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<title>Masud&#x27;s Book Reviews</title><link>http://www.masudhaq.com/index.php</link><description>Reviews of books I have read</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><dc:creator>masudhaq@gmail.com</dc:creator><dc:rights>&#xa9; 2008-2010 Masud Haq</dc:rights><dc:date>2009-12-19T13:19:13-06:00</dc:date><admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.realmacsoftware.com/" />
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<lastBuildDate>Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:49:04 -0600</lastBuildDate><item><title>The Black Swan</title><dc:creator>masudhaq@gmail.com</dc:creator><category>Probability and Statistics</category><dc:date>2009-12-19T13:19:13-06:00</dc:date><link>http://www.masudhaq.com/books/files/the_black_swan.php#unique-entry-id-0</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.masudhaq.com/books/files/the_black_swan.php#unique-entry-id-0</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[When in high school I first learned about the Gaussian distribution and its discrete relatives, the binomial and the Poisson distributions, I wanted to solve all the exercises at the back of the book that week.    The one question that remained unanswered at the back of my head was why so many natural phenomena follow the Gaussian distribution.  

...This book discusses the fact that the Gaussian distribution is invalid for most phenomenon, and more importantly, it discusses and describes the impact of not realizing this invalidity.    Some of the themes include discussions of the &ldquo;winner-take-all&rdquo; phenomenon, the effects of randomness, the concept of scalability (fractals vs. fat-tail distribution), and instabilities of certain phenomenon when information travels quickly.    Taleb discusses in great detail why people have not been able to predict the future (e.g. in trading and risk management) and the fallacies of this inability&mdash;in other words, we could do a better job of prediction if we had the right theory or the right assumptions.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Made to Stick</title><dc:creator>masudhaq@gmail.com</dc:creator><category>Leadership</category><dc:date>2009-02-14T12:28:06-06:00</dc:date><link>http://www.masudhaq.com/books/files/made_to_stick.php#unique-entry-id-1</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.masudhaq.com/books/files/made_to_stick.php#unique-entry-id-1</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[In the opening example of this book the authors compare an elaborate 'kidney heist' story with a couple of sentences from a CEO's speech on his company's vision.    Two years after reading the book, I still vividly remember the 'kidney heist' story even though I have not told the story or talked about it during that period.  ...  I tried several times and after reading the paragraph again I would still forget a minute or so later.  

...And these characteristics are not what I would intuitively think they should be (side note: some of these characteristics are such because of the way the brain has evolved over a geological timescale).  

...I now apply these in my communication and the results are dramatically more sticky than two years ago.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Leadership and Self-Deception</title><dc:creator>masudhaq@gmail.com</dc:creator><category>Leadership</category><dc:date>2009-01-10T22:20:54-06:00</dc:date><link>http://www.masudhaq.com/books/files/leadership_self_deception.php#unique-entry-id-2</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.masudhaq.com/books/files/leadership_self_deception.php#unique-entry-id-2</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[I read this book in one afternoon.    It fundamentally changed the way I viewed my relationships with people around me&mdash;my wife, my colleagues, my friends&mdash;everyone.    It was such an eye-opening experience that I bought several copies for some colleagues and one for Janice.    Janice finished it the same evening it arrived from Amazon.com (I had read a borrowed copy) and then she got on-line and ordered a copies for every member of her side of the family (i.e., my in-laws).


The book is written like a story being told by the author&mdash;"creative non-fiction" in industry vernacular&mdash;so it is quite an easy read and very sticky.  ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>A People&#x27;s History of the United States</title><dc:creator>masudhaq@gmail.com</dc:creator><category>History</category><dc:date>2008-05-16T22:08:41-05:00</dc:date><link>http://www.masudhaq.com/books/files/a_peoples_history.php#unique-entry-id-3</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.masudhaq.com/books/files/a_peoples_history.php#unique-entry-id-3</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[A People's History of the United States


...by Howard Zinn


Howard Zinn has an interesting perspective on the history&mdash;he puts himself in the shoes of the underdog (the people) and tells the story of the last 500 years.    In this age of the "free agent" it certainly offers a good insight for the readers and for the next generation of leadership.    This is not revisionist history, rather, it is describing the "dark side of the moon" that has not been seen before.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>No Ordinary Time</title><dc:creator>masudhaq@gmail.com</dc:creator><category>History</category><dc:date>2008-05-15T22:00:02-05:00</dc:date><link>http://www.masudhaq.com/books/files/no_ordinary_time.php#unique-entry-id-4</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.masudhaq.com/books/files/no_ordinary_time.php#unique-entry-id-4</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt / The Home Front in World War II


...This book is an absolute pleasure to read.    When I started reading it, I could not put it down until I finished.  ...  It gives a very good insight into FDR the person.    It is also interesting to get a glimpse of the relationship that FDR has with Eleanor, with his daughter, with his cabinet and with Churchill.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>The Prize</title><dc:creator>masudhaq@gmail.com</dc:creator><category>History</category><category>Energy</category><dc:date>2008-05-14T22:54:22-05:00</dc:date><link>http://www.masudhaq.com/books/files/the_prize.php#unique-entry-id-5</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.masudhaq.com/books/files/the_prize.php#unique-entry-id-5</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[This is a must read for anyone interested in the energy industry, and the influence that energy and energy policies can have in the world.   This book covers the history of oil from the first oil seepages in the mid-nineteenth century until the late twentieth century. 

...	◦	The history of Standard Oil and Rockefeller, including the anti-trust laws and the eventual break up of Standard Oil.


	◦	How oil shaped world politics in the twentieth century through its impact in the world wars, particularly WWII


	◦	How policy making in the western world was influenced oil and how the oil producing countries adapted/reacted to that. ]]></content:encoded></item></channel>
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