Aaron’s Comments (group member since Apr 08, 2012)

Aaron’s comments from the New Popular Science Books group.

Just finished reading Michael Lewis' new book Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt. Lewis reports on how Brad Katsuyama (a broker from RBC) uncovered a massive (and legal, for now) scam on Wall Street made possible by high-frequency trading. Katsuyama has now started a new type of stock exchange in New York (called the IEX--it opened in October, 2013) with the hopes of eliminating the scamming--and Lewis reports on the progress of the new stock exchange as well. This is an incredible story, and an incredible book that I predict will win the Pulitzer Prize. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2014/04/15...

Just finished reading the new book by Thomas Piketty called Le capital au XXIe siècle (Capital in the Twenty-First Century). Piketty explores the distribution of capital in advanced market economies, both from a theoretical and an historical vantage point. Having established that capital has come to be more and more concentrated since the 1980s (as well as why this is happening), Piketty predicts a return to the level of inequality in wealth seen at the end of the 19th century. At 800 pages chock full of data and astute analysis this book promises to be an important contribution to the great economic debate. A full executive summary is available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2014/04/04...

Just finished reading the new book by Michio Kaku called The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind. Kaku explores the advances that have occurred in neuroscience since the brain-imaging revolution of the 1990s; and also details the advances that are to come (including telepathy, telekinesis, uploading and downloading memories, and AI). It's a fascinating discussion of one of the final frontiers of science. I've written an executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2014/03/11...

Just finished the new book by Alex Pentland called Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread— The Lessons from a New Science. Pentland addresses how digital sensors and big data are revolutionizing the social sciences. This includes Pentland's own work, which focuses on the importance of social learning, and how creativity and productivity are generated in individuals, groups and cities. It's a fascinating look at an up-and-coming science. A full executive summary of the book is available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2014/02/25...

Just finished reading the new book by Mckenzie Funk called Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming. The book explores all the ways people are profiting off climate change (which partly helps explain why we're not doing much to stop it). A very interesting book on the most important environmental issue of our age. I've written a full executive summary available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2014/02/11...

Just finished reading the new book by Erik Brynjolfsson called The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies. The book charts the rise of digital technology and how it contributes greatly to economic productivity (but also how it contributes to the growing gap between the rich and the rest). Brynjolfsson also offers up some recommendations on how the increasing inequality of the second machine age may be mitigated. It's a very insightful look into digital technology and its consequences. I've written a full executive summary available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2014/01/28...

Just finished the new book by Dan Hurley called Smarter: The New Science of Building Brain Power. The book gets past the hype of the brain-boosting industry, and explores the actual science on which it is based. Many types of interventions are explored, from brain-training exercises and activities (including meditation), to physical exercise, to diet, pills and even zapping the brain with electrodes (a la transcranial direct-current stimulation, tDCS). A timely look at a very interesting topic. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2014/01/14...

Just finished reading the new book by Charles Montgomery called Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design. Montgomery takes us through the history of the modern city, and argues in favor of the new urbanist movement in design--which advocates moving away from suburban sprawl and towards mixed-use, multi-income communities; laced with parks and plazas of varying sizes; and tied together with transportation networks that reintroduce walking, cycling and public transport as real options. The book is fantastic, and a great introduction to the ideas of the new urbanists. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/12/17...

Just finished reading the new book by legendary biologist J. Craig Venter called Life at the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life. Venter takes us through the major discoveries and advances in biology (and especially genomics) since the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953--leading all the way up to the synthesizing of DNA, and the first synthetic life form. It's a fascinating story told by one of biology's most accomplished practitioners. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/12/03...

Just finished reading the new book by Howard G. Buffet called 40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World. Buffet draws on his 25+ years of humanitarian and philanthropy work (and 30+ years in farming) to detail what does and does not work in the effort to fight global poverty and hunger. This is a very enlightening look at the fight against hunger, and a must read for anyone interested in making the world a better place for everyone. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/11/19...

Just finished reading the new book by Uri Gneezy and John A. List called The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and The Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life. The authors have become famous for applying controlled field experiments to everything from education, to charity, to business, to healthy living, to discrimination etc. and in this book they update us on their experiments and results. The book is a fun and very interesting read. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/11/05...

Cheers,
Aaron

Just finished reading the new book by Malcolm Gladwell called David and Goliath. The book explores the curious nature of advantages and disadvantages and how each can (under circumstances) become its opposite. Gladwell gets bogged down in his anecdotes at times, and his arguments are occasionally overly-simplistic (as usual), but there’s plenty of interest here to keep you going. I’ve written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/10/22...

Just finished reading the new book by William Eggers called The Solution Revolution: How Business, Government, and Social Enterprises Are Teaming Up to Solve Society's Toughest Problems. The book explores how businesses have recently joined governments and non-profits in addressing public goods and social goals. It's an interesting discussion about an important and timely topic--though the reading experience leaves much to be desired. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/10/08...

Just finished reading the new book by Amanda Ripley called The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way. The book explores the education systems of 3 countries that perform very well on international tests: South Korea, Finland and Poland (with the aim of helping America find a way out of its education woes). Some very interesting insights here. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/09/12...

Just finished reading the new book by David Epstein called The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance. The book explores how genes and environment interact at every step of the way in the development of elite athletes. This is without a doubt one of the best books I've read all year, and I highly recommend it. I've written a full executive summary available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/08/21...

Cheers,
Aaron

Just finished reading the new book by Jeff Stibel called Breakpoint: Why the Web will Implode, Search will be Obsolete, and Everything Else you Need to Know about Technology is in Your Brain. The book is about networks, and how networks evolve; and it focuses on the internet (which is one enormous network). Stibel argues that the internet is still in the early phases of its evolution, and that based on how other similar networks evolve (such as the ant colony and the human brain), we can expect some big big changes out of the internet in the coming years (including the development of real intelligence and consciousness). This was an extremely interesting read. I've written a full executive summary available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/08/07...

Cheers,
Aaron

Just finished reading the new book by Ben Way called Jobocalypse: The End of Human Jobs and How Robots Will Replace Them. The book explores the present and future of robotics and its impact on the economy, and argues that automated technology will come to increasingly usurp jobs from us humans (as well as what we can do about this). It's a fun and very interesting read. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/07/24...

Cheers,
Aaron

Just finished reading the new book by Niall Ferguson called The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die. Ferguson argues that the stagnation of the West has to do with the degeneration of 4 of its major institutions: 1) Democracy; 2) Capitalism; 3) The Rule of Law; and 4) Civil Society. It's an interesting analysis of the mess the West is in. I've written a full executive summary of the book at http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/06/25...

Cheers,
Aaron

Just finished reading the new book by Adam Rutherford called Creation: How Science Is Reinventing Life Itself. The book looks at the latest research in genetics and focuses on 2 topics in particular: the quest to understand how life originated in the first place; and the burgeoning field of synthetic biology (the effort to turn genetic manipulation into an engineering science). The book is well-written and highly informative. I've written a full executive summary available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/07/10...

Cheers,
Aaron

Just finished the new book by Jaron Lanier called Who Owns the Future? The book focuses on the information economy, and argues that the Internet is creating a system of winners (the major Internet companies), and losers (the ordinary people who freely provide the content and data that is being used by the Internet companies to create mega-profits). In order to preserve a middle-class going forward--as the information economy comes to represent an ever greater proportion of the economy as a whole--Lanier argues we must monetize information, and pay ordinary people for the contributions they make to the Internet. An interesting idea. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/06/05...