Book Spotlight #6: The Organized Mind

 

"The Organized Mind"

By: Daniel Levitin

Quote Highlight: "The global economy means we are exposed to large amount of information that our grandparents weren't. We hear about revolutions and economic problems in countries halfway around the world right as they're happening; we see images of places we've never visited and hear languages spoken we've never heard before. Our brains are hungrily soaking all this in because that is what they're designed to do, but at the same time, all this stuff is competing for neuroattentional resource with the things we need to know to live our lives."          - Daniel Levitin

Do you ever feel as if the world is spinning faster and faster? This feeling that your life is increasingly flying past your eyes and you can't seem to put a finger on why. If you find yourself thinking “this must be new, it’s only just yesterday that everything seemed to move slower,” you may be correct. Daniel Levitin, a neuroscientist at McGill University, uses his knowledge of human cognition to explain why this now common phenomenon may be taking place.

This feeling that time is moving faster, of us humans being tired and forgetful is not ephemeral. It is real and it hinges on the new information age we have recently created. As Levitin explains, our brains were hardwired thousands of years ago, to focus on tasks that required concentration. Where to locate food, where to find shelter, these were important things for our brain to remember. Today, our brains are much more likely to remember driving directions than your Facebook password. He goes on to explain that our brains are becoming overwhelmed by all the information that is insistently pushed into our laps. Levitin brings in stories and humorous examples to take the complexities or neuroscience and simplify it so the reader can better understand what is happening.

Everything from old times to the rate at which our brain can process information. Speaking to one person, our brain processes 60 bits out of a possible 120. Trying to talk to two people at once, is barely doable. Once a third enters the mix, our brains become overwhelmed, and the only possible way to conversate is to switch between tasks, in this case, between speakers. Levitin goes on to explain that if we think we are multi-tasking well, think again. What we are actually doing is switching between different tasks extremely quickly. An example that shows this to be true occurs when you are driving down the highway. As you drive, you chat with friends in the car, but as your exit approaches, you quiet down and you may tell your friends in the car to quiet down as well, or you instinctively turn down the radio volume. This is your brain attempting to focus on taking the exit. It cannot multi-task effectively enough to find the exit while driving 70 mph, talking to your friends, and listening to the radio all at once. You need to concentrate on one task. Once you are formally on the exit ramp, you turn the radio back on and begin chatting again.

This cognitive phenomenon, that our brains are hardwired to concentrate and not to multi-task, may be why we feel so tired at the end of the day. Today, society is built around multi-tasking. People are texting, watching TV, talking, surfing the web, and playing a mobile game all at the same time. Let’s imagine a common scenario, you get home from work and sit down to watch the latest Netflix original series. As you begin to watch, your smartphone buzzes, it's an email notification. You ignore it but then it quickly buzzes again, this time a text, you write back and glance back at the TV. All the while Netflix is playing. Then another alert pops up on your phone, Lebron James just finished the game with 40 points, thank you ESPN app, now back to Netflix. And this loop continues throughout the waking day in some form or another. As much as you think that in this scenario you are multi-tasking, it isn't. This is ultimately what is making us feel tired and overwhelmed by ordinary everyday life. Your brain is being overly taxed. There are millions of distractions and notifications every minute of the day.

If all this is bad, what is driving our incessant need to check our smartphone or social media apps? Levitin explains how our brain gets a hit of dopamine each time we look at the phone. Thus, we are actually rewarding ourselves for becoming easily distracted. This becomes a sort of negative feedback cycle. The more distracted you become, the more your brain craves dopamine and ever more distractions ensue. At the very end of the day, you find yourself exhausted at all the work your brain has been doing at switching between tasks all day. This proves to be invaluable insight into the effects of the modern communication age. The future of new technologies remains uncertain, but this book allows us to at least understand what is happening to our brain and attention at a scientific level.

This book was very enlightening to read and I personally took to heart the idea that less is more. Technology is great, so long as you can harness it for good. Levitin offers all types of advice to stay organized and stay on task in today’s world. Some of his ideas I will definitely look to implement into my own life such as setting aside certain times of the day for different activities. At a certain set time, leave all distractions behind and focus on that task. Whether it is to clean your room, answer emails, workout, read a book… whatever. Only that task should occupy you. Turn off the television, put away the phone. If you’ve heard this advice before, Daniel Levitin proves with neuroscience that it is good advice. Find the book on Amazon here.

