(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best decision-making & problem solving books

If you, perchance, liked the Harry Potter series, you might enjoy Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, as a fairly pain free and enjoyable introduction to cognitive biases, logical fallacies, and other useful tools to better thinking. Elizer Yudkowsky, the author of HPatMoR maintains several resources that can also be useful in training your mind to be more rational, and a better critical thinker.

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The Demon-haunted world: science as a candle in the dark by Carl Sagan is a fantastic book in praise of science, a primer for the scientific method, and a decent guide to why and how science works. Further, it covers the nature of conspiracy thinking and pseudoscience, how to identify these things, and why they are harmful to society. Available in audiobook, ebook, and paper formats.

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Algorithms to Live by is a bit off to the side of your requested topic, but it's an interesting treatise on how computer science can teach you some of the optimal ways one can make certain types of decisions. It's a bit counterintuitive, in the advice given, for example: messiness is often more efficient than spending a lot of time organizing everything, humans can't really multitask, and hunches are sometimes your best tool for deciding a course of action. I've read the book and posses the audiobook, both are great.

​

Almost anything written by Richard Feynman is accessible, humorous, and wise, in an askew sort of way. He's good at approaching topics from odd angles.

​

The Great Courses offers many resources on Audible: I've read and enjoyed Your Deceptive Mind, Skepticism 101, and Your Best Brain, which cover cognitive biases, and logical fallacies in detail, how to think more clearly without false, misleading thought, and how to take care of you mind through better lifestyle choices.

It seems like you're interested in UX design but not entirely sure what it entails. The role of a UX designer varies between companies and has changed over time. You can think of UX designer as someone who is skilled in interaction design, creating wireframes & protypes, user research, information architecture, etc. A bunch of skills smashed into one job title. Some skills of a UI designer includes visual design, color, layout, typography, etc.

From what I've seen, what companies are looking for these days when they say what a UX designer is that they want someone who can do both UX & UI to define, maintain, and grow a product with Product Managers. Product Managers are driven by business goals, you are driven by user goals. A Product Designer is becoming a popular term for this type of job. It's hard to find a UX job where all you do is wireframes, user research, and information architecture (as least with the big companies).

First, you need to think like a designer. Time to start reading some material. I took a class on Design Thinking at my university, and it has really helped me put into words what designers do. Link to the course materials.

You can find a bunch of lists of UX design books out there on the web. I started out by reading The Design of Everyday Things, a classic. Other books on my shelf are Design is Storytelling and Value Proposition Design. Not related to design, but during one of my internships I was given Everybody Writes and I recommend it because, well, everybody writes.

After you have a better understanding of what UX design is, start thinking about what it means for you and what you want to focus in. If you ask a bunch of designers why they do UX, you will get different answers.

From there, you need to start practicing. You can look up examples of side projects you can do as a UX designer. The most important thing here is to get critique from other people, learn from it, and iterate on it.

One common side-project is to redesign an app like Yelp. One thing I personally don't like about these projects is that they are typically "blue-sky" redesigns, or designs without constraints. This is fine to do when you're starting out, but to think like a Product Designer, you need to think about the business goals, make assumptions on why it's the way it is, and create constraints for your re-design. What's the user problem? What are the business goals? What are some ways I can solve these problems? What assumptions am I making for these designs?

Lastly, I think all UX/Product designers need to have some visual fundamentals down. Typography, layout, color, etc.--visuals are a huge part of the experience (along with copy, but thankfully I've had the chance to work with great copywriters). To get you started, Thinking with Type is a great book. I'm constantly looking at designs on Dribbble and Medium - Muzli for design inspiration. See something you like? Steal it and make it work for you.

Look at design blogs from big companies like Facebook, Google, and Airbnb. Stay up to date on what's happening like Mailchimp's redesign. Look at works from famous agencies like Collins. Watch YouTube videos from channel like The Futur.

Notice that I never mentioned any tools in this post. You won't become a UX design by learning html or js, those are for front-end devs. It may be nice for you to know, but not critical. You won't become a UX designer because you learned how to use Sketch or Adobe XD. Tools are constantly changing and are easy to learn. It's everything I mentioned above that's hard.

OK, sure. Please bear in mind these are my own personal recommendations, everyone's understanding and learning styles are different.

Something like this will be very handy for your documentation.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1598638688/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_of_20?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=96RQCVP9B9T0XYWX9G7J

It covers the latest UML version and will stand you in good stead for you future as a BA. I've not read this but it's been on my wish list for a few months and it will be my next purchase. The reviews seem to be pretty positive and apparently it has some case studies within it. This would be ideal for you because you can actually practise your learning using these in preparation for your role. UML is a common buzzword found on job descriptions so knowing it is handy.

The next book I'd recommend would be this:
https://www.amazon.com/Business-Analysis-Malcolm-Eva/dp/178017277X

I actually got this book free with a bcs course I did but I've recently bought it again as a soft copy so I don't have to lug it around with me. I consider it my Bible to be honest. It pretty much goes through the spectrum of BA work across an end to end project lifestyle. In the real world it's unlikely that you would ever need to use all aspects of this book on all projects. The idea of it is more of a reference to pick and choose the relevant parts for the state of your project and apply the BA skills that it describes and the experience you already know.

Finally, there is another BCS book I often use, specifically for gathering and documenting requirements:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1780172737/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_of_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=MSPTS21P7KVGTZ0YJ4C5
I used this book a hell of a lot when I first started out and it literally has what it says 99 tools and techniques. Best of all, it has examples and some basic templates to start from. Which were so useful for me.

Don't be afraid to use Google, linked in and the websites listed on here. They are all invaluable sources of information to help you.

It's worth noting that there are a number of BABOK books out there that could be out benefit to you.

None of the companies I have worked for have been particularly bothered about this but it is something I'll study at some point. Anything on agile would be a bonus. Agile seems to be the new buzzword lately.

Hopefully some of the other guys on here will comment too.

Hope this helps, apologies for anything that's unclear, I'm writing this on my phone.

Good luck,
Andy

>I can't imagine what qualities a result must have for to find it interesting then.

For me, the essence of interest is novelty. Either you are proposing some new way to understand the world, or you are proposing some innovation in an existing understanding of the world. Documenting the obvious is the grunt work of science; it is important and useful work, but it's not going to change the understanding of an expert in the field.

>I kind of disagree. The real world data are the measures of wealth inequality, and this paper's results demonstrate that such data is compatible with a world where luck alone determines success. I think you're being unfair if you also expect such a paper to prove luck actually is a causal factor in the way the model suggests it could be.

