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The Most Important Books I Read Last Year in 2012 (MIBIRLY 2012)

By on January 8, 2013 in Recommended Reading, Ruminations

It’s that time of year again!  My 2nd Annual (hopefully) down and dirty reviews of the Most Important Books I Read Last Year in 2012. Like last year, I spent most of the summer biking to lovely places to sit and read, and yet again, I usually found myself reading non-fiction. Although I did manage to get in the first and second installments of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead novels, [easyazon-link asin=”B004VMV49Y” locale=”us”]The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor[/easyazon-link] and [easyazon-link asin=”B007RMYDMK” locale=”us”]The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury[/easyazon-link]. While I loved both of those (I’m a pretty big TWD fan), my annual review of the Most Important Books I Read has a different purpose (see the MIBIRLY 2011 for last year’s reviews). Best, favorite, most important… all very different meanings. I wouldn’t claim that novels about zombies are important (though there is much to be learned and discussed from a philosophical perspective about survival and the evolution and then breakdown of culture/society), but the books that made my list this year are books I think should be read by every student of the world. These books expanded my understanding of how the world and how humans work in some way. They dispel conventional wisdom, and use science as their foundations to build a more complete or changed view of human nature. My reviews won’t be lengthy because I’d rather you see this list and then go and read these fabulous books for yourself! I realize that most of these choices are not new releases. That they were not all published last year makes them no less important.  I hope you enjoy and more importantly, that you check one out!

 

[easyazon-image align=”left” asin=”0374275637″ locale=”us” height=”110″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41OYtkxKAoL._SL110_.jpg” width=”74″][easyazon-link asin=”B00555X8OA” locale=”us”]Thinking, Fast and Slow[/easyazon-link] by Daniel Kahneman

This book should be a standard among anyone in any analytical profession. Kahneman is a psychologist who earned the Nobel Prize in Economics. His brilliance shines through in the density of the book which illustrates the two basic ways that all human beings, regardless of intelligence level, think: Fast and Slow. Our “Fast” thinking can be best explained by thinking of our intuition, or muscle memory types of thinking. We make quick analytical judgments that take little effort. This type of thinking kept us alive while being chased by the myriad of predators on the African plains. In many ways this thinking is astonishing, but it fails us when we use it to make conclusions that require our Slow thinking drive. Slow thinking is the kind of thinking we use to solve complex mathematical equations. Its hard. It takes energy. We can only do it for short periods of time before it drains us. Kahneman illustrates the dangerous outcomes that can occur when we substitute our Fast Thinking for tasks that require Slow Thinking. And he highlights that we do this far more often than we should, even when (or especially when) we consider ourselves expert in an area. Making decisions based on intuition isn’t always bad. If you’re driving on the highway and a car swerves into your lane, it’s best if you allow your Fast Thinking brain to kick in and swerve out of the way. But if you’re drafting economic, scientific, military, intelligence, financial, etc etc etc… policies that have wide impacts, using your Fast Brain is about as useful as allowing a monkey to conduct analysis. As an analyst myself, I see lazy thinking all the time. Until we understand the strengths and weaknesses in how our brains work, we’ll continue making analytical errors that have grave impacts on how we live together in society.

 

[easyazon-image align=”left” asin=”B000QCTNIM” locale=”us” height=”110″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/416%2BaMQs3tL._SL110_.jpg” width=”71″][easyazon-link asin=”B000QCTNIM” locale=”us”]The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature[/easyazon-link] by Steven Pinker

One think I love about Steven Pinker… he is not afraid to stare conventional wisdom in the face and tell it to go away. And he has the evidence to prove it. The Blank Slate aims to shove aside decades, if not centuries, of conventional wisdom that has told us we all begin as a blank slate with no preconceived biases, ways of thinking and behaviors. Our environment alone shapes who we are. It is society that is the evil influence, and must be fixed. Through his understanding of psychology, linguistics, history, and other sciences, Pinker shows how simplistic that view is and how much it can harm progress in understanding human nature. He commonly cites twin studies to show how much evidence there is that genetics shapes us the most, then shared environment, then unique environment. If you want a more nuanced look at why we behave the way we behave, what the gaps in our understanding are, and why it matters to know the truth, this is a great read. If you want to continue to blame all our ills on the nebulous, evil “society” or “bad parenting” or even 100% on genetics, then don’t. You’ll be disappointed to learn the truth shaded in grays, that we have much more to learn, but that we know more than what we’ve been taught in anecdotal life lessons.

