I like Glenn Beck but sometimes I don't like him for the same reason I dislike Jon Stewart. Most of my conservative friends don't like Jon Stewart because he is too liberal. I don't like him because he takes himself too seriously. If you are going to be an entertainer... entertain me but don't ask me to take you seriously. If you want to be taken seriously... then stop hiding behind humor and enter a serious dialogue. Glenn Beck isn't necessarily a humorist but he is firmly ensconced in the
author: Matt | posted @ Tuesday, July 27, 2010 10:03 PM | Feedback (0)
A W Tozer is an interesting person and I would encourage anyone picking up this book to do a little research on the man before reading. In The Pursuit of God Tozer explores what it means to build a personal and meaningful relationship with God. With flowing prose he explores not just what it means to have this relationship but why we should have it and how we can get there. In just a hundred pages he covers more ground than you might expect.
author: Matt | posted @ Friday, July 23, 2010 2:51 PM | Feedback (0)
I came across this book in a reference to former President Clinton. Apparently towards the end of his time in office this book came to his attention and upon reading it he began urging those around him to read the book. Robert Wright asserts that all of human history can be understood in terms of game theory. He builds on two very high level concepts from game theory: zero sum and non-zero sum games. His primary assertion is that throughout history, human interaction has by nature become mor
author: Matt | posted @ Monday, July 19, 2010 10:26 PM | Feedback (0)
Daniel Pink's Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us is a timely, practical and fairly well researched work that delves into the practical application of intrinsic motivation. Sprinkled with pop-culture references (TPS reports and Facebook) alongside the results of personal interviews with some well-known names (Deci and Csikszentmihalyi) the book is a quick and interesting read that pulls together a number of disparate ideas. I took a lot of notes in my read and this is just a sp
author: Matt | posted @ Monday, July 05, 2010 5:26 PM | Feedback (0)
A Geography of Time: The temporal misadventures of a social psychology is a delightful and fascinating read by Robert Levine. Levine, a professor of social psychology, takes the reader around the world examining how various cultures and people's tell, interpret and use their time. In one of the chapters he takes a short diversion from the trip to examine a brief history of time and the telling of time. When I picked up this book I wasn't sure what to think of it but I am very glad I took the
author: Matt | posted @ Sunday, July 04, 2010 2:31 PM | Feedback (0)
The Tea Party craze lately has been bringing Libertarian politics to the forefront and at the same time Objectivist philosophy has been bubbling up here and there across our national conscious. I have a number of acquaintances and colleagues who consider themselves followers of objectivist thinking and they have encouraged me (it didn't take much) to learn more about the topic. Accordingly I borrowed a copy of Ayn Rand's Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology and happened to get a copy of th
author: Matt | posted @ Sunday, July 04, 2010 1:43 PM | Feedback (0)
This book might seem out of character for my reading list, however history is a hobby of mine. This particular period of history fascinates me as I grew up with church and Christianity as a large part of my life. Understanding the day to day life during this time period in history makes the life of Christ more realistic. In The City in Roman Palestine, Daniel Sperber does an excellent job of using both archeology and the historical record of Jewish historians of the time to paint a very deta
author: Matt | posted @ Saturday, May 29, 2010 8:47 PM | Feedback (0)
Don Norman has a fascinating way of looking at the world. As with many of the thought leaders in design much of his work is academic in nature. One of the frustrations of my research in human computer interaction is finding work that is pragmatic. While Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things has a tremendous amount of valuable information, after reading it one wonders what practical purpose might be served. I suppose that makes sound like I am not smart enough to understand
author: Matt | posted @ Saturday, May 29, 2010 8:19 PM | Feedback (0)
Jef Raskin was an early influence at Apple and he is given credit for a number of things that came out of Apple during the early 1980's. His book The Humane Interface was his treatise on how human computer interaction should work. His ideas have gained traction in the thinking of many in the field today, however none of the products he designed after leaving Apple ever became commercial successes.