This paper gathered no such data. A paper that proves that luck is the primary causal factor in success would be a truly impressive work, but I have no such demand. What I would like to see is some method of testing the presented hypothesis outside of a laboratory setting. Hopefully that's the next paper.

>If you have links to other work of this type, please share!

This is an extremely well covered ground, so I would recommend doing a paper search. I'll just hit some highlights. This is another excellent read, possibly more in line with your interest than the second two links I provided earlier. I think the Black Swan book is really excellent though. For some attempts to study real world data sets, I recommend this and this and this.

I think a sudoku solver would not be bad in C++. Graphically representing the sudoku board may be challenging to someone who's never dealt with OpenGL - but text should be easy.

The idea is simple really:

Let's take a simple 9x9 puzzle: http://i.imgur.com/JuSKzEj.png

Your text representation may look something like this (plug this into a text file):

X X X | 8 4 X | X X 9

X X 1 | X X X | X X 5

8 X X | X 2 1 | 4 6 X

7 X 8 | X X X | X 9 X

X X X | X X X | X X X

X 5 X | X X X | 3 X 1

X 2 4 | 9 1 X | X X 7

9 X X | X X X | 5 X X

3 X X | X 8 4 | X X X

Here is some sample code for you: https://gist.github.com/nadams810/5855315

Run:

~/test$ ./a.out
0 0 8 | 7 0 0 | 0 9 3
0 0 0 | 0 0 5 | 2 0 0
0 1 0 | 8 0 0 | 4 0 0
----------------------
8 0 0 | 0 0 0 | 9 0 0
4 0 2 | 0 0 0 | 1 0 8
0 0 1 | 0 0 0 | 0 0 4
----------------------
0 0 4 | 0 0 3 | 0 5 0
0 0 6 | 9 0 0 | 0 0 0
9 5 0 | 0 0 1 | 7 0 0

I left the solve method as an exercise for the reader :). I'm sure there are algorithms you can use to solve them - but you can always just brute force it. Writing the solve method should only take you hours.

I don't know what you want to do (gaming, algorithms, and/or business apps) but getting resources on C++ is not a bad idea - cplusplus.com has an ebook of their tutorials. I also have an unreleased C++ ebook that if you would like a copy I can get it to you (just PM me your email). Discrete math is defiantly something to brush up on - especially if you are going to do any sort of AI for a game or application. I personally used this book in college and felt it was ok. If you have some money I would recommend safaribooksonline. I'm not much of a book guy - but it gives you the ability to search through all their books. If you are looking for a good algorithms book I would say to pick up algorithms in a nutshell. They have algorithms in pseudo code so you can implement them in a high level language. Most of the popular algorithms are already implemented in many languages - but you can look at the ones I've implemented if you are looking for some inspiration.

However, for someone who has never programmed before - I would say you should learn Python first. It's a lot friendlier than C++, and has a BASIC-like syntax. The thing that I think really turns people off about C++ is the vague and non-descriptive error messages. If you don't have patience - then C++ should not be your starting point. If you are like me and aren't a fan of interpreted languages (read: I would rather write in compiled languages but languages like Python and PHP have their place) but still want to use a BASIC dialect you can either use VB.Net or grab yourself a copy of FreeBASIC. If you don't like BASIC and want to learn a C-like language without the overhead of Java or having to worry about missing semi-colons in C++ you can try out C#.

The one thing above all you should do is become familiar with a source code repository system. Not only does it store revisions of your code but it is usually safely stored somewhere. Shameless plug: Over at srchub.org I support subversion, Mercurial, and git. If you would like a repo - I can give you the registration key and tell me if you want a private repo and within minutes you will have your own repo :).

>As I had stated before, I wasn't familiar with your phone specifically and I didn't know that it had hardware buttons. Most Android devices have the touch buttons so thats where my assumption came from.

That's fine, but I did state the specific device I used for that exact reason, so that you didn't have to assume anything :)

>That's a fair point, and it seems that's just something crappy with your phone unfortunately =[

Indeed.

Another, admittedly minor, problem is HTC's decision to have the lock screen be unlocked by a vertical swipe, instead of horizontal. Where I never, ever, ever unlock my iPhone 4 by mistake, I find myself doing this quite frequently on the Legend. Picking it up from my pocket, it's hard not to touch the screen, and for some reason, even though we've established that the power button is the only button that can unlock it, it's apparently very, very easy to press, resulting in some minor, non-deliberate movement unlocking the screen and managing to press quite a lot of screen buttons before I get it up to my face. I can't say exactly where the problem is, but I can say that this issue is entirely non-existent on the iPhone.

The only lock screen replacements I've found either don't work at all, or look like utter crap :/

>Here though you seem to be pulling things from thin air. You mentioned how Android phones sacrificed visuals specifically, so I'm still curious what your point was there.

I'm hardly the only one to comment on the overall greater visual quality of iPhone apps compared to Android apps.

>Again, I've never seen the functionality of the Menu button matched at all in any iPhone app, nor the Back button in the same capacity.

I guess we'll have to take this down as a matter of preference, because I can't get over how inconsistent the Back button is on Android phones, and I've never had any iPhone app be harder to configure or access settings from than any Android app I've tried.

>I'll give you an example here: browsing. Unless mobile Safari has changed drastically, it can be a bit of a pain to get the address bar back without scrolling back up. On every Android browser, I just hit menu, and there it is.

True, but at least this is specifically designed behavior that is entirely consistent. Why would you need to access the address bar, or the search bar, unless you intended to leave the page? Also, there's no "bit of pain". The functionality is clear: tap the status bar at the top to bring up the address bar (with the added function of scrolling the page to the top). Input-wise, it's the exact same action, but in two different places. Neither is harder than the other to perform.

>It just isn't vastly superior to Android as it once was, and in general the Android platform as a whole isn't so restricting.

While I agree, I have to mention that psychologically, I think of the Android platform as more restrictive. See, Android promises me that it's open, and by doing that, I assume I get to do whatever I want with it. Naturally, then, any time I can't (requires root to change built-in apps, can't switch carrier if it's locked, can't use this, can't do that, etc...) it bothers me much more than if I knew from the start it came with restrictions. I know there aren't any porn apps in the App Store, so I don't even have to bother looking for them (I'll just get my porn from the internet, like everyone else, without any restrictions whatsoever). I know I can't change the theme on my phone, so I don't have to bother finding one I like. And so on. I fully realize why some people take offense to this, in principle, but I think that practically, it's actually a benefit. This is actually a very interesting book on the subject, if you're interested.

