The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination

The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination by Stuart A. Reid

Democratic Republic of the Congo had a rough start. The region was originally the Belgian King's private realm. It covered an area including many different ethnic groups. White Belgians helped build up the economy with western industrialization. However, the natives were for the most part left out. Only low-level service jobs were open to them. Eventually Belgium was encouraged to turn over power. Alas, things didn't go rail. Many people expected the benefits of the "good life" that the Belgians had without putting forth the effort. There were different people competing for power. Eventually voters selected a prime minister. Alas, things went downhill. The military revolted against their low pay and Belgian leadership. The leader also got caught in cold war machinations and internal conflict. The prime minister and president both relieved each other of their office. The CIA was concerned that the prime minister may be a Soviet tool and plotted his assassination. Eventually he was killed in a plausibly deniable way. A UN plane with the secretary general also crashed around the same time (most likely due to natural causes, but rumoured to have other factors involved.) A new strongman leader was installed and the country stagnated.

The book paints a compelling narrative. However, some of the key names sound similar, make it difficult to keep track of who is who. There is extensive coverage of the UN and the challenge of keeping legitimacy with many competing forces. The CIA plot doesn't come until the end.

Mona Lisa Vanishes

The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity by Nicholas Day

A century ago, a man walked out of the Louvre with the Mona Lisa. He had previously done contract work at the museum, and had simply hid in the museum after it closed and walked out with the painting. However, people didn't know that. They theorized all sorts of elaborate criminal operations (influenced by popular culture.) Many suspected an art thief (who was alas dead.) American collectors seemed to be likely purchaser. Alas it was much more mundane. The worker held onto it for a while. Then he tried to repatriate to Italy. It eventually made it back to Paris. The Mona Lisa ended up benefiting as the heist made the painting much more famous. The book concisely explores the history of the painting and the crime and the culture that lead to the societal response.

Distrust that Particular Flavor

These writings were primarily Gibson's articles for wired magazine. Many of them were written in the early days of the internet (even including the pre-web days.) He made some interesting observations, some of which seem to have come to fruit. In this selection, we get the raw articles, along with some of some present day commentary looking back at them. In some cases, he admits to getting things totally wrong. In other cases, he confesses to being somewhat of a "luddite" with regards to technology - but that is a good thing.

In addition to technology, there is also a focus on different societies, especially Japanese. Again, with some things he seems to admit to having gotten some things wrong. However, most of the descriptions are his personal feelings about places he likes.

While there are a couple clunkers in here, most of the writings are pretty good. The commentary helps everything to flow together well, making it a nice readable work.

How Fiction Works

Free Indirect Style. This is one of the key points of fiction, and is mentioned over and over. Unfortunately, I missed the part where he actually defined it.

D'oh!

This short work has a number of small chapters detailing various parts of fiction. Contrasting "classes" in the characters is an area that they author would like to see more of. We also seem to be continuing on the voyage of the Victorian novelists with "realism" playing a fairly dominant role in our society today. Some genres, like thrillers, abstract a few points of suspense that make novels good, while leaving out the "harmony" that makes them rich.

There are a number of small tidbits here written in a fairly accessible manner. It would make a good bathroom. It is tough to say whether it is best applied to the reader or the writer. Though the author does seem to hold "creative writing workshops" in disdain.

