venerdì 19 giugno 2015

SHARING IS GOOD, by Beth Buczynski

SHARING IS GOOD


By Beth Buczynski


This book contains about 80 pages of introduction to collaborative consumption and sharing economy, and 80 pages of listing and descriptions of collaborative consumption online platforms, so that you can become a sharing economy activist as soon as you finish to read the book.


As I could notice, many of those platforms already went out of market since the book was written, but this might be taken as an hint of which websites are actually doing well and are worth to be tried.

The sharing economy finds its roots in the past, which should be no surprise if we consider that "sharing" is an anthropological attitude that humans bring with them since birth. Said this, it is also true that our culture and our principles change and evolve with the time, letting most of us forget about our innate need for sharing. Here it comes the strength of this book, which tries to convince the reader that Sharing not only is our past but also our future, because the only future that makes sense, is a shared one.


I would not define this reading a "book", rather I would say it is a "determined manual for the user". Its language is comprehensible to everybody, I could find no use of academic terminology at all.


You may want to read this book if:

  • you are considering to take part to any collaborative consumption activity;
  • you need to kill your fears about sharing;
  • you would like to have an introduction to the sharing economy;
  • you want to know all the things you can have access to by using sharing economy based online platforms.

Best quotations on my opinion:

"Through the lens of collaborative consumption, it becomes clear that it's access, not ownership, that's really essential to meeting our needs and want".

"We too, are programmed to share, but as a society, we've work hard to forget it"

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Thank you for reading my reviews, feel free to comment and share my post, keep checking my blog for further reviews or visit my Visualizza il profilo di Enrico Porceddu su LinkedIn .


If you are wondering, I do not receive any kind of benefit from any person, institution or company for writing my reviews.


Following this book:

WHAT'S MINE IS YOURS
by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers

FREAKONOMICS
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

domenica 14 giugno 2015

THINKING, FAST and SLOW, by Daniel Kahneman

THINKING, FAST and SLOW


By Daniel Kahneman


In this review, I am going to introduce to you a guide to the world of thinking and thinkers. A masterpiece for any lover of decisional economics, and I guess, also for philosophers.
I apologize for the almost two months without writing a single word on my blog. Lately I have pretty busy with a project which took away most of my spare time besides my professional life.

However, I can affirm that the nature of this book might be favourable to a mid-term reading approach, You'll be often provided with brand new terms and concepts which will require a good amount of research, focusing and thinking in order to be digested.

I would define this book as a "novel of statistics", with a careful and systematic order of contents and a strong propension to story-telling. All the effort of the author to facilitate readers' comprehension is to be noticed in all chapters. In fact, besides the accademic content, the book could be read by anyone with a slight passion for economics - or for psychology, although a lack of knowledge within the ad hoc terminology will certainly determine a slower reading. His "adapted" writing style detach itself from accademics writing at least as much as to allow a smooth reading rythm.

"A life-long trip into rationality" is how I would define the life of Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel-Worth Economist/Psychologist - rather than just a Nobel winner - who revolutioned our way to think of decision, declassing the utility theory and finally introducing the prospect theory.

This book will let you face many truths that are all but easy to accept. We, Humans, are exposed to a great number of factors influencing our decisions, many of them taking life into our some mind, and often generatin inconsistent decisions coming from the same individual. The subdivision of our brain - or at least of his way to function - into 2 Systems called "system 1" and "system 2" is in my opinion Kahneman's biggest intellectual property. This frame allow a great understanding of the differens phases involved in the thinking process, then related to the decision making process.

A wonderful feature of this reading is to be found at the end of every single chapter. Here, many citations of the researchers who worked with him are given to the readers as a present. I really enjoyed many citations, and many of them helped me understanding concepts and more generally the presented theories.

You should consider to get this book if:

  • you are studying economics or psychology (or you are interested in them)
  • you are a more conservative economist and you would like to challange your convinctions
  • you would love to get to a deeper meaning of "rationality"
  • you want to know to which extent our intuitions are to be trusted
  • you would like to discover if your will to undertake a particular choice is biased by something you can't see (nor think of)
  • you love behavioural statistics

I seriously believe that this book changed my way to approach decision making. It made me aware of more types of bias I was not aware before the reading. As I think the author would appreciate, I can state that this book won't keep me away from taking inconsistent decisions, but it will, however, give me a great basis to learn how to set "alarms" that will inform me about the occuring of a situation in which I am more likely to face a specific type of bias.


Best quotations on my opinion:

"The most coherent stories are not necessarily the most probable, but they are plausible, and the notions of coherence, plausibility, and probability are easily confused by the unwary".

"You will occasionally do more than your share, but it useful to know that you are likely to have that feeling even when each member of the team feels the same way."

"Remember that System 2 is lazy and that mental effort is aversive."


I would like to thank Professor Kahneman as well as the researchers who helped him achieving his goals. This book should be a part of everybody's life, for a world of knowledge and progress.
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Thank you for reading my review, feel free to comment and share my post, keep checking my blog for further reviews or visit my Visualizza il profilo di Enrico Porceddu su LinkedIn .


If you are wondering, I do not receive any kind of benefit from any person, institution or company for writing my reviews.


Following this book:

SHARING IS GOOD
by Beth Buczynski

FREAKONOMICS
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner