1 and everyone else $3, just charge everyone $1. Provide basic health care for everyone. Provide free school lunch for everyone. Eliminate anything that requires you to validate that you are poor to receive some benefit. The rich would need to pay a little more in taxes. The middle class would probably be a wash. Administration costs would go down. There would also be incentive for everyone to make the system better. There would also eliminate the "income penalty". There is more incentive for people to earn more above-board. Alas, things are moving in the opposite direction. Washington even started a "low income toll", where low-income people pay less. This is like butting a band-aid on a broken arm.

The Science of Second Chances: A Revolution in Criminal Justice

The Science of Second Chances: A Revolution in Criminal Justice by Jennifer Doleac

We are wasting a lot of time and money with criminal justice policies that don't work. Meanwhile, cheap solutions are staring us in the face and not being followed. The author is an equal opportunity critic, with many favorite right wing and left wing policies criticized. Mostly using natural experiments, she studies various measures and finds those that work and those that don't work. Most of the results seem counter-intuitive, such as the fact that children of incarcerated parents tend to be better off than children in similar situations where the parent is not incarcerated.

Left wing policies to help those stuck in the crime cycle often do not help. Baning the job application "checkbox" for crimianl convications makes it harder for ex-cons to find jobs, especially if they are black. Heavy wrap-around programs on release result in higher recidivism rates. Being "soft on crime" doesn't help the criminal or society. Right wing policies like broken-windows policing and strict monitoring and cutting off food stamp eligibility for food stamps hurt.

What helps? Letting first time offenders off easy does not disrupt their lives and results in fewer repeat offenses. Going through the process of getting arrested is often enough of a negative experience. Adding everyone to a DNA database, even after the most minor offenses also reduces the likelihood of future crimes. Electronic monitoring instead of more time in jail helps. Giving criminals more money when released and keeping them eligible for social welfare programs works. Requiring sobriety checks to maintain release encourages treatment programs.

In general, we should have consequences for criminal activity. These should be expected and consistent. They should also only escalate with repeat offenses. Prison is a huge disruption for people's lives and should be used only when needed. Very focussed efforts should be made to reintroduce them to society. On release, it is best to fully integrate in society, separate from other former prisoners. Don't try to solve all problems at once.

The proposed solutions tend to anger those vested in certain schemes. Is this a case of those benefiting from the status quo wanting to keep their funding rather than do what is best society? 

Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View from Behind the Supermarket Register

Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View from Behind the Supermarket Register by Ann Larson

A labor organizer takes a job at a supermarket during the pandemic and then writes about the experience. What do you think the result would be? It felt like the author already had the answers in mind before she started. The workers must organize. Right to work laws need to go away to allow it. She should disobey things from up high to favor the workers. (In one bit of humility, she did realize this was a bad option after doing it for a while.)

The author works at an anonymous corporate grocery store in Salt Lake City. Various anecdotes of the experience are covered. There are plenty of anecdotes, but they could just as well be the work of fiction. Management makes appearances here and there. Scheduling can be a challenge, with many workers quitting or even not showing up. Self-checkout machines are given a bad rap. (Workers do not have as much casual human interaction and need to walk around on their feet.) The book talks about the history of supermarkets and how they evolved. They helped cut costs and eliminated racists haggling. The author also does not like electronic store tags. (Her concern is for the ability to give different customers different prices - what about the ability to make sure the price on the shelf is always correct?) On one hand, she would like for no changes to occur in supermarkets, while on the other she would like for many changes to make workers' experience better. The stories and history are interesting, but the analysis drags on.

Kin: A Novel

Kin: A Novel by Tayari Jones

Two "orphaned" black girls grow up in Jim Crow south. One was abandoned by her mother. The other's father murdered her mother. They are friends in their youth, but their paths diverge. Vernice attends Spelman college and marries into a wealthy family. Annie has a more blue-collar life and works in a club and attempts to find her mother. She is first told her mother died, but later found she was still alive - with a child that shared her name. Her fiancé dumps and she gives into her boss's moves. Things don't go well and she loses her job and gets pregnant. She goes to Vernice to get help. She gets an illegal abortion, but dies from internal bleeding. The book fades away at the end with Vernice and her reckoning with her past. These people had rough lives, but they tried to make the best of their situation.