The Jungle

I had managed to avoid reading the Jungle through school. However, I had read plenty about it, about how it was an example of muckraking journalism that exposed the horrible conditions in meat-packing plants and the vile filth that has being passed off as meat. However, the actual novel was much different. Compared to modern "food" literature, like Fast Food Nation, this novel is rather tame. We hear about "sick" animals being passed off as meat, and second hand stories of workers becoming part of animal products. Now we have mad-cow diseased, E. coli and Salmonella, along with horrid conditions for immigrant laborers in the food-production industries. Hmm.. Guess things haven't changed much. But, at least the children of the jungle immigrants can now get fat at McDonalds while toiling in light-service jobs. The main focus was the struggle of an immigrant man in an oppressive system. He tries honest labor. His wife and child die. He tries the freedom of hoboing around the country. He tries being a party hack and a criminal. He even tries being a strike-breaker. No matter how much success he has, he is eventually beaten down. Finally, he stumbles in to a socialist meeting and finds his nirvana. This would make a nice pro-socialist ending, but the novel keeps going and rambles on and on about socialist ideology. And, then, socialism doesn't seem that good after all. Oops, maybe it would have been best to stop when ahead. The first part of the novel is fairly believable. However, as the novel goes on, the coincidences and chance happenings greatly stretch the limits of credibility. (He just happens to run in to a rich, drunk boy who invites him to dinner and gives him $100? And he runs in to a "budy" in prison that is willing to lead him on a life of crime?) With just a few of the events in story, it would have remained within the realm of the possible. But with so many, it strains the imagination.

How to Learn Any Language

Farber starts this book with an engaging history of his languaphillia. He fell in love with learning Latin - until he got to the grammar. That led him to learn Chinese, which he finally got to speak with WWII soldiers. Eventually he added more and more languages to his repertoire. He went through phases of intense language acquisition, and others of specific language avoidance. In this book, he attempts to give us the help that he wished he would have known before.

His primary bit of advice is "work". He cautions that no "learn-quick" shortcuts can be used to truly grasp a language. Instead, he recommends that you avail yourself of all resources available - grammars, dictionaries, dialogs, phrase books, etc. He outlines a basic approach:
1) Start with a grammar book, and slog through the first 5 lessons.
2) Get a newspaper in the target language, and pick the top article, making flashcards for every word you don't know (whether it is in your dictionary or not)
3) Continue studying the vocabulary and grammar along with other related tools.

He also stresses working on native-level pronunciation, even if you don't fully get it.

The approach is no easy way to learn a language, however, it does provide a balance between the "fun" parts of language acquisition and the "tedium." In the end, their is no substitute for work.

Also of interest, he provides some background on various languages and how easy they are for English speakers to learn. Some seemingly exotic languages like Indonesian are among the easiest to learn. Others like Finnish are more difficult to learn. As English speakers we actually have it somewhat difficult as many people are trying to learn our language. However, people can still be impressed by the effort to truly engage in learning other languages.

Empires of the World: A Language History of the World

The rise and fall of languages is often correlated with the rise and fall of empires; however, there are some interesting empires. Amaric was spoken by a large powerless group, yet it became a lingua-franca in the ancient middle east. On the other hand, the rise of Arabic was closely aligned with the rise of the Muslim empire. (However, it was primarily adopted in regions that already spoke Semitic languages.)

The stories of Chinese and Egyptian both have similar histories. Since they both had "pictographic" script rather than a phonetic alphabet, they were able to endure much longer than other languages. Even as the language was undergoing phonetic shift, the pictures could be the same. (Both sets of images that served as the impetus for neighbors to create their own phonetic alphabets.) They also both had fairly dense populations in a well-defined area.

The case of Sanskrit is much different. It spread throughout northern India, and its influence and Hindu religion were spread throughout south India. (Even though the languages were very different, they had a number of Sanskrit lone words.) The further influence was felt throughout southeast Asia, with strong language influence. (Including adoption of local alphabets based on the Devanagari script.)

Other languages have had varying "imperial" fates. Russia carved out a fast area. However, the Russian army tended to be very Russian, and a degree of autonomy was given to subject states. Many of the states dropped Russian once given independence. (However, in sparsely populated Siberia, Russian has maintained its strength.)

European imperial languages seemed to gain the most strength if they had colonizers attached. The "revolutions" in places such as the Americas were often lead by descendants of the original colonizers, rather than the earlier inhabitants.

There are also cases of people that build "empires" yet end up adopting the language of the people they conquer. (The Francs in Europe are a case in point, even though they sacked the Roman empire, they adopted the Latin language. However, they took this language to England, and eventually succumbed to the native tongue - though a plague may have helped out.)