author: Matt | posted @ Saturday, May 29, 2010 8:01 PM | Feedback (0)
I intended to read this book before going to hear Greg Mortenson speak at my alma mater but I was glad that I heard him before I read the book. Hearing this man speak of his vision for the mountain people in Pakistan and Afghanistan gave me a different perspective in reading the book. I expected a heart-warming tale of humanitarian good deeds, but I wasn't expecting to come away with a new way of looking at the conflict in the middle east. Indeed at the end of reading Greg Mortenson's tale of
author: Matt | posted @ Saturday, May 29, 2010 7:36 PM | Feedback (0)
If you read many books about behavioral economics or cognitive psychology, you will come across concepts that Scott Plous covers in The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making. In about 300 pages, Plous covers so much ground that the book could easily be a textbook and yet it reads quickly and easily. Where many authors cover these topics with almost a sense of wonderment and amazement, Plous is pragmatic in both his presentation of the evidence and his analysis thereof. Because of the exha
author: Matt | posted @ Sunday, March 07, 2010 9:44 PM | Feedback (0)
Recently I read an article from the Journal of Information Architecture by Brigitte Kaltenbacher regarding the role of emotions in Human Computer Interaction research. She referenced Damasio's book, Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorry and the Feeling Brain and the idea intrigued me. Kaltenbacher's premise is that the human decision making process is highly influenced by emotion and therefore emotions and feelings cannot be ignored by the interaction designer. Antonio Damasio explores the connectio
author: Matt | posted @ Saturday, February 13, 2010 4:32 PM | Feedback (0)
Game Theory fascinates me even though I am not nearly a good enough mathematician to claim to be any good at the subject. Even so when I saw this book, Decision Making Using Game Theory, by Anthony Kelly, I decided to dive in and enjoy! While it is a bit technical at times, for the most part Dr. Kelly keeps the topic on a very practical level with all of his examples pulled from the business world. Even though the examples are simplified, they are not contrived. This is a great book for anyo
author: Matt | posted @ Saturday, January 30, 2010 10:38 AM | Feedback (0)
Ram Charan is an interesting character that intrigues me with his view of strategic management. I will confess that much of what I read in this realm is way above my head in terms of usefulness. I simply read his work as sort of a guilty pleasure because strategic management is fascinating to me. In Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty, Ram talks specifically about what companies need to do in light of the recent turmoil in the world's capital markets. The book dates itself but is
author: Matt | posted @ Saturday, January 16, 2010 8:24 PM | Feedback (0)
Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability is the result of Steve Krug sharing his expertise in a very controversial field. If you count up all the web designers in the world, that number would come close to the number of opinions on the One Right Way to design a web site. Krug addresses how to resolve these "religious debates" as well as how to take a common sense approach to web usability. He also details a great way to do some usability testing which he insists is an abs
author: Matt | posted @ Monday, January 04, 2010 11:15 AM | Feedback (0)
In The Non-Designer's Design Book, Robin Williams presents a succinct primer on how to get started doing good design. The thoughts laid out in the book are simple enough for someone with little formal training to compehend and yet sophisticated enough to launch a novice down the path of excellence.
author: Matt | posted @ Sunday, January 03, 2010 2:56 PM | Feedback (0)
Edward Tufte lays out a very comprehensive study of how to effectively display information in a visual format. Charts and graphs are a huge part of today's corporate communication medium and yet they are often malformed and fail to convey information properly. This is a great book for laying down some principles that can apply across technologies and medium and help to formulate high quality information communication. Due to the nature of this book, my notes here will be a very brief summary
author: Matt | posted @ Saturday, January 02, 2010 1:46 PM | Feedback (0)
Dan Ariely tells a fascinating story of pain at the beginning of his book, Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. As a youth he was involved in an accident that left 70% of his body badly burned. During his recovery he explains that he began to view the ordinary and everyday experiences that he used to experience as though he were an outside observer. He began to analyze the "why" behind daily decision making. This led him to an interest in the field of behaviora
author: Matt | posted @ Saturday, January 02, 2010 1:24 PM | Feedback (0)
Alfie Kohn doesn't like B.F. Skinner. At least he spends the first 180 or so pages of his book, Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise and Other Bribes, ranting against the basic elements of Skinner's writings on behaviorism. He derisively calls refers to "pop-behaviorism" throughout his book as the "Do this and you'll get that" mentality of getting what you want out of people. If you are want to read a somewhat narcisstic and lopsided discussion of Koh
author: Matt | posted @ Sunday, November 15, 2009 2:11 PM | Feedback (0)
Leonard Mlodinow takes us on a delightful journey through the fascinating history of probability and statistics. On the way he manages to sneak in a very practical explanation of the basics of the field. Mingling stories of Pascal, Fermat, Bayes and others with the Law of Large Numbers, Bayesian Probability and confidence levels, Mlodinow makes The Drunkard's Walk a coherant and entertaining read. He tops the book off with a very practical application of what chance and probability can mean t
author: Matt | posted @ Saturday, September 19, 2009 1:15 PM | Feedback (0)