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: Yuval Noah Harari, "21 Lessons for the 21st Century", Jonathan Cape, 2018. This year, Yuval Noah Harari released his third book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century , which follows his bestsellers Sapiens  ( reviewed here ) and Homo Deus ( here ). If Sapiens  was about the past and Homo Deus was about the future, then 21 Lessons  is about the present. In essence, the book explores whether we can still understand ourselves and the world we have created, and whether we can maintain focus in this age of bewilderment. Naturally, I had to complete the trilogy. Harari states his purpose in the introduction: "In this book I want to zoom in on the here and now. My focus is on current affairs and on the immediate future of human societies. What is happening right now? What are today's greatest challenges and choices? What should we pay attention to? What should we teach our kids?" (pp. ix-x) The author's aim is to stimulate discussion about today...

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...