Reading – Page 15 – Christopher Wink

Free to Choose: Milton Friedman’s 1980 defense of American capitalism

Capitalism exposes inequality. It doesn’t cause it.

That’s among the big arguments that influential free market economist Milton Friedman (1912-2006) made in his bestselling 1980 book “Free to Choose.” By 1980, Friedman was the best-known economist of his generation; In 1962, he wrote Capitalism & Freedom, in 1970 he introduced his influential case for shareholder value and in 1976 won the Nobel Prize in Economics.

The book was published in a period of increased government intervention in the economy, high inflation and economic stagflation in the United States. Friedman’s ideas were seen as a counterpoint to the dominant Keynesian economic policies of the time, and he was part of a wave that was epitomized by the so-called Regan Revolution. The book was also the basis for a ten-part television series of the same name that aired on PBS in 1980. The series and book were well received by the public and helped to popularize Friedman’s views on economics.

See my notes below.

Power of Habit: notes from the 2012 bestseller by Charles Duhigg

Habits work in three steps: the cue, the routine and the reward.

To change a habit, swap out the routine — because the cue and the reward are apparently already successful. That’s a big theme from Power of Habit, the 2012 bestseller by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charles Duhigg. I’m personally interested in the habit of habits so this book was long on my list to read — then a friend encouraged me to read it since it related to a project of ours. And so here I am.

Below I have a few notes for me to return to in the future.

FREE SPEECH: its history and future by Jacob Mchangama

Free speech has a long history. Long enough that we know the pitfalls so well that they have nicknames.

There’s Milton’s Curse to describe the tendency for emerging leaders to defend free speech, only to walk backward once they are in power. More recently, we added the Streisand Effect, nicknamed after Barbara Streisand’s failed 2003 attempt to keep photos of her Malibu home off the internet. Her failed resistance generated far more attention.

This long, fragile and volatile path for free speech is the focus of the new book Free Speech A History from Socrates to Social Media by Jacob Mchangama. It is thorough, important and enjoyable. I recommend it. Below are my notes for my future research purposes.

Stumbling on Happiness

To get happier? Practice, coaching and surrogation (of people in current state not remembering)

Want to be happier? Put time into practice, welcome coaching and use “surrogation” or seeking advice from those currently in a similar situation to one you’ll soon be in.

That’s a big lesson from the 2006 book “Stumbling Upon Happiness” by psychologist Dan Gilbert. Broadly, the book argues that our ability to imagine future events both helps and hurts our advancement. With work, we can plan and make decisions that improve our lives. Also, though, we make inaccurate predictions about how we will feel in the future.

Another general theme I appreciated: We spend too little time being thankful for the good times and spend too much time worrying about the bad times. Changing that is the quickest path to greater levels of happiness.

Me & White Supremacy: notes on the 2021 book by Layla Saad

Allyship is not an identity, but a lifelong process.

In twisted and complex American race relations, that amounts to a controversial stance. The last several years have been especially polarizing and yet somehow also clarifying and therefore productive.

For my work, myself and my community, I try to follow closely contributions to disentangling these systems. That’s why I picked up a copy of Me & White Supremacy, the 2021 book by Layla Saad. The book is structured as a kind of work book with journal prompts scheduled to run as a “28-day challenge.”

It also reads like an effective review of current recommendations on what Angela Davis famously called “anti-racism.” Whether you’re new to the conversation, or a professional that strives to keep engaged with the conversation, I recommend it. Below, I share my notes to review in the future.

All the News That’s Fit to Sell: notes on mass media business models from the 2003 book by James T. Hamilton

The fractured media landscape we have today was already breaking apart two decades ago, and the economic models that underpin them predicted what we have today.

That’s the benefit of reading All the News That’s Fit to Sell, a 2003 book from James T. Hamilton, a well-respected journalism professor. I’ve read Hamilton’s work before, and this book was one I’ve long had on my list. I enjoyed the work, which is just as relevant 20 years later.