 

[easyazon-image align=”left” asin=”B000VDUWMC” locale=”us” height=”110″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516CtJiKwwL._SL110_.jpg” width=”82″][easyazon-link asin=”B000VDUWMC” locale=”us”]Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies[/easyazon-link] by Jared Diamond

I don’t like to list any book on my list above the others. This is why I don’t put them into any particular order, however, if I had a gun to my head and were forced to choose one book to read the entire year, this would be it. It’s dense. Filled with details from just about every niche in science, all to prove (convincingly) how all humans from all societies are fundamentally able to achieve great things, but that the balance of power from the domestication of plants and animals to the present is shaped almost entirely by environment. Some cultures rolled the dice and ended up in the fertile crescent while others ended up in mostly infertile, barren Australia. His well told story amazingly and clearly proves that through science, the humanities can be better understood and tested. All humans have essentially the same genetic tools and capabilities (our differences are fewer than those of different breeds of dogs). Race is officially an antiquated concept that needs to stay forever on the bottom of the rubbish pile of ideas. That doesn’t mean some societies haven’t adapted better than others. Some have, but often those adaptions were shaped by environment rather than some inherent superiority of the people.

Other lessons I took away from this amazing book filled with too many lessons to list in a short review are that free markets and more bottom up (instead of strict top down) control and planning are the best way to improve the lives of large societies. It’s not necessity that is the mother of invention. It is sheer numbers allowing greater specialization and freedom for curious minds to wander and then share their ideas with the masses. Closed societies never learn as much as open ones. And the federal system is better than a one size fits all strong central government. It’s not in any way Diamond’s central theme, but through his ridiculous quantities of evidence and his amazing ability to synthesize disparate data, that conclusion rings loud and clear. Don’t believe me? Read this book!

 

[easyazon-image align=”left” asin=”B006IDG2T6″ locale=”us” height=”110″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41mPcj7zKCL._SL110_.jpg” width=”78″][easyazon-link asin=”B006IDG2T6″ locale=”us”]Free Will[/easyazon-link] by Sam Harris

I wish I could write as clearly, eloquently, and intelligently as Sam Harris. Last year, his brilliant The Moral Landscape made my “Most Important” list. While Free Will doesn’t quite live up to that standard, it is an important compendium or follow-up to the ideas brought forth in it. Harris’ background as neuroscientist is on full display in Free Will. The question “Do humans have free will or are we shaped by destiny” is as old as philosophy itself. In America, a country dominated by Judeo-Christian/Western ideals, it is almost a foregone conclusion that humans have free will and the ability to 100% shape their own future. The influence is seen in our work ethic and in our judicial system. Should we always be held responsible for our actions? If we have free will, then the answer is a resounding yes. If we don’t, its more complicated. In a surprisingly short book, Harris is able to prove through recent breakthroughs in neuroscience how people will act before they consciously think about acting. He doesn’t go so far as to say that we are not responsible for our actions. His analysis and conclusions are far more nuanced than his critics will likely give him credit for being, but he does raise groundbreaking and serious questions about the way we view crime and punishment and whether or not people deserve second chances. Why do we choose to act the way we act? And can we do anything about it? Harris will make you re-think what you’ve always believed the answers to those questions are without claiming he has the answers himself.

 

Caveat:  I wrote some of these reviews many months after I read the book because I did not have my act together at the time I finished it. Apologies for any minor errors, but please let me know if you find any!

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The Five Most Important Books I Read in 2011

By on February 29, 2012 in Recommended Reading, Ruminations

Before getting too deep into 2012 (ok, we’re a little deep, but I started drafting this a month ago), I wanted to make sure I tell you about some of the most important books I read during 2011, the same year I got a Kindle!