Personally, I end up using my iPhone almost all of the time for surfing, apps, music, etc... even though if I break it I have to pay for it, and I have to pay for data. I have every incentive to use my Android phone instead, but my iPhone is simply that much more convenient, easy, fast and, frankly, open. Every app I can think of wanting is already allowed and in the App Store. It syncs to my Mac at home in a way an HTC phone never would. Safari works so well, even though I admit the dynamic text resize on Android is really cool, that I never bother with my Legend, and my bookmarks are synced from my Mac. Mail works better (I actually think the Android Gmail client sucks, it renders html emails horribly), the screen is brighter and sharper, and the battery life is better.

I chose the HTC Legend specifically, because I wanted an Android phone to try out. Now I have, and I can't think of any reason it's supposedly better than iOS. I'm sure others can, if they have vastly different needs than I do, but that's where I get philosophical and question whether those needs are genuine, or only arise from the possibilities promised by Google.

Some great points here but from the sounds of your post that you are now "in charge of Salesforce" there aren't people telling you what to do in it. It sounds to me your job role has changed from "The Admin" to "The Consultant/BA". Yes go for some certifications but mostly I think it's about moving more into the Consultant/BA role. Find how Salesforce can be used more effectively in your company to add value and measure it!. Actually, sit with some of your users who are advocates of Salesforce and understand how they do their job. I always look for people who use Excel/paper forms or are chasing different people for the same information again and again. Excel and paper forms can be turned into Salesforce objects, the chasing emails can be turned into workflows/process builder/automation. Work out how many times they have to copy/paste/send emails etc based on what you have automated. Then go to your boss and say hey I just saved the company $$ by automating this process. Maybe go look at common processes that the company does as a whole where you can make a bigger saving.

IMO That sounds a million times more compelling to your boss than hey look I passed the Salesforce Admin exam and completed 100 badges on Trailhead. I'm not saying not to do training but once you have identified the need for Salesforce its time to fill in your knowledge gaps with Trailhead/Certs etc and what better way to learn than on a real life scenario.

This sounds like a great opportunity and if it doesn't work out you can always put on your CV I saved the company $xxx,xxx in automating their processes using Salesforce.

Some books which I've had for YEARS but are (IMO) the bibles on Business Analysis:
https://www.amazon.com/Business-Analysis-Techniques-Essential-Success/dp/1780172737
https://www.amazon.com/Business-Analysis-James-Cadle/dp/178017277X

It will be more difficult, of course, but if you stay focus and keep pushing, you will eventually earn more and more shares.

The first example that comes to my mind is web browsers. When Internet Explorer had more than 95% of the market (back in 2004, source), anyone deciding to build a competitive browser would have been out of his mind ... And then, Firefox came along, on started taking some market share, more and more. Up to a point where they had more shares than Internet Explorer (well, with only 14.4% vs 13.4% but it's something). In the meantime, Chrome joined the competition and started winning even more share, up until now where Chrome is the most used browser in the world. (same source).

The key element to take into consideration here, is HOW they did it. For me, Firefox main reason I did the switch was how easy it was to search on a web page. In a more general point of view, both Firefox, then Chrome, brought new and easier way to browse/use the web, which leads users to switch to that user.

A perfect example about succeeding in a crowded market is, if I'm not mistaken, the case used in the book "The innovator's solution" where the authors takes for example the mini mills that starts to do the work of bigger mills for small client or small parts (the crumble of the cake). These actions are accepted by the bigger mills simply because it often is small contracts, with a small profits at the end. This leads the bigger mills to focus on their core work, and loose the edge contrats they aren't interested in.
The problem risk with this, is that those mini mills tend to accept bigger and bigger contracts up to the point where the bigger mills, that have now specialized in a specific domain, find themselves in difficulty to compete with the originally mini mills.

It's the same with IE vs Firefox vs Chrome and it's the same in all the domains.

All of that to say that you can compete, absolutely. You "simply" have to provide something worth making your potential clients switching from your competitors, to you :)

Hi skunk,

Since everyone is remaining quiet I might as well give this a shot. I'm from a technical background but currently studying PM in my spare time in the hope that I can progress in this direction within my industry.

PMP

It seems like the global standard is the PMP with PMI which requires:

> A secondary degree (high school diploma, associate’s degree, or the global equivalent) with at least five years of project management experience, with 7,500 hours leading and directing projects and 35 hours of project management education.

> OR

> A four-year degree (bachelor’s degree or the global equivalent) and at least three years of project management experience, with 4,500 hours leading and directing projects and 35 hours of project management education.

I'm currently studying towards this. I've taken recommendations from this subreddit (and /r/pmp) and bought:

• Rita Mulcahy's PMP Exam Prep, Eighth Edition
  
  and
  
  
• PMI's PMBOK, Fifth Edition
  
  In order to obtain the required 35 contact hours, I bought one of several cheap Groupons for $99. I'm not going to link the course because I don't necessarily recommend it - it should be easy enough to find and people have linked to these in previous posts. It doesn't really matter anyway because it's just so I can "tick that box", as I've learnt everything I need to know from the books.
  
  The exam however will have to be sat in person. I have yet to do this so can't give you any pointers.
  
  CAPM
  
  If you don't match the above criteria, you can always opt for the lower qualification of CAPM (also with PMI) and work your way up.
  For this I reccommend CAPM/PMP Project Management Certification, Third Edition and the previously mentioned online course.
  
  Please note that you can potentially pitch anything as a project in the right light, even washing the dishes. Aim high and try to get the hours for PMP if possible.
  
  PRINCE2 & SIX SIGMA
  
  What else? Well, if I'm successful with the PMP and still enjoy PM after the blood, sweat and tears, I'm looking at these two qualifications.
  
  I've already added a few books to my Amazon wishlist but have yet to seriously look into these with enough detail to commit.
  
  
• Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2
  
• PRINCE2 Study Guide
  
• PRINCE2 For Dummies
  
  I know that the exam for the PRINCE2 foundation level (and possibly practitioner level?) can be sat online with a webcam.
  
  
• Six Sigma for Dummies
  
• Six Sigma Workbook for Dummies
  
  Six Sigma I know very little about except that several colleagues have mentioned it and my industry takes it seriously. However, I don't believe you can do these Six Sigma "belts" online.
  