This book is large and dense with many other details of languages. Some areas are extremely interesting. However, it can take a long time to plow through. There is also significant material overlap between this and the author's much more readable Last Lingua Franca.

The Vertical Farm

I read a recent article about an "internal" farm over in Europe and was hoping to find out more in this book. Unfortunately, all I got was a bit of Utopian Urban Justice. The author thinks that "vertical farms" will appear in blighted urban areas, providing abundant well-paying jobs, and driving up real estate values. Oh, and by the way, they will also help feed the world.

The vertical farms will also be architectural wonders (like the apple store on 5th avenue) and people will clamor for one in their neighborhood. They would provide high quality, tasty vegetables for the local neighborhood. The government would provide the seed money to get the research off the ground, but then they would magically appear. Since all pests are controlled, there will be no need for pesticides. They will save most of their water, and even be a depository for treated waste-water.

It is all find and dandy, except for a few major gaping holes:
1) Why would they chose to go in the middle of an urban area? These are in essence vegatable factories. The big suburban office parks seem like the logical locations. After all, those areas are cheaper, and provide for easier trucking.
2) Economies of scale. If a small 1-acre "21st-century greenhouse" can provide food for a neighborhood, why not make a huge monstrosity of a building? Then the produce can be trucked all around.
3) If these are all they are cracked up to be, entrepreneurs would be starting them up. Money is money. Oh they wont make money? Well, why bother? Since they are envisioned to be "totally organic" that should make it even easier to turn a profit.
4) Pest control is to be carried out by keeping the environment totally pure. But quality of the produce is to be enhanced by "stressing" them enough to produce enough taste and beneficial compounds. A few problems here. Can we really have a totally sterile environment? And do we want to? The issue of waste processing could also cause public concerns. "Outside" organic farmers could easily mount a smear campaign comparing "wholesome" outside produce to sterile produce grown with sewage.
5) Workers. Why are these expected to be nice jobs? Even if a vertical farm overcomes obstacles to create an urban farm, labor will be an issue. A conventional farm may get migrants working for a small fraction of what the urban workers would demand. The urban workers could more easily unionize and further drive up the labor cost. That's nice for them, but not so nice for the farm trying to compete with others. Could the system change? Sure. However, it will most likely be the established farms that finally decide the smaller transport costs and image can compensate for the extra urban labor costs.

As to the actual biological and chemical processes, this book doesn't have much to say. Waste can be treated. Water can saved. Solar power can be used to provide light to help "power" the plants. (Hmm, reductionism. Weren't we already supposed to have chemical vitamin compounds that eliminated the need for food?) The sterile environment and decontamination room keeps out pests. The devil is in the details. Unfortunately, the details are not this book's forte.

The Last Lingua Franca: English Until the Return of Babel

English is currently the lingua franca of the world, used as a common language of communication. How did it get to be that way, and why English? And will it be "different" than previous lingua-francas?

Through history, there have been a number of languages used as lingua-francas. Some have been the language of imperial rulers. Others have been trade languages. Occasionally a dominating people uses a different language as the common one for communication (such as the Turks using Persian.)

There is also a difference between a second language used for communication and a native language learned at home. Second languages tend to be more stable, while first languages are subject to frequent innovation. Latin gave rise to the many Romance languages in relatively recent history. Even more recently, we have documentation of the rapid diversification of native American "common" languages under the Spanish regimes.

There are a number of reasons why languages become lingua francas, and a number of reasons why they fall. Sometimes policy causes them to fall away. Other times, they simply fall away due to lack of interest. Would English be able to maintain its global status without the similar status of the United States? Some languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, have huge numbers of speakers, but very little use outside of their native populations. (I've known Chinese or Indian people that communicate in English as their "common language".)

The book starts out fast, though in the middle it gets a little bogged down in technical details. (Some lingua-francas in central Asia still escape me.) At then end, it breaks in to modern technology and machine translation. He argues that advanced automated translation will allow everybody to communicate in their own language, thus eliminating the need for lingua francas. However, he also mentions the example of a European Union study on machine translation where the romance-language speakers had radical different feelings of the success than the non-Romance speakers? Why? Because a single word had a different connotation when translated from the French to English. If this can be the case, how can we expect people to communicate in their own, different languages?

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Flow posits a theory of "optimal experience". If we spend time enjoying what we are doing, we can enter "flow". During flow, time moves at variable speed. Sometimes making short events seem to take a long time (as in a difficult dancing maneuver) Other times, a long period of time can seem to fly by as we are deeply involved in the process.

This is part of the enjoyment we get from life. The author distinguishes enjoyment from "pleasure". Enjoyment is a more lasting happiness, while pleasure is fleeting. We can achieve the more enjoyment when we "remove" ourselves from our internal focus and put a greater focus on others. People can have enjoyment in life regardless of their material well being. (And at times, adversity can even be the impetus that leads to the greater happiness.)

Many of the principles outlined in the book are similar to standard Christian teachings, explained in scientific terms.

I initial was referred to this book by some of Malcolm Gladwell's essays. Unfortunately, Gladwell already covered many of the key points in the book, leaving
very little "new" insights that I had not yet read. The book is still good. It is also interesting to read about the research methods, such as using pagers and diaries to get around "recall" bias of studies.

Traffic

Traffic provides an interesting synthesis of a wide variety of research on "traffic". There are a number of great insights in the book. The key takeaway, however, is that "traffic" is a "social activity", though it is often treated as an engineering problem. If automobiles are made more safe, people will probably just use the safety to kill others instead of themselves. If traffic is made to move faster, people will often use the speed premium to drive further. (People could never have commuted 200 miles a day on foot. However, with cars, some people now do it.)

Traffic problems also date back to ancient times, with Rome suffering from traffic chariot congestion a few millennia ago. (They eventually outlawed daytime traffic, making it difficult for Romans to sleep at night - due to all the nighttime traffic.) One of the issues with traffic today, especially in America, is that it focuses almost exclusively on automobile traffic (with pedestrians viewed as "impediments"). This focus leads to most trips being taken in automobile, which ends up leading to congestion and slower travel times. Even in places like Manhattan where the overwhelming majority of trips are on foot, the majority of the traffic space and resources are devoted to automobiles - with even the signals timed to benefit cars instead of pedestrians.

There is also an interesting comparison of traffic fatalities across nations. Wealthier, more established nations tend to have lower fatality rates. However, this tends to be more a result of the nations being less corrupt. A more corrupt wealthy nation will tend to have a much higher rate than a less corrupt one. Perhaps it is the decrease in corruption associated with wealth that really leads to the lower fatality rate.

The traffic culture also causes some interesting behavior. Drivers in the US will often speed down a road, but stop at a red light - even if no cars are anywhere in sight. Both activities are illegal, but when is considered acceptable, while the other is not. Perception also plays in to the peculiar sentiments and activities. People perceive SUVs as being safer. Yet, SUVs are statistically more dangerous. Is it the personal control that causes this? And while people are willing to take away personal liberties to fight the minor threat of terrorism, they are not willing to do so to fight the much larger threat of automobile crashes.

The author also does a good job of picking apart statistics and our view of them. There are plenty of well sighted studies that come to conclusions after aggregating accident data. However, looking at the data from a different perspective can produce the opposite results. For example, safety data seems to say that a wide road with large buffer zone between the road and buildings is safer. Yet analysis of individual roads shows the narrower sections with buildings nearer to the road have fewer crashes - even though both carry similar traffic volumes. It seems that people often consume the added safety. Perhaps the Dutch idea of integrating roads with human space and stripping away signs really is the way to go.

