Thinking Fast And Slow - Book Review

The problem is that life is not about either Thinking Fast and Slow, it is about how they interact and the results of that interaction.

Written by Nobel Economics laureate Daniel Kahneman it is, if you will, about the "economics of thought." For example, the author notes, one may make a quick decision about a vacation trip or dining out and may then spend several hours, days or weeks planning that trip and all of its needs or taking the hour or two needed to decide which restaurant at which to eat.

If you put this on an economic scale it is where the "traditional supply line" crosses the "traditional demand line" that determines how we think and how we apply our thinking processes.

The winner of four major book awards for 2011, New York Times Review, Globe and Mail Best, The Economist's 2011 and the Wall Street Journal's Best Non-Fiction, this tightly written work is the first real challenge to the traditional ideas of how we think about critical problems.

For example, if you use the "fast" thinking model where you make a judgment and then carry out that judgment without further thought to any potential issues that may arise could lead you into problems. Here's an example from an old movie that applies directly to this type of thinking, a scene from "Romancing the Stone" in 1985: At one point, the hero parks his SUV in the middle of the road, just leaving it there while his collection of livestock is left in its cage and meantime, the heroine, who just jumps onto an airline, without ever having left the country before, gets onto the wrong bus which rams the SUV freeing the livestock, wrecking both vehicles. There's a lot of bang-shoot-em-up that follows, but in a macro sense, this is "fast" thinking at its peak. Eventually, something good comes of it, but it does take a bit of the "Slow" thinking and a strong grip by the hero to not only end up with the ultimate goal but a decent pair of boots.

Granted this is a case from the movies and it shows were near vertical fast thinking, running into almost linear slow thinking nearly fail to make the crossing but where they do the result is useful. And, granted this is a Hollywood action thriller and the only reason it is used here is as an example.

If you think about the example and apply Kahneman's work to the rest of the way that daily decisions and thoughts are made, it makes one realize that one some thought can have impacts in areas that are far away from the main line of linear thought. In other words, Kahneman shows, thinking is actually non-linear and involves fast-steps, slow-steps and areas that seem to have to bearing on a problem to begin with but which, when analyzed, are essential to the entire process in general.

Kahneman offers practical insights into the work of critical thought and, in his way, has given "critical thought analysis," whose science some social scientists have devoted tomes to, a new, quicker way to achieve a positive end.

In a lifetime of work, Kahneman's seminal work may not even be the one for which he won his economics prize, but for his work on thought.

Roberto Sedycias works as an IT consultant for ecommUS-Books

Book Review: The Tipping Point

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"It is safe to say that word of mouth is still the most important form of human communication."

-The Tipping Point

For those of us who make our living with our words, communication seems to be changing constantly. Athletic departments and teams are rushing to put up Facebook pages and create Twitter accounts to stay up-to-date. But it turns out that our (verbal) word still trumps all forms of social media...or so Malcolm Gladwell says in his book, The Tipping Point.

The rundown: The Tipping Point is about how epidemics start. He talks about regular old epidemics of sickness, but his major focus is on social epidemics. Like how certain books, cartoons, or clothes become popular. In our youTube world, I suppose we'd say "viral" now to mean social epidemic. For coaches interested in making an idea go viral on their team, this book could be helpful.

He identified three different types of people who are required for ideas to go viral: Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen.

Connectors are people who operate in many different social circles and have a gift for bringing those folks together in a way that's not awkward. Mavens accumulate and share knowledge...they're information brokers. Salesmen are the folks who persuade us when we are unconvinced of what we're hearing.

Recommended for: Coaches who are interested in how teams work. To me, Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen are almost like personality types. If we've got what we think is a great idea or we're planning on changing some things around on our team, identifying these key people on our teams will help us get buy in from the rest of the team. Using this information could prove vital in team management.

Not recommended for: Folks who don't want to have to stretch for coaching connections. This isn't a book about coaching or about sports. It's about how to make ideas go viral. If you're looking for quotations to put up in your locker room, then this isn't the book for you.