I read many great books as a result of that simple piece of technology and a commitment I made to myself to devote time reading each week.  Reading became more of a therapeutic meditation time for me last year than ever before, especially on beautiful summer weekends where I would bike ride and read by the several small lakes near my house.   I hope to make book reviews a regular part of this blog, since they’re an important part of my path of life.

So, while many books I read last year were fantastic, there were a handful that stuck out as not only enjoyable, but important.  Important, as in, every human should read them, without exception.  Not all of them were written last year, but last year is when I got the chance to read them.  Here are the five books (not in order of importance, but more in order of suggested reading), and some of my brief thoughts about each one:

1)     [easyazon-link asin=”0805091254″ locale=”us”]The Believing Brain, by Michael Shermer[/easyazon-link]

2)     [easyazon-link asin=”1846942721″ locale=”us”]The Religion Virus, by Craig A. James[/easyazon-link]

3)     [easyazon-link asin=”0060859512″ locale=”us”]Misquoting Jesus, by Bart Ehrman[/easyazon-link]

4)     [easyazon-link asin=”B006W3YQTK” locale=”us”]The Moral Landscape, by Sam Harris[/easyazon-link]

5)     [easyazon-link asin=”B005N0KL5G” locale=”us”]Lying, by Sam Harris[/easyazon-link]

 

The Believing Brain, by Michael Shermer simply and clearly explains how humans’ propensity for believing in superstition is driven by an evolutionary need to make quick decisions or end up as food, and how not believing in superstition was probably weeded out of our ancestors.  His story of an early primate who hears a rustling in the high grass having to make a decision about whether he hears a predator or just the wind is a pure genius, yet its a simple way of explaining why we see shadow monsters in the night.  Understanding this evolutionary ingrained intuition is the first step for humanity in moving past basing our decisions and societal structures on that false “patternicty,” as Shermer defines it. People believe their own brains far more than they should, and that has gotten us into a lot of trouble over the millennia.  Shermer nicely sets the foundation to understanding how all man-made myth and superstitions came to be.

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The Religion Virus, by Craig A. James is the next step beyond The Believing Brain, taking why we’re prone to superstition into the reason why religion continues to this day, despite our development of the scientific method, and virtual disproof of most religions that exist today.  Beginning with the history of Yahweh, the God of the Israelites who would develop into the “all powerful” god Jews, Christians and Muslims know today, and then explaining how the meme’s — or stories — of religion stuck with each generation and evolved just as a virus, (or a good joke), does.  James also explains how animism turned into pantheism then to monotheism.  This book erased any doubt I may have had about the historical evolution of the idea of gods and god and did so with personal reflections, historical fact, wonderful metaphors, and brutal clarity.  With my own religious background being that of a Christian, now more than ever I am confounded by my former believing self for not seeing how the god of the old testament is clearly not the god of Christianity.  And if that is true, what among the Abrahamic religions is there to believe in?  Thank goodness, my answer is “nothing supernatural.”

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Misquoting Jesus, by Bart D. Ehrman, dives into the specifics of one of those religious meme’s — the spread of Christianity, and specifically, how the books of the New Testament were written, and altered by regular humans, each with their very human agenda’s, biases, and flaws.  Ehrman explains that there are more mistakes — whether by intention or inattention — than there are words in the New Testament!  Most people know that the books of the new testament were written starting around 30 years after the death of Jesus Christ, and none of the books were written by people who ever had met Jesus, but what’s more astonishing is the idea that the earliest known texts contain more errors and discrepancies than the later versions, primarily because earlier scribes who would hand copy texts were untrained laymen, members of their congregations copying texts in their spare time, while later as Christianity spread, scribes were professional and devoted to accuracy.  Mis-quoting Jesus puts into plain words how the new testament contradicts itself in profound and important ways, and how biblical scholars, including clergy, have known this for at least a couple of centuries, but do not teach these well accepted understandings to the masses.  Beyond the errors, Ehrman outlines the different variations of early Christianity, and how each sect’s disputes with each other and their pursuit of converts impacted what eventually became the winning doctrine, and that the winner may not have been close to what Jesus’ mission actually was about. He proves that this is not some conspiracy theory from modern scientists, but historically supported concepts. The bible does contain significant flaws, and anyone believing current Christian doctrine does so while ignoring truths that in virtually every other area of human study would cause most people to dismiss their devotion to flawed thinking and ideas.