This book is one of the most objective views of the "traffic" issue. It picks apart at much of the "received" wisdom, yet doesn't attempt to force a specific solution on it. After all, most people would love for everyone else to take transit. They want their street to be a quiet tree-lined road, while the free-flowing super expressway sits just out of earshot.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

This book gained plenty of notoriety when an excerpt was published in the Wall Street Journal. This excerpt seemed to make its way around every parenting community, often with signs of disgust with a parenting style that seemed to border on child abuse. The book, however, is much more balanced than the excerpt would have you believe.

The author is second generation Chinese. She was raised in America in a very Chinese style by her Chinese immigrant parents. She noted that first generation immigrants tend to struggle to obtain success that their children can build upon. Their children, however, tend to slack off, leaving the third generation not achieving as much as their ancestors. She is determined not to let that happen to her children. Thus, she chooses to raise them in a very strict Chinese fashion.

She lives in an area with a small Chinese population. She is also married to a non-Chinese Jew. Thus, she tends to overcompensate in the strictness of her Chinese parenting. She demands hours per day of studying and practicing musical instruments. She demands success in everything, even down to the quality of the birthday cards that her children make for their parents. Social activities for the children are seriously limited so that they can focus on their achievements. She pushes them to great heights, and doesn't accept "no" or "I don't want to" as an answer. Her first daughter thrives in this regime. Her second daughter, however, gives her trouble.

While her second daughter ends up following most of the prescribed routines, she does so somewhat reluctantly. Eventually, while on vacation in Russia, she violently rebels. (Good thing this wasn't Nebraska or child services would have been called in.) The author relents and lets the daughter stop devoting so much time to violin. The daughter takes up tennis, and excels there. She credits the strong drive and worth ethic that her mother instilled.

One key insight she has is that tasks become "fun" only after you have devoted enough time to become good at it. Parents that let children give up too soon deprive them of the chance to get good enough to enjoy the activity.

I wonder how different the book would have been if the author had lived in Cupertino instead of New Haven. In Cupertino, Chinese-style parenting is the norm, while "western-style" parenting is the oddity. Would she have tried to out-Chinese the Chinese parents? Or would the greater community enabled her to become more complacent (or even more "western") in her parenting style. Perhaps we can have a follow up of somebody raising a child the "western way" in Cupertino.

This Book is Overdue!

The author likes librarians. She finds a way to relate librarians to her social life. I'm sure she had fun writing this book, but it didn't provide much in content. Perhaps the best insight is that librarians are still useful because they are really good at using Google and commercial databases.

The BlackSwan: The Impact of the Highly Improbably

Black Swans are unexpected occurrences that disrupt predicted outcomes. Though seeing one-thousand white swans does not disprove the existence of black swans, a single black swan can prove their existence.

This book is filled with examples of the human tendency to think they know more than they do and fail to expect the unexpected. People tend to look at data and events that confirm their expectations rather than seeking for ones that disprove it. This is exacerbated when the losers drop out. (Thus gamblers seem to have "beginners' luck" because lucky beginners are most likely to continue.) While "rules" may provide insight, breaking the rules is required for success. In hindsight, we can often create "rules" to predict improbably events (like the rise of the internet or Microsoft.) However, rarely can we accurately predict them in the future. (And when we do, it tends to be due to dumb luck.)

The arguments are good. However, they seem to bounce around, often arguing opposite points from different angles. (I guess this is par for the course for a book on highly impactful improbabilities.) The author does tend to ramble on, making this a good target for a "condensed book." His tone also appears very condescending. While he stresses the importance of not getting too involved with minutia and our own knowledge, he comes across as perhaps too confident in his own knowledge. He tends to go too overboard in defense of randomness. While the random events may be the most influential, without some degree of predictability, there would be little chance for the serendipitous events to occur. (If we knew we would know something in the future, then we would already "know" the event happened.)

He spends some time criticizing the European/French elite intellectual establishment, then proceeds to quote various obscure intellectuals. (Perhaps he does not realize that he is more closely associated with the establishment than he thinks.)

