The 5 Books That Will Help You Never Make a Mistake
The 5 Books That Will Help You Never Make a Mistake
or at least help you think more analytically, close enough.
You are your worst enemy — Leon Brown
Cliche? Sort of, but I’ll explore this idea differently than most. Instead of looking at it how you garner negative thoughts that can be detrimental to our mental health, I want to explore your mundane thoughts. Thoughts that on the surface, appear harmless. Moreover, thoughts that stem from our biases.
In, Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman’s details the science of how we make decisions. His argument is that we have two states of thinking that we use interchangeably without noticing the consequences. Because I don’t have much expertise in psychology or biology, I suggest reading his book to understand the science behind our shortcomings.
I will discuss books that talk about the impact data analysis contributes. It’s not only for academia. With the wave of AI and Big Data, different sectors are using data to make better judgment and predictions. However, it can be difficult to separate signal from noise. Especially because of the media, advertisements, and pundits constant push for our attention, it can be difficult to pinpoint honesty.
And to be frank, I don’t think we can eliminate our biases. However, strengthen our skepticism can lead us to analytical and logical thinking. Our experiences and intuition do have merit as well. Thus, I believe in coupling our experiences with data and research.
A perfect example is our views on cigarettes and lung cancer. In the 60s and 70s, there were arguments that cigarettes were not the cause of lung cancer. Companies had an incentive to push this belief into the public with people facing the consequences of their judgments. It’s ridiculous in hindsight. A greater emphasis on data and research could have helped people with better judgments. Thus, we should use our experience as a template. But we need to redefine our views with data and research.
So how can I be more analytical?
I don’t know. I will offer books that show the value of thinking analytical. But first, we have to understand the struggle of others more. Hence, I suggest reading my previous article on books that have helped me.
Note: The link to all the books will be redirected to my Amazon associated link, so, just saying you will be helping a college student out.
[1) Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J.
Dubner](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060731338/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0060731338&linkCode=as2&tag=alexguanga-20&linkId=f53754c23d4e20c39382468c7c87fb0a)
This book details the impact that conducting analysis has on understanding the hidden truth. Despite Steven Levitt’s academic background, he is practical. For example, he compares the similarities real estate agents to the KKK with evidence. After reading this book, you’ll begin to understand how wrong our misconception can be. It was surprising to me. You will develop skepticism. And not in a bad way. When companies, influencers, a news channel have to sell, well, they will sell even if they report inaccurate and outlandish information. Thus, having some skepticism can be of value. You won’t get much on the statistics or analysis. However, you’ll read how erroneous some misconceptions can be.
[2) Everybody Lies by Seth
Stephens-Davidowitz](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062390856/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=alexguanga-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0062390856&linkId=38a6469ce39f407e84952f7a1703c720)
We all lie. No shit, Sherlock. Well, lies create difficulties in assessing metrics in fields like academia, business, politics, etc. Thus, we can never accurately measure the effects of products, services, or policies.
And here comes Google to the rescue. Seth gets information from Google. People tend to be honest when using Google. Thus, Seth analyzed these searches to discover how terrible people we all are. Just kidding. But to some extent, he has learned that racism isn’t divided between South and North, but it’s divided into West and East. Even in upstate New York. Like Freakonomics, this book emphasizes results rather than methodology. You will get some information on probabilities, but the strength of this book is the results.
[3) The Signal and the Noise by Nate
Silver](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143125087/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=alexguanga-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0143125087&linkId=f7fc05263bdf8c980c58d340c079463f)
I’m currently reading this book. I’ve read 3/4th of the book so far. And, if you don’t know Nate Silver, well you should. Anyways, this book is great.
His book covers weather, economic, poker and baseball forecasting. I mean, who doesn’t love baseball? His main argument is explaining the difficulty with accurately forecasting. Nate continues by sharing his experience with predicting. And he believes that it’s hard. Predictions will never be 100% accurate or even close. But in the long-run, they can be a great tool to make better judgments.
[4) How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking by Jordan
Ellenberg](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143127535/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=alexguanga-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0143127535&linkId=f80d80b6e2654452a226408bf284bec6)
Jordan does something most people can’t do. Make math fun. Or at least somewhat
tolerable. He explains ideas in math that teachers and professors typically
teach without any explanation. For example, you’ll know why pi is a long
irrational number starting with 3.1415…
Do you know that?
Secondly, he describes the thought process behind a mathematician decision-making. Unlike the previous recommendations, this book places a higher emphasis on the math. And if you’re into that, I suggest reading this book.
[5) Money Ball by Michael
Lewis](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393324818/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=alexguanga-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0393324818&linkId=09f916f5e5e96f699aac55c77e6961b5)
Out of all these recommendations, this book is the most field-specific. It presents the importance of statistics and numbers in baseball. I don’t think there’s anything better than baseball and statistics. Bill James, the father of the saber-metric movement, understood that baseball was a flawed game. Not because of players but because of the front office.
They didn’t use their resources responsibly. A lot of the big money teams would lose yet having large budgets. Bill James looked at stats that matter to measure players.
These are my favorite books in this field so far. If you want to bridge analytics with real-world application, I suggest reading these 5 books. If you have suggestions of your own, I would love to hear them.
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