  Sorry for the serious wall of text but I just thought I'd share everything I know about PM accreditation. This isn't a comprehensive list but I'm planning on doing 90% online so I'm in a similar situation to yourself.
  
  I would be grateful for any feedback myself from experienced PMs on my plans going forward.

Oh boy, lets learn from history. The Innovator's Dilemma is an excellent book and research. The author originally wondered why so many companies that had been profiled in various business books as successes were failures just a few years later. When you have large profits that is the point at which you have extracted the most in the here and now - it doesn't mean the gravy train will continue. And as the book shows it is what led to problems and the decline. Nothing disruptive can be done because compared to the existing profits they are too small or would reduce them. And then they drop rapidly and competitors have grabbed the market. The concern over RIM is not now but what the future holds.

The problem with RIM is momentum. It had it and now everyone believes it is going away while the everyone else (Apple, Android) are picking up. Michael Mace (formerly of Palm & Apple) has an excellent blog titled Mobile Opportunity with good analysis and a follow up.

> I looked at everything from videogame companies to the early PC pioneers (companies like Commodore and Atari), and I found an interesting pattern in their financial results. The early symptoms of decline in a computing platform were very subtle, and easy for a business executive to rationalize away. By the time the symptoms became obvious, it was usually too late to do anything about them.
http://mobileopportunity.blogspot.com/2011/06/whats-next-for-rim.html

Maybe not as serious as some people prefer but I really liked Shmueli's book on data mining.

http://www.amazon.com/Data-Mining-Business-Intelligence-Applications/dp/0470526823/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415284973&sr=8-1&keywords=shmueli

I also enjoyed Innumeracy and How to Measure Anything - these are not rigorous at all but if you want to bring stats into the boardroom/conference room you better be able to translate things into digestible chunks for the lay audience. In my professional experience, the biggest challenge is not the math (that's the easy/fun part) it's explaining the math to people who think gut feelings are more useful.

In any normal time, I would say "What does Google have to say about your sources?"

Unfortunately, our present culture is such that everything is regarded as a completely untrustworthy source by a very vocal minority on one side or the other. So there is not necessarily a simple answer to that question.

One important thing to remember: No source is 100% right. All sources have a bias. The first thing you can do is try to be aware of what biases your preferred sources have. If you are aware that your preferred sources lean [direction], you can try to be aware of any spin they are applying.

There is a great new book called Factfulness that helps you learn how to read the news and spot the facts underlying reporting. Things that the articles might state, but -- intentionally or not-- they might obfuscate for one reason or another. Bill Gates reviewed it here, and in fact he liked it so much that he gave a free copy away to any person graduating from college this year. It's well worth reading if you can find the time. It's a short and quite interesting book, so I recommend it highly.

>... should be considered?

This is a normative question. In normative questions the values of some actor(s) determines the answer.

In the case of public policy this means that all manners of people values could have an impact on the policies goals. For example, policymakers (such as legislators) all often have competing visions about what the goal of a policy should be. Bureaucrats often have their own opinions about what the goals should be. Constituents might have all sorts of other competing opinions. The target population may have other opinions. What this means is that in order for policy to pass it usually has to have a certain amount of ambiguity baked in, so as to satisfy the competing values of all the different groups/actors.

Deborah Stone's book Policy Paradox is principally about the role of ambiguity in public policy and in establishing policy goals. Policy Paradox is mandatory reading for any student of Public Policy. She demonstrates how vague (ambiguous) goals are often necessary in order to achieve the votes of all the possible veto actors (committee chairs, speakers, majority leaders, median voters, Presidents, etc...). In short, many actors make it difficult to reconcile what the policy should do. And, often times not all goals can be achieved simultaneously ; Some goals are mutually exclusive to a point. This can make it difficult to determine whether a policy is actually a success or a failure.

Policy Paradox builds on some of the decision making work of Cohen, March, and Olsen who described how ambiguity of goals plays a role in decision making in "organization anarchies" such as governments and universities. Cohen and March also developed the theory of bounded-rationality and discussed the importance of ambiguity in individual decision making as well.

Implementation by Pressman and Wildavsky additionally touches how important it is that the goals of a policy have "buy in" amongst the bureaucrats responsible for implementing the policy. Essentially, if the goals are to outside the organizational culture of the bureaucracy responsible for running the program, the bureaucrats may just not implement the policy fully (or at all).

Anecdotally, I've spoken, in the course of researching legislative oversight, with policy makers who have been personally (and professionally) frustrated when they voted into creation a new policy program and appropriated money to a bureaucracy to implement that program. And then had the bureaucracy simply not implement the program in the slightest because it was simply to far afield from the goals/mission of the bureaucrats.

This is much less of a problem outside of public policy. In "Design Thinking" the only person whose values matter to the "designer" is the clients. The designer merely designs to the clients singular values. This is why "design thinking" approaches are not generally a good approach for policy analysts or policy makers.

If you're looking for a guide on how to perform a policy analysis, I suggest you read Bardach's Eightfold Path to Policy Analysis. It's essentially the standard.

It's a question of personality. I am all for Innovation, Innovation, Innovation.

> Which are better in your opinion?

Innovation

> What examples do you have?

• Apple,
  
• Whole Foods,
  
• Walmart (Walmart is not about Low-Prices, it's about IT and innovative processes that allow for low-prices and more)
  
• Google
  
• Facebook
  
• Instagram
  
• Compaq
  
• MCI
  
• Digital
  
• Intel
  
• Tesla
  
  
  If you want more, read this: https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-Change-Business/dp/0062060244
  
  and this: https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Solution-Creating-Sustaining-Successful/dp/1422196577

4th edition? Wow.
I have the original on my shelf. May need to pick it up.

My thesis and dissertation involved SNA.

The Development of Social Network Analysis: A Study in the Sociology of Science https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594577145/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_s7zzCbGZ0J0B2 was useful for a history and methodology. Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465085733/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_c9zzCb73X5640 was good for understanding approaches to structure. Same author has several peer reviewed articles that are good. Then give some thought to what you want to measure existing on those networks. Coming up with good measures of the qualities that you find present and social networks is the hard part.

Read:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People

https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better-ebook/dp/B0756J1LLV

https://www.amazon.com/How-Think-Like-Leonardo-Vinci-ebook/dp/B000SEFNF0/

https://hbr.org/2014/09/how-philosophy-makes-you-a-better-leader

https://www.amazon.com/Microserfs-Novel-Douglas-Coupland-ebook/dp/B004W2YZ0I

Write: Your 1, 3 and 5-year plans. Write plans for achieving them

Watch:

The Big Short

The Smartest Guys in the Room

Go to: Industry events, user groups, technical meetups. But also museums, great restaurants, national parks and crowded cities

Connect with: Peers, leaders, teachers, innovators - not just people in your business niche.