Book Spotlight #5: Of Mice and Men

"Of Mice and Men" 

By: John Steinbeck

Quote Highlight: "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They belong no place... They ain't got nothing to look ahead to." - George

One of John Steinbeck's Great Depression era novellas. This is a rather short story following two close companions, George and Lennie. The two travel through 1930s California from town to town searching for field work on a ranch. They end up at a place run by the owner's son, Curley. The pay is $50 for a month of labor but they both dream of a day working on a field they own. As soon as the pair show up at the ranch, it's clear that this place might be trouble. Who they meet and what occurs on Curley's ranch is what you'll have to read to find out.

One striking aspect of the story is how far ahead of his time Steinbeck was with his portrayal of Lennie. A man with a severe mental disability, he can barely remember what his best friend George told him just an hour ago. Steinbeck takes us inside the mind of this physically giant but mentally small man. A man with a genuine heart who finds he can do no right in a world that provides little help. George is quick to tell him how great it would be if he could leave Lennie behind and stop caring for him. But George also has a soft spot for Lennie for his own reasons, and continues to look out for him. The reader is left to speculate how exactly Lennie came to be the way he is, I found myself attached to these two characters that Steinbeck introduces just briefly. It's intriguing to read the interactions that Lennie has with other characters throughout the book. The reader is able to get a quick glimpse of people's attitudes towards someone with a mental disability from the vantage point of the 1930s. I found myself wondering if people's attitudes towards someone like Lennie have improved over time? 

The reader will come across some familiar social themes of the time as well. Woven into the story is Crooks, the black stable hand. There is also only one woman in the novel, known simply as Curley's wife. Steinbeck does a fantastic job of allowing the story itself to unfold in a way that allows the reader to quite clearly understand the theme coming across. Yet, it doesn't dilute the quality of the plot, simply enhances the depth of it. The reader is left with a quick story that packs a lot of punch.

I leave off with a high recommendation for this novella. It's a quick read, running only 100 pages or so depending on the version you have. If some of Steinbeck's lengthier novels scare you away, start off with this one and see if you get hooked. After burning through 100 pages, you may find yourself wanting more... and that's a good thing.

Book Spotlight #4: Descent into Chaos

"Descent into Chaos" 

by: Ahmed Rashid

Quote Highlight: "Six weeks before 9/11, an old Afghan friend of mine came to spend the day with me at my home in Lahore... At issue was his future, his safety, and the fate of his country... My friend was Hamid Karzai..." - Ahmed Rashid

What a whirlwind. I finally put this book down after a month of on and off reading, but wow, this was well worth it. Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist has put together a treasure trove of information on the US struggles against terrorist groups in the Middle East since 9/11. This book provides an in-depth review of who the Taliban are, why the US has been largely  unsuccessful in curtailing the terrorist groups in the region, as well as giving great insight into the Pakistani's role in aiding and funding militant groups. Ever wonder what Bin-Laden was doing holed up in Pakistan, only just miles away from Pakistan's version of West Point? This book has answers, and shines a light on the country's double dealings and serious misgivings in the fight against terrorism since 9/11. It seems the fight against the Taliban and other extremist groups, can not be analyzed without taking into account Pakistan's fight for Kashmir and great fear of arch-rival India. 

Rashid is able to intricately wind the reader through the links between state actors and terrorist groups in the region. He is highly critical of the Bush Administration, specifically Vice President Dick Cheney, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in his analysis; the neo-con masterminds of the previous decade. Although it's very easy to follow his logic and see the ways in which the administration fumbled certain aspects of the war in Afghanistan post 9/11, I'm almost certain there are rebuttals to some of his arguments. At some points, Rashid is entirely too black and white, when there are clear shades of gray involved in the Administration's decision making. However, it's important to understand that this book is written through a true Pakistani viewpoint, and taking that into account, it's easy to see how frustrated those in the region can be with the United States. That said, it's clear that through Rashid's eyes, the Bush Administration squandered some great opportunities to turn Afghanistan around right after 9/11. The US was able to win the War against the Taliban under Operation Anaconda with great success, utilizing limited troops and funding early on. Unfortunately, Rashid says, the US then got distracted with the upcoming War in Iraq, and refused to begin the subsequent nation building and security provisions to the Afghan populace that were necessary in the aftermath of the victory. This, coupled with Pakistan's reluctance to stamp out the Taliban, led to a resurgence just a few years later of the Taliban and an emergence of new groups as well.