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The Moral Landscape, by Sam Harris, is by far the most important book I’ve ever read in my life.  As a former Christian, one of the things that pained and concerned me as I gravitated towards atheism was how to justify morality without God. I knew there were right and wrong answers, and that misery should be avoided and happiness should be increased, but I couldn’t articulate for myself or my Christian friends how to convey that morality can exist without a higher power dictating what the rules are.  Enter Sam Harris and BAM!  Everything was clear.  Harris doesn’t spend time detailing what behaviors are good or bad, but his main thesis is that there are one or more right ways to live and one or more wrong ways to live.  The right ways are those that maximize human well-being, and the wrong ways are those leading to human misery.  He likens these ways to peaks and valleys on a landscape.  There could be multiple high peaks and multiple routes to take to get to them, just as there are for the valleys.  There doesn’t have to be one right way to live, but Harris takes it a step further to say that morality can be scientifically understood and studied, at least to a point.  Right and wrong can be objective, even if studied through subjective data gathering methods.  There are wrong and right answers to our questions of well-being, whether or not we can ever know them.  It is on this point that I believe he loses many people, but why that is is a mystery to me.  He likens the concept to birds in flight.  Right now, there are a specific, finite number of birds in flight on earth.  There is a right answer to that question.  Whether or not we can know the answer (we can’t), does not change the fact that a specific, correct answer exists.  So it goes with morality, maybe.  Whether we can definitively know the answer does not mean we cannot study the question scientifically.  Everyone knows there is human happiness and there is human suffering. Sometimes it’s difficult to maximize happiness, without causing some suffering.  That is the difficulty of these questions, but that doesn’t mean we should forfeit that responsibility to a deity that makes it his business to watch us suffer rather than clarify such important questions for us.  If Harris left me with one idea, it’s that the single most important goal of our species should be to maximize (all) human well-being and minimize (all) human suffering.  And that responsibility rests within each of us, not with “god.”

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Lying, by Sam Harris and Anika Harris is a lovely conceptual footnote to The Moral Landscape, though not at all a sequel.  It is a short essay more than a book, so you have no excuse to not read it.  It will take you an hour max.  While I’m not sure I completely agree with the thesis, no book has stirred my thinking on a deeply personal level like this one did.  I previously believed that there are times when lying is ok (like not wanting to hurt someone’s feelings).  After reading “Lying” I’m not so sure anymore.  Harris makes a compelling argument for why lying is never good because every single lie erodes the fabric of trust between those involved. Eventually that trust leads to less deep relationships, and eventually all kinds of societal ills.  While not lying may be hard, and even uncomfortable (“no, I never wear that sweater you got me for Christmas, grandma, because its hiddeous.”), it is nonetheless pivotal to human growth and a better society, and better world to try.

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So, there you have it… My list of the most important books I read during 2011.  They took me on a journey of human historical, psychological, and ethical understanding that I wanted to share with you in the hopes that you might have a similar experience and chance to grow as a result.  These authors and their ideas certainly helped me take a few steps closer to being the person I want to be, and part of a society I want to live in.  Since I cannot come close to doing their books justice, I suggest you let them tell you in their own words what they have to say.  Check them out!

[easyazon-image align=”undefined” asin=”B004GHN26W” locale=”us” height=”160″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FL9CmjpLL._SL160_.jpg” width=”106″] [easyazon-image align=”none” asin=”B0046A9JMA” locale=”us” height=”160″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51dstvLqHAL._SL160_.jpg” width=”103″] [easyazon-image align=”center” asin=”B000SEGJF8″ locale=”us” height=”160″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/512kDCXRwJL._SL160_.jpg” width=”106″] [easyazon-image align=”center” asin=”B003V1WT72″ locale=”us” height=”160″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519-RISqkmL._SL160_.jpg” width=”104″] [easyazon-image align=”center” asin=”B005N0KL5G” locale=”us” height=”160″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31BX0aEcV%2BL._SL160_.jpg” width=”130″]

 

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