Travel: As far & wide as you can. Nationally & internationally. Don't forget the local things around you that you've never seen

Exercise: You're taking care of your brain - take care of your body, too

Had to look her up because I don't have the interests or talking points of a 13 year old virgin. And because your illiteracy and confidence of your awful comment irked me.

She looked nothing like Amy in 2010 or 2016.

And I suggest you get more mature interests. If you can read above a Trump level, for inspiration, read this book. It has great information on how to make better life decisions and how to invest your time and money more effectively.

Mancur Olson's The Logic of Collective Action is always a good one.

John Rawls' A Theory of Justice should be required reading.

Deborah Stone's Policy Paradox is a deeply underappreciated treasure trove of applied theory.

And while we're just throwing out good books, Jill Leovy's Ghettoside is pretty brilliant.

There is a bunch of engineering stats books out there. The one we teach out of at my uni is the one by Devore. I think it does a good job of teaching what it does. I know Ross has an engineering stats book out there, and so does Montgomery, and they are both people who have written good books in the past. The one by Ross seems to have some good topics in it from reading the table of contents.


Also, you probably want to pick up a regression book. I like the one by Kutner et al., but it is ungodly pricey. This one has a free pdf. I don't like a lot about it, but the first few chapters of every regression book are pretty much the same.

If you want to go deep into statistical theory, there is Casella and Berger as well.


For programs, I know MATLAB has a stats package that should be sufficient for the time being. If you want to go further in stats, you might want to consider R because it will have vastly more stats functions.

Check out the book, "Paradox of Choice" http://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Choice-Why-More-Less/dp/0060005688
It looks like the cover art is the same as the picture in the article.

The premise of the book is that choice has diminishing returns and even a negative effect that can be quantified. Not only is the process of choosing stressful, but the feeling that you could have done better by picking some alternative reduces your long term happiness with your purchase.

Interesting side story about selection. When I was in SF, I stopped in a little store close to the convention center and in the cooler, I saw no less than 5 different flavors of Thunderbird (generally the cheapest alcoholic stuff) in unnaturally bright colors, probably to be visible to the non-sober target audience.

I was struck that choice was available to even this group and the thought of a drunk pan-handler contemplating the flavor of his fix ran through my mind. Somebody put effort into figuring out what flavors, colors & labeling would attract buyers and accomplished this, no doubt, by studying their target market carefully. I still not sure if this is a celebration or indictment of our consumer-based system.

I wouldn't say it's about Neuroscience, but it covers ML/AI. The Master Algorithm is a really good book. It can also serve as an introduction to a ton of different AI algorithms, from clustering to neural networks. It's short and easy to read, I highly recommend it.

I personally like Learning Tableau as a great primer and refresher on understanding how Tableau works: http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Tableau-Visualization-Business-Intelligence/dp/1784391166 -- follow along with the book where you can.

If you haven't already walk through the videos here: http://www.tableau.com/learn/training -- and by walk-through I mean use Tableau and follow along.

Visualisation in general I need to do more reading but I like:
Stephen Few : Show me the Numbers http://www.amazon.com/Show-Me-Numbers-Designing-Enlighten/dp/0970601972
Accidental Analyst: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1477432264/

There's a few more books recommended here: http://www.tableau.com/about/blog/2013/7/list-books-about-data-visualisation-24182

edit: and for blogs I currently like http://flowingdata.com/

Ain't disruptive technology grand!?

This is like a HBS case study in how market incumbents typically screw-the-pooch, a la Christensen's "Innovator's Dilemma". It's like a law of physics repeated over and over again.

"The author, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, asks why some well-managed companies that stay on top of new technology and practice quality customer service can still falter. His own research brought a surprising answer to that question. Christensen suggests that by placing too great an emphasis on satisfying customers' current needs, companies fail to adapt or adopt new technology that will meet customers' unstated or future needs, and he argues that such companies will eventually fall behind. Christensen calls this phenomenon "disruptive technology" and demonstrates its effects in industries as diverse as the manufacture of hard-disk drives and mass retailing. He goes on to offer solutions by providing strategies for anticipating changes in markets."

I really like the area of competition maths, I got into it much too late (not until I was at university), I really wish I had been made aware of it when I was younger (there never seems to be enough time at uni).

At 10, I think the place to start is a book like

http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Problem-Solving-Vol/dp/0977304566

Which covers rather a lot of stuff (though I believe it is at the right level) and doesn't linger on things for ages or have millions of the same exercise, and has a big section on geometry, which is a really fun area that people don't do much in school.

Here's my rough list of textbook recommendations. There are a ton of Dover paperbacks that I didn't put on here, since they're not as widely used, but they are really great and really cheap.

Amazon search for Dover Books on mathematics

There's also this great list of undergraduate books in math that has become sort of famous: https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~abhishek/chicmath.htm

Pre-Calculus / Problem-Solving

• The Art of Problem Solving - Lehoczky/Ruczyk - in two volumes, both have full solutions available separately
  
  Calculus
  
  
• Calculus - Stewart - ignore the bad reviews, it's very clear and covers all of basic calculus well - it's just the book that most intro students use and as a consequence gets a bad rap
  
  
• Calculus - Spivak - this will take your understanding of calculus to the next level
  
  
• Calculus - Apostol - there are two volumes and they are very comprehensive, albeit difficult
  
  Linear Algebra
  
  
• Linear Algebra - Lay
  
  
• Linear Algebra Done Right - Axler
  
  Differential Equations
  
  
• Elementary Differential Equations - Boyce/DePrima
  
  
• Ordinary Differential Equations - Tenenbaum
  
  Number Theory
  
  
• Number Theory - Pommersheim for a change of pace and proof skills
  
  Proof-Writing
  
  
• Transition to Higher Mathematics - Dumas/McCarthy - helps to bridge the gap between "lower" and higher math
  
  Analysis
  
  
• The Way of Analysis - Strichartz
  
• Principles of Mathematical Analysis - Rudin
  
• Real and Complex Analysis - Rudin
  
  Complex Analysis
  
  
• Complex Analysis - Ahlfors
  
  Functional Analysis
  
  
• Functional Analysis - Rudin
  
  
• Introductory Functional Analysis with Applications - Kreyszig
  
  Partial Differential Equations
  
  
• Partial Differential Equations for Scientists and Engineers - Farlow
  
  Higher-dimensional Calculus and Differential Geometry
  
  
• Calculus on Manifolds - Spivak - for a modern take on multivariable calculus
  
  
• Differential Geometry - Kreyszig
  
  Abstract Algebra
  
  
• A First Course in Abstract Algebra - Fraleigh
  
• Abtract Algebra - Dummit and Foote
  
  Geometry
  
  
• The Elements - Euclid - for culture and for understanding where math has come from, plus it's still an awesome book after all these years; don't need to go through all of it
  
• Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometries - Greenberg
  
  Topology
  
  
• Introduction to Topology - Mendelson
  
  
• Topology - Munkres
  
  Set Theory and Logic
  
  
• Introduction to Set Theory - Hrbacek/Jech
  
  
• Elements of Set Theory - Enderton
  
  
• Mathematical Logic - Kleene
  
  
• Set Theory and the Continuum Hypothesis - Cohen
  
  Combinatorics / Discrete Math
  
  
• Combinatorics - Cameron
  
  
• Concrete Math - Graham/Knuth/Patashnik
  
  
• Discrete Math - Biggs
  
  Graph Theory
  
  
• A First Course in Graph Theory - Chartrand/Zhang
  
  P. S., if you Google search any of the topics above, you are likely to find many resources. You can find a lot of lecture notes by searching, say, "real analysis lecture notes filetype:pdf site:.edu"
  

you don't need a business school to experience the core of this class ...

Here's a link to Steve Blank's HBR article on The Lean Startup. Also a series of free lectures that Steve Blank put up on  Udacity, called "How to Build a Startup" a course that over 500,000 people have viewed.    These lectures are supported by a book that Steve Blank wrote with Bob Dorf called The Startup Owners Manual, as well as a best selling business book by Alexander Osterwalder called  Business Model Generation. You may also want to see Alexander's other book, Value Proposition Design for more input/insight.

Learning to See is a pretty good tool... it goes over VSMs, but it gets into Toyota Production Methods and is basically just a good place to start. If you know absolutely nothing about Six Sigma, Six Sigma For Dummies isn't awful - my trainer kept a copy on his desk.

Ooooh maaaan, this is my wheelhouse! I'm finishing my masters in Design Studies, and my area of practice is interaction design.

I don't have time right now to write the kind of in-depth, tailored response that your questions deserve, but I can at least recommend some books and academic journals!

Books

• Normative Ethics by Shelly Kagan (This isn't about design, but if I can only recommend one book on ethics then this is it. I can't recommend it highly enough.)
  
• Design as Politics by Tony Fry
  
• Design as Future-Making by Susan Yelavich and Barbara Adams
  
• Design and the Question of History by Tony Fry, Clive Dilnot, and Susan Stewart
  
• Design for the Real World by Victor Papanek
  
• The Politics of the Artificial by Victor Margolin
  
• The Reflective Practitioner by Donald Schon
  
• Thoughtful Interaction Design by Jonas Löwgren
  
  Journals
  
  
• Design Studies
  
• Design Issues
  
• Design Philosophy Papers
  
• Design and Culture
  
• Interactions
  
  (To access the actual journal articles, go to an academic library or use Sci-Hub to look up the DOIs of articles you want to read.)

I've been reading this book called Everything is Obvious: *Once You Know The Answer that goes over applying historical significance to events as they transpire. Basically, you cannot apply a historical significance or label to a time or event until sometime down the line when the implications are settled.

Here are some quotes from the book:

> History cannot be told while it is happening, therefore, not only because the people involved are too busy or too confused to puzzle it out, but because what is happening can’t be made sense of until its implications have been resolved. And when will that be? As it turns out, even this innocent question can pose problems for commonsense explanations.

...

> Choices that seem insignificant at the time we make them may one day turn out to be of immense import. And choices that seem incredibly important to us now may later seem to have been of little consequence. We just won’t know until we know. And even then we still may not know, because it may not be entirely up to us to decide.

...

> In much of life, in other words, the very notion of a well-defined “outcome,” at which point we can evaluate, once and for all, the consequences of an action is a convenient fiction. In reality, the events that we label as outcomes are never really endpoints. Instead, they are artificially imposed milestones

Will this time be considered an enlightened time? Maybe. Maybe the world will collapse in a few decades and it'll be considered the apex of humanity. Maybe political and social logjams will free in a few decades ushering in an unimaginable golden age from which this current time will look like a time of stunted growth. Basically, history is hindsight so you can't really discuss history by extrapolating on the present or future.

EDIT: Formatting.

The Master Algorithm by Pedro Domingos.
Impressive breadth and depth. Also great writing that explains complex ideas understandably.

https://www.amazon.com/Master-Algorithm-Ultimate-Learning-Machine/dp/0465065708/

I can't tell you yet, but I just ordered Annie Duke's Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts and I expect it to fit the bill.

When I was an undergrad I took an MBA data mining class where we used Data Mining for Business Intelligence. I found it great for explaining why you'd use a technique to solve a particular problem. The only issue is it uses XLMiner to teach, which is an Excel add-on sold by the authors. But you should be able to follow it just fine without it.

> finding science based evidence for law of attraction, mind over matter, and we are all one consciousness etc and I think we are now entering a new paradigm where science and "woo-woo" are finally meeting.

This statement is spot on, I couldn't agree more with your suggestion that we are approaching a "new dawn" of understanding of ourselves and how we are all inter-related. Reminds me of this book I read back in college called Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life.

I feel that the Law of Attraction is a very powerful and real thing and I fear that many may loose faith in it when things don't go their way straight off. Too often we seem sort of stuck on this idea of instant access, on-demand type of solutions to our problems. There doesn't seem to be a more guilty party than social media who dresses up everyone to be this version of themselves that they want the world to believe.

Without backstory my biggest problem with meditation is the fact that I had been involved in an accident earlier last year. The injury renders my right leg nearly worthless and while it is still fully intact and whatnot, I cannot bend it more than 45° or so. Does being unable to bend certain ways destroy the idea of meditation or yoga as a whole?

Thanks for your comment as well. Your knowledge of LOA is as impressive as your proper grammar. Something I only one day dream of having. Thanks again! (:

Honestly, the mechanics of options trading won’t actually determine your success and profitability. So, before you nerd out on the Greeks and investigate negatively skewed distributions of return, you need to overcome bad psychological habits that plague piss-poor gamblers like us degenerates on this subreddit ... So, yeah, check out this book first: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Bets-Making-Smarter-Decisions/dp/0735216355

Links!

Effective Data Visualization

Storytelling With Data

The Accidental Analyst

Data At Work

Effective Data Visualization and Data At Work are in the driver's seat. I really want to try Data At Work, but I struggle to find enough reviews to convince a purchase. Thanks!

Artificial Intelligence: Structures and Strategies for Complex Problem Solving by Luger. Used it in my AI course. Good introduction. Broad, comprehensive, I've used it as reference later. Introduction to Prolog and Lisp as well.

I fully agree regarding the news. To follow on to this- Hans and Ola Rosling's TED Talk from 2014, How not to be ignorant about the world, genuinely helped me. Their later 2018 book, Factfulness, further helped focus my understanding of things. Things are better than it seems for the vast majority of humanity.

You should really read Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think!

Basically, population growth is one thing we're all instinctually terrible at getting right. He explains it very well in the book (Page 76 begins the section "The Mega Misconception that 'The World Population is just increasing and increasing'") but here's a short overview:

We are currently in a population boom because more babies are surviving into adulthood.

As more babies in a culture survive, the mean number of births per family decreases.

Right now, we have 7 billion people. 2b are children. 4b are adults. and 1b are elderly.

By the end of the century, we will have 11b people. However, still only 2b of them will be children. 6b now will be adults (these are today's children and their children). And 3b will be elderly.

The key concept is that the number of children in 50 or 75 years will be the same number as today. The population boom will have stabilized.

​

https://imgur.com/UWei3b1

https://imgur.com/bwHXfN9

https://imgur.com/P6ZIs5S

https://imgur.com/qIL5RBd

​

Pls get started with statistics and probability theory, then python. Practice python to make sure you understand statistics correctly, on simple examples with known solutions/answers.

Otherwise you'll be another "algo trader" asking what's wrong with his "16 trades per 10 years backtest that yields 1000%" with tripple leverage.

There's a great book "Algorithms to Live By" (https://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Decisions-ebook/dp/B015CKNWJI/), ideally you'll need to apply similar level of problem solving approach to anything you develop

> she had a good idea (that kids would respond to more complex stories than the publishing industry was putting out at the time) and the skills and determination necessary to see it through.

Everything is Obvious (once you know the answer). I don't think there's a simple one sentence explanation for why HP in particular took off. A lot of unforeseeable things went right.

Applied linear regression is AWESOME. I'm doing a PhD and literally every professor and student who has used that book keeps it in their bookshelf.

Applied Linear Regression Models- 4th Edition with Student CD (McGraw Hill/Irwin Series: Operations and Decision Sciences) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0073014664/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_QELBzbTXHSTE5

here's a book that talks about the variance of luck vs skill in sports and how it affects the eventual outcome. the author essentially states that the variance of luck and skill is greater between players in basketball than hockey. the elite basketball players in the NBA are greatly better than the worst NBA players and the margin between elite hockey and bottom level NHL is not as great. plus the basketball players are allowed to have more time/possession of the ball than hockey players, which would lead to their skill being utilized more.

https://www.amazon.com/Success-Equation-Untangling-Business-Investing/dp/1422184234

Yes! Everyone should read this book! Very important message!

https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better-ebook/dp/B0756J1LLV

I'm digging spotify's player lately, but I dislike how unwell my local files are integrated into my music. For instance, when I search for a song in the search tab, it only searches for spotify-hosted music. In order to get my local music, I have to go to the local music tab and then search there. This is frustrating as I have put a lot of time into my library before I was in Spotify and it is all lossless and I never get to use it.

Also, when it does display both my local copy of the file and the spotify version, it not only displays both (I shouldn't have to look at a duplicate) but I can't tell which one is which because there are no identifiers that I know of.

Something I like about Spotify is the way they integrate last.fm. All I have to do is check it in preferences and I don't have to have the last.fm application up in order to scrobble. This is how it should be.

A way to get all my album art and song information, even for my illegitimate copies of my music, would be wonderful. A while back I was looking for a program that did this, the only one I was able to find that worked (it barely does work) was FetchArt. At least on my 2010 MBPro with Snow Leopard, this program is a piece of crap that barely works, please integrate a better way into your player and I will be sold.

I really like spotify's one star system. See: The paradox of choice.

TL;DR: Spotify capabilities, seamless album art/metadata collection and spotify-like Last.fm capabilties.

Barabasi's "Linked" could also be great for whetting readers' appetite.

This may not be helpful for your midterm, but if you want a good reference for the future you could check out Applied Linear Regression Models by Kutner [https://www.amazon.com/Applied-Linear-Regression-Models-Student/dp/0073014664/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1540747831&sr=8-1]. You could probably find a PDF online if you can't find a copy in the library.

A great book on the topic of improvement in the world is Factfulness by Hans Rosling. He gave a several talks which inspired the book, which was his last contribution before passing away from cancer. The book is entertaining, thought-provoking, and optimistic. One of the main points he makes is that not acknowledging world progress is more than a mistake; it has real, negative repercussions--because when we don't acknowledge progress, we are in danger of stopping the actions that made the progress possible. He argues acknowledging the good is paramount if we are to eradicate the bad. I like that argument. It is a rationale reason to be optimistic.

If you get down about the state of the world, and I agree it is easy to do, read that book.

Since Thinking Fast and Slow is already recommended, I also recommend Annie Duke's Thinking in Bets.

If you want a review, here's mine.

I've heard lots of good things about "Thinking in Bets".

https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Bets-Making-Smarter-Decisions/dp/0735216355/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521503411&sr=8-1&keywords=thinking+in+bets

I'm about to finish up reading Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. I plan on reading Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian.

However, I'm looking for an nice fictional book to read alongside it. Any suggestions?

• The Startup Owner's Manual by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf
  
• [Business Model Generation by A. Osterwalder] (http://www.amazon.com/Business-Model-Generation-Visionaries-Challengers/dp/0470876417/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453755761&sr=8-1&keywords=business+model+generation)
  
• [Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want] (http://www.amazon.com/Value-Proposition-Design-Customers-Strategyzer/dp/1118968050/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1453755761&sr=8-2&keywords=business+model+generation)

Buy the book Value Proposition Design: http://www.amazon.com/Value-Proposition-Design-Customers-Strategyzer/dp/1118968050

Apply the book

I'll take that as "no, I don't have any evidence that specifically supports my claim."

On the subject of the obvious--turns out it's not all that easy to guess. More here

Check out this book: http://www.amazon.com/Paradox-Choice-Why-More-Less/dp/0060005688

It talks about how we can become frozen by the amount of choices we have and how indecisive we are as a culture. Always afraid to make a decision because something better might be out there.

Author is Albert-Iászló Barabási.

Maybe try "The Master Algorithm" by Pedro Domingos: http://www.amazon.com/The-Master-Algorithm-Ultimate-Learning/dp/0465065708

This one?

Can't find it either, but they use this textbook: www.amazon.com/Applied-Linear-Regression-Models--Student/dp/0073014664/

The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465065708/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_g9SrDbYJW7GRQ

Here's a link to the book I used:

https://www.amazon.com/Data-Mining-Business-Intelligence-Applications/dp/0470526823

https://www.amazon.com/Linked-Everything-Connected-Business-Everyday/dp/0465085733

I think the natural human instinct when granted more choices is to obsess more. There's a body of research out there that indicates more often than not, more choices leads to paralysis by analysis Book or TED talk. That's not an absolute obviously, but I think it is the case for many if ot most. Speaking from personal experience, the more options I have on the table, the less likely I am to seriously invest in any given one of them.

Some of you need to read Factfulness by Hans Rosling. It is a great book talking about how this exact moment in human history is the safest, most transformative, most peaceful, time period we have ever had. The news profits off of negative articles by appealing to the natural fears that we all have inside of us. No one wants to watch a news segment about how child mortality has fallen from 18.2% in 1960 to 4.3% in 2015 because it’s a slow decline over decades of diligent work by governments and health organizations, and it simply does not get as many views as say a Hurricane. Instead the news organizations post murder stories, hate crimes, premeditated violence to ignite that biological fear and to get a reaction, despite violent violent crime rate falling 49% between 1993 and 2017

Tl/dr - the world is a lot better than the news shows. Take 5 minutes to do some research, and you will feel much more comfortable and optimistic about the world you live in.

> The less-is-more world is here. Get used to it.

It's been with us since the start, manufacturers just lost sight of it for a while.

• A primer
  
• A book

>If our only option is to fight the system and bring in new options then it looks like it's working in many areas, and needs to be applied to others.

This only works when there is a clearer argument and hopefully a "this or that" dichotomy. Once you add more ideas than just a question of black or white, then the vast majority of people stop caring. If enough stop caring then the few enlightened folks aren't going to be able to fix the world.

If you want some reference for this just look at something related about global warming and a book about too many choices

The world is not getting better, it's getting more apathetic with people just doing whatever they feel they can do to fix problems with as little effort as possible. Hell, I can't even be bothered to sign a petition or donate money for various horrific things I've heard about or been witness to because there is just too many things happening for me to give up all my time no matter how important they are. Instead I've been doing less and less as I've been aware of more and more. The studies and books I've read about these issues and the little I understand about psychology supports this as a mass movement and not an anecdotal support of limited data.

I'd love to think the world is moving in a better direction, but it's stagnating or slipping into woeful agony as people take cell phone pictures to post of facebook telling others to fix it while we all stand idle. A world full of everyone living vicariously is what we are approaching...someday soon everyone will just watch syndicated news because there is no new news - nothing new is happening.

Obviously people's changing perspective affects their behavior along with cultural and social norms, from views on slavery to civil rights or from war to types of government over the ages, but all of that and our reactions to it are based on human nature. We all have biases, complex motivations, and evolved tendencies which can make us get jealous, angry, and so on resulting in horrible mistakes, while also causing us to fall in love, express gratitude, and feel empathy with others, along with the unintended consequences and unexpected results which can always haunt us.

That doesn't mean we can't temper unwanted behavior through laws criminalizing violence, shunning bigotry in media, or removing incentives to cheat, while supporting desirable behavior by promoting education, rewarding cooperation, and building helpful institutions, which people have been attempting to do for millennia. Sometimes these attempts succeed in addressing one problem yet cause other issues we didn't expect, such as the rise of globalism. Other times they fail miserably and hurt even more people than they were meant to help, like the war on drugs.

Our perspectives on the world motivate or discourage us from implementing the changes we think it needs, yet through it all we are still bound by human nature and the consequences of trying to apply our lofty ideals onto the slippery nature of reality. Meaning that no matter what perfectly moral laws we create, people will still react with violence in times of stress. That however much we condemn racism, people are prone to categorizing others as different. And while we can educate people better than anyone else in the past, ignorance will always cause problems.

This doesn't mean the world hasn't been getting better than the past, it truly has in many ways, but that unless we start changing our DNA, some humans will continue to make the same old mistakes we've made for millennia, only with fewer and fewer people making those mistakes as progress marches on.

(I realize this was less an answer to your question and more of a concept I wanted to express to anyone willing to read it. And for anyone wanting to know more on how things are actually getting better, The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker, and Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling explain things much better than I could.)

"My" data on Fukushima is from the National Police Agency of Japan and Ichiseki (2013). According to police records, the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami caused 15,894 confirmed deaths, and 2,546 people are still missing (as of December 2017).

Tanigawa et al. (2012) concluded that 61 very old people in critical health conditions died during the hasty evacuation.

About 1,600 further deaths were indirectly caused by other kinds of problems for mainly elderly evacuees, reports Ichiseki:

>The reconstruction agency reports that more than 95% (1206) of victims were aged 60 years or older. About 64% (814) had chronic diseases. About 48% (608) of deaths were confirmed within 1 month, and 78% (986) within 3 months after the earthquake. The most common cause of death was “physical or mental fatigue from life at evacuation shelters” (n=638 [33%]), followed by “fatigue from moving to evacuation shelters” (401 [21%]), “aggravation of illnesses due to halted hospital operations” (283 [15%]), and “excessive mental and physical stress caused by the earthquake and tsunami” (150 [8%]).

Nobody was reported dying from the nuclear leak, and WHO concludes that it might be possible to detect a small increase of mortality, but that it is expected to occur in a very limited group of people.

According to Pew in 2012, 76 percent of people in Japan believed that food from Fukushima was dangerous. The contamination of the very word Fukushima is discussed in the book “Hazards, Risks, and Disasters in Society” by John Shroder (2014).

It's really cool that a lot of elderly people found a new purpose in life by being united after living so far apart for so long. But moving is not easy for sick and old people and it causes a lot of health problems as well.

Anyway, the main point I guess is that our fears are disproportionate to the reality of what causes harm.