This book opened my eyes up to a lot of views that are somewhat known, but not mentioned a lot in the mainstream. Specifically, Rashid sheds an enormous spotlight on the state of Pakistan. It's hard to come away from this book optimistic, as it's now 2015, and we see the reign of ISIS and other groups in the region. While specifically in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Taliban have not been crushed either. Unfortunately, the state of Pakistan, through the ISI (Pakistan's intelligence service) and the army, has been funding and providing safe haven for Taliban militants pre-9/11 and continues to do so post 9/11. According to Rashid, the Bush Administration failed to adequately pressure the Musharaf regime to clamp down on the ISI's support of the Taliban. After 9/11, the Taliban were able to escape into the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) of Pakistan and not only regroup, but set up shop. This is all intricately linked to the struggle between Pakistan and India in their fight over Kashmir. The Bush Administration, and the West, seem to be inclined to not pressure Pakistan too much because they fear the fall of a stable regime within the country. A worse case scenario that would see a country with nuclear weapons fall into instability and create a significant likelihood that powerful weapons could fall into bad hands. Although that makes strategic sense, it severely hampers the fight against the Taliban and other militant groups because of the support these groups are able to receive from elements inside of the Pakistani army and Intelligence services. So, although this is a known phenomenon, it's rarely discussed in the mainstream and this book opened up the details to the relationship between Pakistan and the Taliban. If you're someone who is at all interested in an in-depth and eye opening analysis of the War in Afghanistan and the fight against the Taliban, this is certainly the book for you. My only disclaimer is to be aware of the US foreign policy bashing, and bear with the incessant amount of names you will be opened up to.

Book Spotlight #3: Prelude to Foundation

"Prelude To Foundation" 
by: Isaac Asimov

Quote Highlight: "Halfway through the speech, Seldon realized he was speaking to the Emperor Cleon, First of that name, and he felt the wind go out of him." - Asimov

When mathematicians put pen to paper they tend to be writing a thesis or some textbook... one certainly doesn't expect a novel to come to light. Asimov is the exception. Having recently watched the HBO adaption of the Thrones series, I had to try George R.R. Martin's books for myself. No surprise, the book series blew the TV adaption out of the water. The genre of science fiction was back in for me. I instantly moved on to try out Asimov, who is referred to as the "father of sci-fi". He starting writing around age 10 and was completing full blown novels by the age 19. He's penned hundreds of publications but a few of his series's have become famous, including "The Foundation Series." If you've seen the movie I Robot with Will Smith,you've seen Asimov's work, it's based off a book of his. Get the picture? Now let us turn to the Foundation series, starting with, Prelude to Foundation.

The series is set in a time so far into the future that humans have inhabited not just our solar system or even our own galaxy, but multiple galaxies. It's a time so far from our own present day that the human species is not sure where they originated from, with multiple planets claiming to be the original birthplace. Some even scoff at the idea that humans came from one single planet. Obviously this book will make you think. Hari Seldon is our main character for the novel, a 32 year old mathematician. It starts with this young Seldon presenting a mathmatical paper during a convention on the capital planet of all known existence, Trantor. To give you some scope, this planet is home to over 40 Billion people in this futuristic planet, a planet so large that dozens of "farm planets" are needed to feed all the people living on it. Seldon presents his paper on a groundbreaking theory. He claims that it is theoretically possible to start mathematically predicting future events, coining the term psycho-history (a combination of math, sociology, and history). Of course the main story unfolds in the events that begin to take place after the presentation. The entire galaxy is at stake as the repercussions from Seldon's presentation are felt all the way up to the Emperor himself. Combining futuristic world's, advanced technology, and still human characters with everyday human emotions, it's hard not to get sucked into this world. I did.

Asimov's writing style is especially appealing to me. He writes in a way that allows the reader to draw their own conclusions, or forces you to try and deduce what will happen next. At the start of each chapter, there is a blurb in italics that comes with a few sentences quoted from the "Encyclopedia Galactica." These passages are clearly from sections of the encyclopedia that were written far into the future of the current time period in the book. Usually, the passage is a reflection on what will come in the next chapter or on one of the characters. In this way, the reader is able to begin to ascertain new facts and outside information that is not available at the time of the story. It's almost as if there is a history book that was written about the story you are reading and you get to read it while the story is ongoing. I can't give specific examples without ruining plot lines, so I hope that explanation was enough.