Football

Football by Chuck Klosterman

Football is the most popular sport in the United States. It dominates the TV ratings. The USA vs. Belgium world cup soccer game was the top rated non-NFL sports broadcast, and didn't come close to NFL playoff ratings. It was even behind two Thanksgiving day broadcasts. The Super bowl is always the most popular TV broadcast. Even Canadians are more likely to watch the super bowl than the Canadian Football Grey Cup Championship. The "defects" of football work to its advantage. There is intense action and then a lot of time to figure out what happened. The full game cannot be played casually. The "casual" versions like flag football are fundamentally different.

Football's great popularity is sowing the seeds of its downfall. College football is professionalizing, reducing the strong attachments that students would have to their team. At the lower levels, the dangers are driving parents away from letting their kids play. Outside the south, high school football has become less important. Football is dominating casual fans, but not producing new die hards. It is a conservative bastion in a liberalizing world. People will eventually lose interest and move on to something else. Horse racing was once an extremely popular spectator sport. Today, it is shadow of itself with a few niche events remaining. In the past horses were part of everyone's regular life. Not so anymore. Other dangers could impact football. A death on the field remains a possibility. Sports gambling is helping to increase interest now, but could also create issues. Professional football only surpassed baseball in the 1960s as the most popular American sport. Today, soccer is closing the gap among youth. How much longer will football dominate?

The Wage Standard: What's Wrong in the Labor Market and How to Fix It

The Wage Standard: What's Wrong in the Labor Market and How to Fix It by Arindrajit Dube

I kept thinking "yes, but..." in response to the arguments in this book. He argues the minimum wage should be risen in part because many people spend a long time in minimum wage jobs. However, he focuses too much on looking at the wages and not at the jobs. Why are people stuck in these jobs? He dances around a few concerns, but misses some of the biggies. We require people to have health insurance, yet policies available publically are horrible compared to those you can get from companies. Work flexibility also comes into play.

The arguments with unions are also similar. With more heavily unionized and regulated job markets, employees that have jobs are better off, but it is harder for new employees to find jobs. It also limits new job creation. Longshoreman make huge amounts of money as blue collar workers. However, getting a job is extremely difficult for those not in the family. Tech jobs are high paying and much more open, but also more volatile. Big companies tend to be more lucrative, better places to work.  However, all these big companies started out small. It is extremely difficult to compete in the industry with big companies. New companies must typically start somewhere else. Tech companies opened their new markets and went from small to big. Tesla is still seen as a tech company, even as it competes with automakers. Unions typically succeed in companies that have grown and become fossilized. They help provide greater stability and predictability at the expense of dynamism. They also introduce friction and costs. 

The author complains about companies "subcontracting" out workers. Alas, that is driven by some of the same policies advocated. Companies have core competencies and labor relations. Hiring others to do non-core items is the wise choice. Especially with regulations, it can be difficult to keep track of everything in their own field, let alone many others.

There are many things wrong with the labor market. When people work as true independent contractors, they are free to set what they charge and find somebody willing to pay. Alas, the regulatory market forces people into "for-hire" schemes of employee and employer. People a century ago would cringe at this. Why are we making policies to further force people into this situation?

Boring Asian Female

Boring Asian Female by Canwen Xu

This reminded me of Best Offer Wins. In both cases, an Asian American lead is driven to succeed in the way she understands the American Dream, but goes off the rails. 

In this book, Elizabeth Zhang is in her last year at Columbia, getting ready to go to law school. She grew up in South Dakota with hard-working immigrant parents. She was the only Asian at her high school and never quite fit in. She went to Columbia because that was were the snobby elite in a TV show went. She had her mind set on attending Harvard Law school to achieve the life of wealth and prosperity that other classmates seemed to have. Then she learns she didn't get into Harvard Law, or any law school other than Georgetown. She also hears that another Asian female, got into Columbia. When Elizabeth talks with the pre-law advisor, the. feedback is that she has a good application, but that she is a "boring" Asian female. Then she seadil goes off the deep end.

She is convinced that Laura stole the spot at Harvard Law. She starts stalking Laura. She impersonates a high schooler to learn more about Laura. She even asks to be called Laura when making love. Then things get worse. She hatches a plan to get Laura's admission rescinded. She publishes an anonymous far-right blog in a way that would be identified as Laura. However, people eventually trace it to the male student whose login she used to publish it. He ends up dropping out of school, only to later become a right wing commentator. Elizabeth finds out she is pregnant. After getting money from the guy for an abortion, she decides instead to have the kid, so she can be less boring. She later sneaks into Laura's dorm, but Laura comes home (with limited mental functionality due to substance use.) After Laura finally realizes everything Elizabeth has done, Elizabeth sprayed her with pepper spray and got away. Laura dies from the spray. (she had a heart condition). Elizabeth showed no remorse, and was fine when another girl was charged with the manslaughter death. Elizabeth has a miscarriage. She later impersonates Laura in the Harvard law admit group. She has a big breakdown when the group calls her out as not being a real future student. After recovering, she gets a call from Harvard, letting her know there was an error with her score reporting and that she was now being offered a spot. 

Previously, Harvard said the decision was final and there was no way to validate the data. If only they hadn't Elizabeth would not have gone wacko. However, she showed clearly that she would do anything to have her desired success. Is this really the type of person you would want? The steps seemed logical, but the results were horrid. Is this an indictment of an over-driven Asian culture? The narrative was compelling and the characters. were interesting,  though I really wanted to see her charged rather than end up with her dream.

The Vanishing Church: How the Hollowing Out of Moderate Congregations Is Hurting Democracy, Faith, and Us

The Vanishing Church: How the Hollowing Out of Moderate Congregations Is Hurting Democracy, Faith, and Us (Why Culture Wars Led to Polarization and What It Means for the Future of Religion in America) by Ryan P. Burge

At one time, mainline protestant churches were community institutions. They represented a cross-section of the community, with different political beliefs. Today these churches are rare. Evangelical churches have risen up and are tightly associated with the right. Born Again and Evangelical are associated with politics as much as they are with religion. (There are even cases of non-religious or other religions adopting those terms.)

While right wing is associated with religious, left wing has been more associated with agnostic. There is a dearth of the "middle". The churches that could appeal to everyone have been dying off. Many small towns have lost their churches. People with fall away from churches due to political beliefs. There are also few avenues for people who are honestly questioning. Churches have represented multiple things. They are provide community, service, moral guidance and spirituality. With them falling away, society is at a loss.

Vigil: A Novel

Vigil: A Novel by George Saunders

Vigil is short. That is good because I was fairly lost as to what was happening. 

Well Endowed: The Secrets to Strategic Spending, Building a Financial Foundation for You and Your Family, and Creating Lasting Generational Wealth

Well Endowed: The Secrets to Strategic Spending, Building a Financial Foundation for You and Your Family, and Creating Lasting Generational Wealth by Vivian Tu

The author came from an immigrant Chinese family who wanted what was best for their daughter. They were frugal and were able to save for her to go to University of Chicago. Now she dispenses financial advice to Millenials. It seems to be "save more than you spend, but still enjoy things." There are also long discussions about treating marriage and kids as financial endeavors. Oh millenials.

Two Women Living Together

Two Women Living Together: The Bestselling Korean Memoir by Kim Hana and Hwang Sunwoo

The title describes it well. This is the story of two adult women who live together. They are not romantic partners. They are just friends that care for each other.  They also advocate for better legal protections. Why are rights tied to marriage whether heterosexual or homosexual? What about people that have mutual caring without the romance? There is not a lot of substance to the book, but it does have some interesting thoughts to explore on the different styles of human relationships.

Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster

Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster by Jacob Soboroff

A reporter found himself in LA reporting on his hometown of Pacific Palisades burning down. The book tries to straddle the line between detachment and heavy involvement. There are reminiscences of the past in the area as well as jabs at Trump. The fires came right around the transition from Biden to Trump so there is ample time to poke fun of Trump's obsessions. (Many seemed to start off with a rational point and then go off the rails with hairbrained solutions.) The fires come across as surprisingly non-dramatic in the book. There was a lot of hard work and creeping into deserted areas, but not much of the expected personal drama. Maybe we have just become too spoiled with the disaster genres.

Eradication: A Fable

Eradication: A Fable by Jonathan Miles

A person is hired to eradicate goats from an island to disturb the ecological balance. He had no previous experience in the field and struggles with the activity on a physical and philosophical level. He discovers that there are other people on the island illegally fishing for sharks. Should people be playing god? There are some interesting questions explored, but the narration feels distant.

Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life

Planet Money: A Guide to the Economic Forces That Shape Your Life by Alex Mayyasi, Alex Goldmark, Erika Beras , Mary Childs , Sarah Gonzalez , Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi and Kenny Malone

Planet Money is an NPR show and podcast that discusses interesting money matters. The audiobook has some highlights which are then translated back to an audiobook. The stories are nice bite-sized pieces that explore economics and money. There are anecdotes and examples illustrating various economic points, including those that appear somewhat counter-intuitive.