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haagedoorn's reviews
303 reviews
Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty by Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo
4.0
An interesting, more technical read on the basic economics that drive development. The authors cover a wide spectrum of topics, with two over-arching themes ''Private Lives'' and ''Institutions. The former focuses primarily on the personal experience of the world's poor (what are their motivations? Their expectations? Their reasoning when it comes to food and family planning), whereas the latter focuses the often cited importance of institutions. The book makes a rightful claim about this latter being vague. What is an institution? Is it the ''government'' and thus political, or is it economical? Within this chapter, the main emphasis lies on a few smaller topics, to really break this question on institutions down. Micro-credit, entrepreneurship, policymaking/bureacracy, financial savings and insurance are the most important ones. Based on looking at these topics, how they are provided for, for poor people (defined as those living on 99 cents a day or less) the authors offer a very interesting insight, placing themselves in the middle between the Easterly vs. Sachs development debate. In the end, they break it down to five rationalizations on why the poor are poor. I won't go into detail what these are, that's what the book is for. My personal opinion on the book however, is quite positive. Despite becoming a bit too technical for me here and there (which is more a lack of economic knowledge on my part), the book makes a clear point for incremental change at the local level, rather than global sweeping changes within development. It is an interesting nuance of both the pessimist Easterly and optimist Sachs and therefore a good read for anyone remotely interested in global development.
Getting Better: Why Global Development Is Succeeding--And How We Can Improve the World Even More by Charles Kenny
2.0
Having finished the book, I am still unsure what exactly to think of it. The premise is interesting and gives a different view on the question of development, predominantly in Africa. The general theme is that development in Africa has not failed, quite the contrary. When not taking GDP per capita into account as a tool of measurement, Africa has seen spectacular improvement. The main indicators that Kenny looks at are levels of education (i.e. literacy), healthcare (i.e. life expectancy and child mortality) and social and democratic rights.
This is also more or less where the book ends. He is very unclear in his organisation and more or less parades the same principles in every chapter. Some methods of looking at these issues (dissemination of technology as a tool or Western development aid) pop up in multiple chapters, some do not. In short, his ordering of arguments is quite unclear and unprofessional, which is somewhat strange, given the amount of research that obviously went into it. I veered towards given three stars, but the incoherence and repetition made me go for two.
This is also more or less where the book ends. He is very unclear in his organisation and more or less parades the same principles in every chapter. Some methods of looking at these issues (dissemination of technology as a tool or Western development aid) pop up in multiple chapters, some do not. In short, his ordering of arguments is quite unclear and unprofessional, which is somewhat strange, given the amount of research that obviously went into it. I veered towards given three stars, but the incoherence and repetition made me go for two.
You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself by David McRaney
4.0
Originally published on my blog: stefanhaagedoorn.blogspot.com
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After having my logical reasoning abilities seriously questioned because of this book, I am unsure how to review it. Normally, I would just say what is good, what is bad and why. Now, after having finished this mind bender of a book, I am pretty sure any review would be full of fallacies and biases. Or would that become a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy? I might just focus on the quality of the writing itself, which would seem objective enough. But how much of my opinion would be coloured by his other work? Would that not result in an Argument from Authority Fallacy? Or when I would just say this book is good. Or bad. Just that, nothing more. How much would I bow down to the Conformity Fallacy, which we apparently all do, unwittingly. How much do I really want to bare my opinion, perhaps innately fearing the Spotlight Effect, thereby assuming everybody watches my every move and opinion, something that is also, very much untrue. Why did I read this book in the first place? Was it a coincidence, something the author deals with in the ''Apophenia'' chapter? Coincidences are seemingly routine, not destined, even though we would like to think otherwise, so I can't really say why I picked this book over any of the author on my ''to-read'' list. I could go on, so I will just end with the following: this book has thoroughly challenged the way I think and reason, which was probably for the better. Although maybe I have always thought like this. But then again, that might be Hindsight Bias.
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After having my logical reasoning abilities seriously questioned because of this book, I am unsure how to review it. Normally, I would just say what is good, what is bad and why. Now, after having finished this mind bender of a book, I am pretty sure any review would be full of fallacies and biases. Or would that become a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy? I might just focus on the quality of the writing itself, which would seem objective enough. But how much of my opinion would be coloured by his other work? Would that not result in an Argument from Authority Fallacy? Or when I would just say this book is good. Or bad. Just that, nothing more. How much would I bow down to the Conformity Fallacy, which we apparently all do, unwittingly. How much do I really want to bare my opinion, perhaps innately fearing the Spotlight Effect, thereby assuming everybody watches my every move and opinion, something that is also, very much untrue. Why did I read this book in the first place? Was it a coincidence, something the author deals with in the ''Apophenia'' chapter? Coincidences are seemingly routine, not destined, even though we would like to think otherwise, so I can't really say why I picked this book over any of the author on my ''to-read'' list. I could go on, so I will just end with the following: this book has thoroughly challenged the way I think and reason, which was probably for the better. Although maybe I have always thought like this. But then again, that might be Hindsight Bias.
John Dies at the End by David Wong
4.0
Nearly four-hundred pages down, I am still unsure whether this book is pure brilliance, the result of a drug-addled binge night of a fourteen-year-old typing words on a screen or a combination of both. Two things I can be sure about. The first is that I loved it, the second is that you will either hate it or love it too. The story is truly stupendously ridiculous, unclear, confusing and filled with dick jokes. It also contains a twisting, clever plot which somehow comes full circle in the end, genuine laugh-out-loud moments and some of the most clever dialogue I have read in a while. In any case, the writer must have enjoyed writing this novel thoroughly. In the end, I cannot really give you a clear verdict of whether this book is ''good'' or ''bad''. Literature critics will most likely hate it, John (from the book), would most likely piss in their faces. Whichever you feel more aligned with should tell you an awful lot about whether you will like this book or not.