I highly recommend not just this book but the entire series. However, this book will get your feet wet and let you see if its a style for you. Although the story-line is advanced, twisting and turning, the character developments are not the emphasis for Asimov. As the crowned "father of science-fiction" his writing really does live up to the hype. The novel is set in a complex world where complex decisions are made, however the humans still maintain normal emotions and personal relationships that make for a nice equilibrium of futurism while still being relatable.

Book Spotlight #2: "The Innocents Abroad"

"The Innocents Abroad" 

by: Mark Twain

Quote Highlight: "This book is a record of a pleasure trip... to suggest to the reader how he would be likely to see Europe and the East if he looked at them with his own eyes instead of the eyes of those who traveled in those countries before him." - Mark Twain

Good ole' Mark Twain. Referred to as "The great American author" by the likes of greats such as Ernest Hemingway... even Kurt Vonnegut named his son Mark in honor of Twain. Everyone loves Mark Twain. This book of his may not be as well known as his more famous novels like, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" or "Tom Sawyer", but it's also written within a different context. At this point in his life, Twain was still in journalist mode. It's earlier in his career and he writes this book while on a steam ship journey throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. This reads more like your peering into Twain's own personal journal, gaining insight into his experiences abroad, though often through his satirical lens. Let me first give the back story on my own mindset while reading this book and how I came across it.

I purchased this book in one of the only English book shops in Florence, Italy, "The Paperback Exchange". Ideally located near the Duomo, it was a mere ten minute walk from where I was living at the time. So logically, this bookstore become a favorite spot of mine. I always enjoy having a book to read at night and so I came abroad with the latest Game of Thrones book in my arsenal. However, even that behemoth of a book only lasted me about a month. After concluding that, it was only about a week in the city before finding this shop to get my reading fix. While browsing, this book caught my eye for a number of reasons. First off, I read Mark Twain on the side and I always respect classic authors. I immediately picked it up to take a look. Also, at this point in my abroad expierence I was in the early stages of starting my own personal journal, and therefore I was subconsciously looking for advice and ideas on how to formulate my thoughts. So, here was a stellar author writing a journal styled novel about his expierence going abroad, and there I was abroad myself. The last hold up is always the sticker price, which turned out as not too bad and thus I headed to the checkout counter content with my choice.

Looking back at this a few months later, I will say reading this book has certainly aided my own journal writing  efforts. If I was able to craft my sentences with 1/1000 the skill of Twain, my journal might be something worth reading. That aside, it was quite pleasant to read about places that I was able to visit during my time in Europe that Twain also mentions and details in  this book. To see it through Twain's eyes 150 years before I did and then to compare that to the modern day was a cool experience and added to my perspective. This book also made me realize that travel really has some absurdity's about it, but the absurdity of traveling is part of what makes it worth your trouble. You're going to run into some crazy things, some crazy people, and some crazy foreign customs... but that's the idea. If travel wasn't foreign or crazy then what would be the point? Go about it with an open mind and enjoy it for what it is. Broaden your horizons, and broaden your views. At the end of the day you can always poke fun of any dumb things you do by writing about it later, just like Twain did.

This book begins with Twain outlining the advertisement for the voyage abroad that caught his eye. Starting off on the trip, as it departs from New York, he outlines daily life on the steam ship as they steam across the Atlantic. Twain does not hesitant to poke fun at and ridicule people he is accompanied by and people he meets along the way. In one sense, you begin to think Twain feels himself superior to almost all he encounters, but in another sense, you begin to see the reasoning behind his contempt. One instance, when the ship stops in Gibraltar and he explains that almost every person he runs into there feels the need to tell him about the myth of the rock of Gibraltar and this irks him to no end. If he could just look with his own eyes and not be told what he was looking at for a split second he might be able to enjoy the sight. You feel a sense of exasperation and Twain is ever so good at going into details of everything he is able to see and partake in. Satirical at plenty of points, I even found myself laughing here and there at the way Twain is able to paint certain circumstances as sheer absurdity.

Overall, I recommend this book to those who enjoy Twain as an author and are heading abroad. It's a good way to get additional context on what traveling was like two centuries ago. It worked for me and it might work for you.