His research is helpful for my understanding of journalism models that I’ve spent my entire career working on. The book is also helpful for those interested in a dispassionate outline of the beginnings of the digital transformation of media – which we’re now fully immersed in.

Below I share notes for my future reflection.

The half life of facts

Facts have life spans, and they change in a predictable way.

That’s the big idea from the 2004 book The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date written by mathematician Samuel Arbesman. His thesis has been referenced in other books I’ve read, so I wanted to go back to the source.

Or as Arbesman wrote: “Facts have a half life and obey mathematical rules.” He also references “fact excavation.”

The idea is that this will help us navigate an in increasingly changing world. Consider different “kinds” of facts: the “facts” of the weather changes hourly, and the “fact” of the height of Mount Everest changes over years. Arbesman introduce the idea of a “mesofact” or a piece of information that is somewhere between a variable and a constant.

Below I share my notes on the matter.

Craft in the Real World: advice on writing and workshop from Matthew Salesses

Write for the audience whose expectations you want to meet — not an imagined audience you’ve been taught is the standard.

That’s among the the top-level themes of Craft in the Real World, the 2021 book by celebrated fiction author and novelist Matthew Salesses. It challenges many norms of the American-style writer workshop that was largely first established at Iowa University, where the first Masters in Fine Arts writing program emerged. The book is rich with general criticism, tactical advice for modernizing writer workshops (many of which I’ve incorporated into my own) and even fresh looks at foundational elements of writing (ie. what exactly is plot?).

I introduced many of Matthew’s points on making a more effective writers workshop to my own workshop. I also appreciated his general contribution to our collective goals for great writing. I recommend the book to anyone in workshop or interested in writing process. Below I share my notes for me to return to in the future.

Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor

For every $10 spent on goods and services in the American economy, at least a dollar is spent in the “underground economy.” That share has trended up over the last 15 years and two recessions.

That $2.5 trillion in economic activity includes both licit and illicit activities — yes, paying the babysitter cash and buying an illegal gun are both in the underground economy. Poorer nations have higher rates, and likewise, poorer communities in the United States rely more heavily on the informal economy.

Contributing to the academic analysis, American sociologist and ethnographer Sudhir Venkatesh published in 2006 a book called Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor. Backed by years he spent visiting a particular poor neighborhood in Chicago, he chronicled the interpersonal and community dynamics that related to and developed its underground economy. In some ways the book shows its age (as a trivial example, his use of the word “ghetto” feels dated), but in other ways it remains a small, specific window into one community’s underground economy.

“The underground enables poor communities to survive but can lead to their alienation from the wider world,” as the author wrote.

Another of his points I especially liked: “What some might see as a mass of Americans lying about, and out of work, is in many cases an ensemble of persons who lack of private places where they can rest.”

The author renamed his characters and locations for anonymity, but generally follows a neighborhood he calls Maquis Park, including characters like a particular gang leader and an active block leader named Eunice. Below find my notes from the book for future reference.

Why do people believe such strange things?

A person who can hold unbelievable ideas that become true is also a person who can hold unbelievable ideas that never become true. Put another way: Smart people can convince themselves of almost anything.

That’s a big theme from the 2011 book The Believing Brain: From Spiritual Faiths to Political Convictions – How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths, written by science writer Michael Shermer.

Like other books from Shermer, this references lots of brain research that is enlightening and fun to absorb. Generally this book’s theme s that belief comes first and reason comes second. Or as he puts it himself: “People believe weird things because of our evolved need to believe non-weird things.”

He explains this by arguing our predilection toward “patternicity” (we crave patterns) and “agenticity” (we crave meanings into patterns). As he wrote: “This research supports what I call Spinoza‘s conjecture: belief comes quickly and naturally, skepticism is slow and unnatural and most people have a low tolerance for ambiguity.”

Below find my notes for future reference.