The strongest attacks, however, are saved for economists and statisticians and their Gaussian normal distributions. While normal distributions may model many theoretical natural conditions, it has significant problems in the real world. He has much more respect for Mandelbrot's fractal analysis. Modern "portfolio theory" is heavily dependent on the Gaussian statistics and thus susceptible to uncertainties. His attacks are strong and convincing. However, he appears to go overboard. While he acknowledges that statistics can be used to managed the "closed" situations of Casinos, he doesn't acknowledge that financial markets may have some aspects of the controlled casinos. Just as a casino can hit unexpected events (such as a tiger mauling or a disgruntled former employee), the financial markets can have unexpected events occur. Does this justify throwing out the whole statistical world?

However, even this refutation comes with a caveat. Trying to assume a belief set as a package is a dangerous proposition. Why do philosophers doubt their mere existence, but trust their retirement money to portfolio theorists. Why do some doubt religion, but put faith in financial hocus pocus? In the end, he provides his own refutation. Everybody is their own black swan. They do wild unexpected things that make them who they are. Perhaps one of these crazy things is to trust economists.

Power

Many people say they want power, yet when it comes down to it, they shy away from the hard things that need to be done. This book comes across as a modern version of The Prince providing blunt plans to rise up the corporate ranks and achieve power. Some people may have a head start in having the skills needed to obtain power. However, anyone can develop them with sufficient effort.

Most people are not willing to put forth the effort. It is easier to make excuses and retreat in a hole than to make progress and actually learn from past mistakes. A positive attitude and flattery can be beneficial in winning influence. It is also important to focus effort where it is needed most. Performance can help, but is really only a small part of what is needed. Following the "book" advice of those successfully in power may not be useful - they are likely to gloss over the "dirty" tasks that had to be done to rise to power, while remembering.

This book does not present "easy" or "comfortable" paths to power. Instead it stresses hard work and learning from mistakes. Interpersonal relationships are also of key importance. Asking for things can provide a great benefit - and people tend to be more willing to give than we are to ask. You also have to be noticed to have any hope at achieving power. There are many ways to do this, including breaking the rules and taking on small but critical tasks.

While most of the book concerns the steps needed to obtain power, the end adds chapters on power's pitfalls and how to maintain power. Power can result in some loss of schedule autonomy and privacy. It can also require a great deal of effort and become like a drug (with associated withdrawal symptoms.) Once in power, many people will be after your position of power. You must be constantly vigilant to possible threats as well as diligent to uncover the truth. (Many people will only say what they think the person in power wants to hear.)

The roll of organizational politics and the quest for power is even viewed as a benefit within organizations. Without these internal struggles, organizations would grow stale and not be as receptive to new ideas. People need to take the motivation to obtain power to be a positive influence, rather than whine and resign themselves to a position of little influence. While obtaining power does require effort, there are benefits (even health benefits) in requiring organizational power, whether in corporations or other areas.

The book provides plenty of examples of how people in various situations positively (or negatively) carried out the quest and manifestation of power. The biggest fault in these was the lack of completeness. The author provided brief snippets, but did not tell complete stories, leading me to Google more details on people such as Jeffery Sonnenfield. Some of the best anecdotes were the contrasting ones - such as the comparison of a Oliver North and a Stanford president testifying before congress. Even though both were appearing due to negative events, North parlayed his self-assured appearance on to a future career. The Stanford president's academic answers lead to his downfall.

The message of this book can be summed up with the Nike slogan "Just Do It". The power is there for those who want it. If they take the effort and don't let the power go to their head, they can have a positive impact on themselves and society.

The Man Who Lied to His Laptop

People interact with computers in a way similar to how the interact with other humans. People will return favors to computers and behave "humanly" to computers, even while denying they are doing so.

A few interesting studies presented:

• Americans will reciprocate to a helpful computer, helping it out after it helped them; however, they will not help out another computer.
  