Book Spotlight #1: "Why Nations Fail"

"Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty" 

by: Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson

Quote Highlight: referring to why nations fail, "What they all share is extractive industries. In all these cases the basis of these institutions is an elite who design economic institutions in order to enrich themselves and perpetuate their power at the expense of the vast majority of people in society." (page 399)

I recently finished reading this book on why nations have failed to obtain growth. Specifically, this book attempts to answer the question of, why are countries still lacking economic growth in an age of unprecedented wealth? What has been the focal point of much research by many political scientists and economists specializing, is why have developing countries that gained Independence in the last 50 years actually gone in reverse in terms of wealth and progress. In particular, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that upon Independence were on par in terms of GDP per capita with the countries such as South Korea. Since then, many countries have spiraled into a far worse state, meanwhile, today South Korea can no longer be considered a developing economy, it's joined the ranks of the industrialized west. Now, your smartphone might be produced by a large South Korean firm that you have probably heard of, Samsung. In the same context, Sub-Saharan Africa is looted for commodities that end up making up the parts to that very smartphone produced by Samsung. The result is that South Korea has a GDP per capita level that of many western countries, while the poorest people in the world are stuck in a "vicious cycle" taking place in Sub-Saharan Africa. This book tries to answer why this phenomenon has occurred, though it does so rather broadly, with an "institutional" theory. I'll attempt to quickly explain what this theory means and then summarize the book and my thoughts. 

The authors of this book distinguish between two types of institutions in the world, inclusive & extractive. This refers to the governing and civil institutions of a country, or the lack of governance separated into these two categories. Generally speaking, a society with inclusive institutions features a free press, a responsive government, a broad coalition of political inclusiveness and participation, property rights, public infrastructure projects, and public spending on healthcare and education. Conversely, an extractive institution is one in which there is no public infrastructure projects, there may be a lack of property rights, there is little political responsiveness to the public, and there is an elite group that maintains power and sees all the economic and political benefits of the system. Ultimately, the inclusive institutions create incentives for economic activity and thus bring about growth while extractive institutions siphon off all economic benefits of society to the controlling elite while killing any incentive to work. Put another way, why should a farmer invest in new technology or attempt to increase output if the government or warlords can come at anytime and take his crops, increase his tax burden exponentially or seize his land. Citing case studies ranging from Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, to East Asia, the authors speculate that the reason many countries remain poor today is solely because of the lack on inclusive institutions. The problem is, once extractive institutions are in place, it is very difficult for a country to break the mold and escape. There are huge incentives for other groups or factions to try to gain control of the extractive institution for its own benefit. Furthermore, there is no incentive for the system to be reformed when so many members of the elite are benefiting greatly, and any change may threaten their power, either economically or politically. Hence, countries get stuck in a "vicious cycle" where the extractive institution remains in place year and year, only changing hands between dictators or other groups.

This book is a good read if you find yourself interested in the economic development of the third world today. Increasingly, new literature is coming out against the use of foreign aid to developing countries, against the IMF and the World Bank policy programs, and more towards focusing on the internal institutional problems within those countries. This book has the view that foreign aid can help keep an elite group in control of the control by providing it with the funds to pay off supporters and increase its military capabilities for crackdowns, thereby limiting any economic activity. Compared with another book I read on the topic, Paul Collier's "The Bottom Billion" this book offers a different angle of attack and provokes a lot of thought about the role that institutions play. Collier focuses more on resource rich countries and the "resource trap", something I find convincing. Studying both explanations, you can begin to understand why countries are stuck in a poverty trap and why there seems to be little change year and year. This book also paints a very broad picture over large parts of history in its hypothesis, seemingly jumping to certain conclusions and giving the repeated explanation that inclusive institutions are necessary over and over again. I found the argument for exactly "why" these inclusive institutions developed in some parts of the world and not others lacking substance at some points. The authors immediately dismiss theories involving, geography, cultural, and poor economic policy decisions in the second chapter book. In my opinion, the development of inclusive institutions can be seen as somewhat "lucky" for many countries. I'll need to write an entire paper dissecting this statement I know but let me finish on this book first. On the whole, the Industrial Revolution came at a "critical juncture" as the authors put it, and those countries that were in a position to take advantage of this are the rich countries of today, while those that did not (because the institutions of the country forbid it) are still poor. Because technology moves so rapidly, the divergence between the really rich and really poor seems greater than ever. But how we have countries with no prior experience of inclusive institutions form them in a today's world, I'd be interested to know, for the authors do not provide any specific ideas.


This book was published in March 2012.