Category Archives: Book review
Review of “R Graphs Cookbook” by Hrishi Mittal
Executive summary: Extremely useful for new users, informative to even quite seasoned users. Refereeing Once upon a time a publisher asked if I would referee a book (unspecified) about R. In an instance that can only be described as psychotic I said yes. That bit of insanity turned out to be a good thing. I … Continue reading
Some quibbles about “The R Book” by Michael Crawley
A friend recently bought The R Book and I said I would tell him of problems that I’ve noticed with it. You can eavesdrop. Page 4 The word “library” is used instead of “package”. This (common) error substantially raises the blood pressure of some people — probably to an unwarranted extent. An R package is … Continue reading
Review of “Obliquity” by John Kay and “Drive” by Daniel Pink
How could a book about indirectly solving problems and one about human motivation be saying the same thing? Obliquity Chapter 1 (and more) is about happiness. We’ve been here before — with a review of The Happiness Equation. Unlike The Happiness Equation, this book gives us some real insight into happiness. Kay divides happiness into … Continue reading
Review of “Brain Rules” by John Medina
Finally, an operator’s manual for the human brain. You should read this book, but in the meantime I’ll summarize the rules over which you have some control: exercise don’t be boring repeat to remember sleep chill out don’t be boring don’t be boring be curious The greatest of these is curiosity. Schools A quote from … Continue reading
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Review of “The Happiness Equation” by Nick Powdthavee
Your happiness probably lies outside this book. Fund management If you think this topic remote from fund management, I think you’re wrong. Suppose that we deliver a lot of wealth to a person as they retire. We’ve done well in terms of wealth management. Now, suppose that we made the world an undesirable place in … Continue reading
A quant review of “The Quants” by Scott Patterson
There were giant mutant quants destroying every … Oh, sorry. That was ants not quants, and it was a Japanese movie not a book. Given my blog’s remit, it seems obligatory to review this book. The full title is significant. It is “The Quants: How A New Breed Of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street And … Continue reading