• Japanese will reciprocate to a computer family. If a MAC helps them, they will help all Macs
  
• If a computer is part of somebody's team, they will favor its input over a non-team member
  
• People are much more willing to volunteer information to a computer if they computer first volunteers information to them
  
• People favor a computer that follows expected stereotypes. A male voice is trusted more in physics discussions, while a female voice is trusted more for relationship discussions. Inappropriate accents (such as an Asian face with an Australian accent) are treated poorly.
  
• People liked a computer that flattered them; while they respected one that criticized others
  

Computers turned out to be a great model for human behavior because they were able to invariably model the desired behavior. People would treat the computer's behavior similar to how they would treat humans in similar situations.

From this, attributes of human activity were determined. People love to be flattered. People don't like to be criticized. They also don't like people that criticize others. However, they think people that criticize are smarter. People respect and trust people with whom they have a common bond. They are also able to pick up on differences between verbal and nonverbal behavior, and are very put off by it.

In all, it is a very good book analyzing the subconscious social behavior of the human animal.

This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly

This book would have made a good academic paper. It does not make a good popular economics book. It spends forever explaining how it got its data, how it analyzed it, what other people did, and what they missed. This would be a nice few pages in an academic paper. But as book chapters, they get very old.

The book is also very repetitive. The authors explain what they are about to do, they explain how they did it, then they recap their explanations. Then in another chapter, they explain it again, just in case you skipped an earlier chapter.

The central point is that bank panics and government defaults have also happened and likely will continue. Often they occur when governments and others overextend themselves in boom times, thinking that this time is different. Governments often default out of convenience rather than necessity. They can also use tools like inflation and other currency debasement to reduce the debt.

These many chapters are primarily lead in for the brief final chapter on the current financial crisis, the real-estate bubble induced "great contraction". This is shown to be a global contraction with many of the similar characteristics of other crises. The authors make pains to point out that all the signs were similar to previous panics (including people adamant that "this time is different"). However, even this knowledge is not useful if politicians are not willing to act on it. (And since acting would usually involve breaking a big boom, they are reluctant to do so.)

Summarize the last chapter, and you could have a good paper, using ample data to show that this time is not different. Alas, this gem is hidden under 20 times its weight of repetitive blather.

Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity

This is a compilation, primarily of "journalist" articles before, during and after major financial crises of the past few decades. Some of the articles included are well written and insightful, while others border on garbage. The intention of the book is good. However, it doesn't quite seem to carry out the goal. Since the essays differ significantly in tone and source, it is difficult to get a coherent picture of the true nature of the events and the opinion surrounding them.

The Great Crash 1929

This is a very readable history of the 1929 stock market crash. It provides the background of the crash, with the market's runup, and the gradual slump before the big crash day. It also carries on with the gyrations and false recoveries that happened shortly thereafter. He identifies s number of factors, including opaque investment trusts, extreme leverage, and self-investment as causes. These were all amplified by the boom that people thought would never end. In the end, it set the template for a crash similar to others that we have seen since. This is one of the better books on financial panics.

Drive

Internal desire and creativity is motivating. For jobs that require some independent thought it is best to give people the freedom to carry out things they see fit. For these tasks, giving external incentives could backfire. (A case in point is the artistic value of commissioned artwork.) Traditional incentives are, however, still valuable for repetitive tedious tasks.

The book presents a valid point and advocates a new "motivation 3.0" methodology to help increase motivation. However, the book also rambles on for too long, and could easily present the same content in a short essay. There are some good examples (such as Best Buy's schedule-less work environment.) However, even these examples seem to be repeated from different angles. The author also seems to be a little too serious about himself and his topic.

Creative freedom is highly motivating. If the base level of compensation is appropriate, the better position would allow people to thrive and productivity to increase. This does not seem like groundbreaking material. Basic corporate environments have been moving in this direction for some time. About 20% of the book does a good job of presenting the background of motivation theory and the reasons for adopting the creative motivation in our modern society. The remaining 80% is repetitive filler.