Omne ignotum pro magnifico

Book Review: Siemon Scamell-Katz, "The Art of Shopping: How we shop and why we buy", LID Publishing, 2012. The title of this book is somewhat misleading, as it might lead one to think that the book is about how to shop  -- until one reads the subtitle and blurb on the back cover. The book is actually about the world of shopper research agencies and the methodologies they use to help retailers sell more. As someone who works in marketing, I find this a relevant and interesting topic, but I also think that people who normally care little about business can find some useful nuggets in The Art of Shopping . After all, "everybody is a shopper", as the back cover reads. That said, I have mixed feelings about this book. On the positive side, the book is an easy read both because of its length (under 200 pages) and its clear language. It is also occasionally funny, for example when the author Siemon Scamell-Katz writes "nobody has ever adequately explained to me...

Book Review: Elliot Aronson, "The Social Animal", Tenth Edition, Worth Publishers, 2008. This book has been on my to-read list for so long that I don't remember where I first became acquainted with it -- but it was probably Sparring Mind's list of "must-read psychology books" (where it takes the number one position). Anyway, I thought it would be nice to contrast Max Tegmark's Life 3.0 with something more "mundane", like a book about everyday social interactions. The Social Animal  is, for many intents and purposes, a textbook on social psychology. Despite being a more "mundane" topic than existential risk from AI or the end of liberal humanism , social psychology is by no means trivial -- it is connected to many of the facets of humanity that make us, well, human . Hence the title of the book, which also refers to a quote by Aristotle: "Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not a...

Book Review: Maria Konnikova, "The Confidence Game: The Psychology of the Con and Why We Fall for It Every Time", Canongate, 2016. When you find a book with an epigraph like this: How cheerfully he seems to grin, How neatly spreads his claws, And welcomes little fishes in With gently smiling jaws! -- Lewis Carroll, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" ...then you know it's going to be a cynical one. Over the past week-and-a-half, I've been reading this book by Maria Konnikova about con artists, scams, fraud and other forms of deception. And indeed, the author does seem cynical: she writes in the introduction that "Given the right cues, we're willing to go along with just about anything and put our confidence in just about anyone." The confidence game is at its core a game of storytelling; one in which we find ourselves complicit because we want to believe -- to believe in justice, fairness, meaning and certainty, and to believe ...