Tim Harford

Revealing surprising, optimistic, well-argued, and funny. Cities are the centres of creativity & wealth (no surprise) but also of efficiency, ecological efficiency and tax revenue. How minorities (eg farmers in rich countries, ) bag all the cream: it's not worth any individual's while to try to change things. How Malthus proved wrong just as he published: population take-off produces invention and productivity take-off. Lovely mix of data from classroom experiments to socioeconomic large show more scale surveys and where it's shaky or speculative he comes clean about it. I'm a long term fan of his Radio 4 stuff ("More or less"). His underlying thesis - we are "rational", even unconsciously so, is totally convincing and rather cheering. It is quite distinct from "homo economicus", an academic abstraction rightly derided. Why can't more economists write like this! show less

Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy is a book that I wouldn’t seek out. I found it while browsing in a bookshop I trust for great recommendations. It’s a book you can dip in and out of as it’s divided into chapters for each ‘thing’ that are relatively short. This was good in some ways – brevity is appreciated when you’re not really into the thing (for me, that’s cuneiform and tradable debt). For things that I was really interested in, the chapters weren’t quite long show more enough at times (think the cold chain, video games and the iPhone).

However, it can’t be disputed that Tim Harford and his team have put a lot of work into summarising the invention, problems and impact of each item that had an impact on the modern economy. These range from the light bulb to radar, Google to the S bend. Each item makes you pause and think about how it has revolutionised the world for good or not so good (e.g., leaded petrol). It’s also a good taste of items you might want to read more about. For example, I wasn’t aware that the inventor of TV dinners was a woman. Nor was I aware of the financial issues of the inventor of the diesel engine, who has saved me money on fuel economy!

Overall, it’s an interesting idea in a book format that’s good to read in small chunks as there’s no real need to remember the chapters before. Harford writes clearly and concisely, and I’d love to read more from him where subjects are explained in more depth.

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This book is an interesting and thought-provoking read—especially in this age of misinformation, fake news, & intense political division. It lists out 10 rules to make sense of statistical claims. It all boils down to being curious. Curious about your own emotional response, curious about the data itself, curious about the context, curious about the process, curious about the intentions of the author, etc. Having an open-mind, a curious mind is one of the most powerful tools one can have. show more

I loved all the historical anecdotes & psychology experiments cited. Florence Nightingale was an absolute badass and now my new role model—a fearless data queen!!!!

This book did take me a while to finish. I got into a routine of reading one chapter after finishing a lesson in my data courses at work—so I read it over the course of a few months while finishing the Google Data Analytics Certificate. I annotated it (of course) and it’s interesting to see the annotations in the margins. Almost a timeline of sorts depending on what events were playing out at that time. And since I read it in conjunction with learning about the data analysis process, I was able to put the insights from this book into practice with my Capstone. I love a full-circle moment!!!

Lastly, I realized with this book how much I do not know about the world. I am vastly uneducated on most government policies, political history, and general pop culture knowledge. I find myself more motivated to read about history (especially recent history like 1980s & on). I really enjoy reading nonfiction because I can learn the WHY behind a lot of the structures in place today. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective), that means I’ll be picking up some political history books and probably be insufferable to talk to lmao.

A “boring” book that I (a self proclaimed data nerd) thoroughly enjoyed reading and learning from. My only complaint (and reason it didn’t get 5 stars) is that it did feel a bit redundant at times. Like the author needed to meet a certain page amount. It was nice since I read it over such a long period of time (for me) that there was such repetition, but reading multiple chapters in one sitting it got very tedious. show less

This book's cover features blurbs by Brian Eno and Tyler Cowen. Otherwise, I never would have thought this was a book I'd enjoy. I fall on the 'tidy' end of the spectrum. I didn't want to read a book about how the most awesome, brilliant, and creative people in the world all have/had sloppy desks. Not only is it not my world - it tends to be a boring kind of book.

But - despite the requisite chapters about sloppy desks and messy workplaces, this book isn't about how you really should show more dis-organize your space so much as it's about the sometimes (!) beneficial effects of disorder in general. The first chapter on Brian Eno's "Oblique Strategies" sets the tone; to get people to be more creative and motivated in the studio, Eno created a deck of cards with suggestions of off-the-wall things to think about or do. He'd periodically pick a card, and suddenly everyone was instructed to try to "Think like a gardener," or all trade instruments.

There's a chapter about a crazy military commander or two, who'd keep the enemy - and sometimes their own men - just bewildered enough to allow the most improbable victories to be snatched from the jaws of defeat. There's a chapter about the famous "Building 20" at MIT, an ugly pile of cinderblocks with an unorganized disarray of offices, which nevertheless was a hotbed of scientific discovery and invention in the 20th century.

So it isn't about dividing people into messy vs. neat, so much as it's about how helpful it can often be when things DON'T follow the expected path. Harford encourages us to appreciate rather than rue the Oscar Madison that lives in all of us. Some (!) disorder is good for you; it shakes you up; you function better; it's real life. The book flowed well (dare I say it was well organized?); I always looked forward to returning to it each day. I'm a fan! show less