Random Acts of Medicine (Anupam Jena and Christopher Worsham, 2023)

(244 pages)

Had seen great reviews on this but did not find it all that useful - that's not really a knock on the book, but Taleb and Kahneman (just read within the last few weeks/months) cover a lot of similar concepts in a way that I found more helpful.

Jena is "Freakanomics" podcast host; I don't listen to these but I know they are highly regarded.

Some of the studies have been in the news - how ADHD diagnoses fall on the very youngest boys in a class; the effect on cardiac patient care if an incident happens when the big guns are off at a conference.  Also look at things like the effect of a provider's birthday on care, whether it's better to have a younger or older doctor in hospitalist (get younger unless older consistently handles high volume) or surgery (probably the older) settings, etc.

But studies are notoriously difficult to construct so have limits; no clear takeaway here, I think we best continue to rely on referrals.  But there are items to keep in mind.

   

The Spy and the Traitor (Ben Macintyre, 2019)

 (335 pages)

Book club selection by POC.

Story of Oleg Gordiansky, KGB agent who rose through the ranks but started working with British intelligence - this continues for years, including during London postings. Gordiansky disaffected by building of Berlin Wall, crushing of Prague Spring (1968); seems to have acted out of ideological conviction, not for money, perhaps other motivations as this is hard to sort out.  

Lots of important information revealed, some quite helpful as Thatcher and Reagan governments deal with a declining Soviet Union and then Gorbachev.

The author can make all of this quite interesting; for example, the story of the escape from Moscow is quite good (playing Finlandia for a fellow in the trunk!)  Several close calls; Aldrich Ames appears. Sneaky rendezvous tactics.

Downside - to me, this was just another spy tale; very little to be learned and I think could have been told effectively with far less detail.  Does help illuminate the stresses under which these folks operate.  

More than Enough (Mike Piper, 2023)

Another book discussing how to handle assets later in life once it seems that you aren't at risk of outliving your savings. Good discussion but pretty much nothing new compared to other stuff I've read in recent years.

Similar to Die With Zero.

Thinking, Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman, 2011)

(418 pages)

Had heard a lot about this book but didn't check it out until PJr loan of his copy.

Starts with useful discussion of "System 1" and "System 2".

System 1 - efficiency! Once it finds a cause, it likes to rely on it.  Operating continuously, establishing what's normal, alert to threats. Evolution.

Taleb's "The Black Swan" has similarities - efficiency. Useful if not essential for day to day, but prone to error.  Narrative fallacy - we love stories. 

System 2 - the "stop and think" element, though lazy; likes to rely on S1; interaction between S1 and S2 can be hard to sort out despite many clear cases.

Plenty of other good ideas, too many for me to keep track of. 

Base rates - keep in mind as a control on both systems.

Regression effects - complex.

WYSIATI - an easy mistake, I try to get better at trying to think about what is not visible or evident in a given situation.

He cites a definition of intuition that is interesting - essentially it's a cue that retrieves something from memory - persons with vast relevant experience will have more items stored in memory that can be retrieved with the proper cue - we call it intuition but it's really memory.  Makes sense.

But emphasizes trusting rules/algorithms and not intuition/hunches.  Hmm.

The "hot hand" fallacy in sports. I still don't buy it, which probably proves one of his points.

The discussion about the difference between lived experience and remembered experience is interesting, illuminating, not solvable but useful:

"Odd as it may seem, I am my remembering self, and the experiencing self, who does my living, is like a stranger to me." (p 390)

That quote seemed absolutely Proustian.

Extensive reliance on experiments and studies.  Sufficiently robust?  Replicable? Me doubtful but not smart enough to draw a conclusion.  

The book is highly useful no matter.

Sicily '43 - The First Assault on Fortress Europe (James Holland, 2020)

(499 pages)

I'd never read much about this - it sort of falls into a gap between all the activity in North Africa and then larger Italian mainland campaign.

Summer 1943; largest amphibious landing to that point, by a long shot.  So there was lots of learning to be done.

Success seems inevitable in hindsight.  But terribly difficult. Very difficult to storm beaches even with materiel advantages.

Nighttime paratrooper drops - disaster.  Little effect on outcome, however.  Lots to learn, somewhat helpful at Normandy.

Italian troops just not ready - or inspired- in any sense - offered little resistance.

Hermann Goering division touted by name but cobbled together and not very effective.

German balancing needs on eastern front - Kursk battle going on right at this time (July 1943).  Hitler worried about "southern flank" and does move men and material from the east.

German reinforcements arrive - higher quality. Many very difficult local situations, lots of casualties, seems discouraging in a fight whose outcome both sides could readily foresee.  Germans fall back to the NE corner of the island, then they do a good job falling back into the "toe" of the Italian "boot".  And surviving to make difficult fighting for the Allies as they push up into Italy (the author's next book).

This author does a good job weaving individual narratives within the overall story line.  Also history of Sicily, including mafioso development (the Fascists had mostly subdued them and many emigrated to America; the Allies found them useful including in the postwar period, reinvigorating them).  I hadn't known much about Sicily before this other than classical tales, Arab pirates, lingering poverty.