I enjoyed The Tipping Point, it made me think about my communication with my recruits, my current team, my alumni...everyone. Gladwell is a researcher with a gift of making tedious information more interesting. This isn't my favorite book of his, Outliers was a game changer for me, but I highly recommend this one as we think about how to get our ideas across to others.

Dawn Redd is the Head Volleyball Coach at Beloit College. Come visit Coach Dawn's community of coaching nerds and team leaders over at her blog, http://www.coachdawnwrites.com/, where she teaches how to become an excellent coach, motivate individuals, and build successful teams.

Her book, Coach Dawn's Guide To Motivating Female Athletes, is available for purchase on her website.

Follow Coach Dawn on Twitter: @CoachDawnWrites

Maphead - Book Review

Today, there's a subculture for everything. If you like white ponies, then you're part of that subculture and if you like pugs, you are a member of pug-lovers subculture. There is one culture, though, that has facets of not only being a subculture, but also culture, as well, and that is the map culture.

There are those people out there, such as Ken Jennings, who consider maps the Holy Grail. Maphead is the map to that Holy Grail. Mapping has facets that cut across all parts of just about every culture and subculture you can find because of one simple fact: you have to know where you are.

Whether you use GPS via your laptop, smartphone, Garmin or TomTom or whether you are into Google Earth mapping or just love to look at the directions to a place and back again on Mapquest or on the older "Road Guides" that many people keep in their cars, along with their TomToms and Nav systems, "just in case," then you're probably a maphead too.

Ken Jennings is probably the biggest Maphead around as he became legendary for his geographic and mapping knowledge on the long-running TV information show "Jeopardy." So, who is better placed to tell the story of the real mapheads of the world.

They are people who read maps for the fun of it. For example, there was a gentleman who lived in New England some years ago who, for pleasure, was always seen with an ancient copy of the Atlas of the late British Empire. He could cite names, places, routes and more and knew just about every plate in that huge (it was at least 12 by 14 with 400-velum pages and maps of every description, plus the description of the areas -- at that time and it must have weighed nearly 30 pounds with it gorgeous leather and gold leaf binding). The same gentleman, by the way, read the entire "Encyclopedia Britannica" twice for fun, always stopping at the maps along the way.

In essence, he was an early Jennings, who did this not because he had to, but because he loved it.

There are countless men and women out there who love nothing more than poring over maps just to see what they look like and where they may be going, using them for more than the usual "where are we lost now?" that every passenger seems to ask every driver on the road when they reach areas they aren't familiar with. Usually, the same person takes the map book -- eschewing the GPS or Nav -- in hand to rectify the situation and in most cases they do, sometimes outracing the computer/satellite system.

Mapheads come in all shapes and sizes and have been with us through the ages. For example, you'll find examples in "Maphead" of the maps that ancient mariners used that had phantasmic dragons and sea serpents drawn on them for areas that were unexplored. And, for many, the world began at the coast and ended at the horizon, so that ancient maps were studies in narrow looks at areas. Yet, there were those who knew those maps by rote and could recite the routes to take or towns and villages along the way.

Mapping as a culture continues today as the National Geographic holds its mapping bees and future little mapping masters strut their stuff. Some of the youngsters are brilliant.

Which brings us back to the author whose work on "Jeopardy" is still the stuff of TV legend. He was able to have his encyclopedic knowledge because, he notes, he went to bed and woke up with a huge volume of the world Atlas as his daily routine. One could almost call it a fetish if it wasn't so widespread and necessary because like it or not we are all slaves to directions and mapping. One person may use Mapquest to find all possible routes and times from here to there and back again and then pick up the local copy of the mapbook to find the same information. Mapheads come in all sizes, shapes, ages, ethnicities, sexes and any other pigeonhole you care to put around them.

Yet, at the bottom of it all, the "they" in this is actually us. Just look at yourself, the next time you're taking a trip somewhere and we'll bet you're consulting Google Earth or Mapquest to program your Garmin or TomTom or car's Nav system so you'll get where you are going. We're all Mapheads whether we know it or not.

Roberto Sedycias works as an IT consultant for ecommUS-Books