Not an in-depth trip but an enjoyable tour.
A science journalist who once took risks but now plays it safe explores what scientists know about risk-taking and why some people are risk takers and others are not.
Sukel (Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex, and Relationships, 2012, etc.) turns to research scientists for her investigations of risk-taking. Before reporting on some fascinating experiments being devised and carried out by neuroscientists and psychologists, the author takes readers on a tour of the human brain, naming and describing the parts of its decision-making system. For readers not familiar with this particular area of research, this portion may present a bit of a challenge. Sukel prefers abbreviations to technical terms, and readers may be forced to go flipping back through pages to discover what certain things stand for—e.g., DLPFC or 5-HTTLPR. Nonetheless, the author is a blithe and personable guide to risk-taking, sharing her own experiences and getting research scientists to open up about their findings. She also introduces some thoughtful and candid risk takers—e.g., a rock climber and outdoor adventurer, a Special Forces operator, a Wall Street trader–turned–professional poker player, and a neurosurgeon who calmly takes on extremely difficult cases in which patients’ lives are at stake. We learn how risk-taking is influenced by one’s genes, age, gender, and environment, how emotions, stress, and peer pressure play roles, and, perhaps most important, what one can do to become a better risk taker: preparing for contingencies, knowing oneself and what one wants from life, and recovering from failures. “Risk-taking is not about death-defying feats or million dollar investments,” writes the author. “It’s about exploring, adapting, focusing, and making predictions about future experiences…[it] is a critical part of learning and memory and being alive.”
Not an in-depth trip but an enjoyable tour.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4262-1472-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
A wonderful pudding of a book that serves up large helpings of US socioeconomic history over the past 35 years or so. The title and subtitle notwithstanding, GQ columnist Nocera never makes clear precisely what he means by the middle class. Nor does he provide a systematic reckoning on the financial times since 1958 (when BankAmerica launched what became the Visa credit card). What he does offer, though, are thoroughly engrossing takes on the breakthrough innovations that democratized America's monetary life. There are tellingly detailed briefings on the largely unsung creators of money-market mutual funds (including the first to give investors check-writing privileges), NOW accounts, negotiable CDs, no-load mutual funds, and other financial services that an affluent society now takes for granted. The author also profiles the bankers, Wall Streeters, and others who played leading roles in a revolution that profoundly altered Main Street's attitudes toward credit, debt, investment, and savings. Cases in point range from Peter Lynch (Fidelity's star portfolio manager until his 1990 retirement) through Charles Schwab (of discount brokerage fame), Citicorp's Walter Wriston, and Marshall Loeb (former editor of Money, which continues to overstate the rewards while minimizing the risks of do-it-yourself capitalism). Assessed as well are the convulsive consequences of Paul Volcker's conquest of inflation, deregulation of depository institutions, the stock market's 1987 crash, and the low interest rates that channeled increasing amounts of money into equities during the early 1990s. Conspicuous by its absence, though, is any sustained coverage of the S&L scandals, insider trading, the takeover boom, junk bonds, the assets controlled by insurance companies, derivative securities products, exchange-listed options, futures contracts, and allied aspects of the domestic financial scene. Even so, Nocera delivers a savvy rundown on the landmark developments that in less than four decades have made consumer finance a multilateral bazaar in which beating the markets is a populist pastime.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-671-66756-4
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
The workplace (primarily the office) is the setting for this third volume of Tannen's Linguistics Lite trilogy. Tannen (Sociolinguistics/Georgetown) sticks close to the main idea she popularized almost a decade ago in That's Not What I Meant (1985): Men and women have different conversational styles that are equally valid (though unequally valued). Here, she describes women's disadvantages in the workplace: They are paid less than men for the same work and face ``sexism'' (a term Tannen keeps dubiously between quotation marks), a glass ceiling, and sexual harassment. Why do such problems persist? Tannen considers the difference in male and female conversational style as a primary cause. Women are likely to have an indirect manner, to apologize more, and to offer softer criticism; they're problem preventers instead of heroic crisis solvers; they generally strive for the appearance of equality with, not superiority to, their co-workers. Many (male) bosses overlook the value of this style. Tannen concludes that women should go with their own approach, but they should also try to be assertive and worry less about being liked than about being competent. Yet in the next breath, she acknowledges that women who act assertive may bring unpleasant consequences on themselves. In the end, she reaches for platitudes, blithely recommending that workers adopt a mix of styles and that managers learn to recognize and appreciate quality in diverse forms. She says ``on that happy day, the glass ceiling will become a looking glass through which a fair percentage of Alices will be able to step.'' Readers of her earlier books will find much that is familiar, from the research to the conclusions. Women facing a hostile work environment and seeking substantive improvements in their situation are likely to find that Tannen's recourse to ``stylistic differences'' ultimately offers little help. (First printing of 200,000; first serial to New York Times Magazine and Redbook; Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection; Quality Paperback Book Club main selection; Fortune Book Club main selection; author tour)
Pub Date: Oct. 19, 1994
ISBN: 0-688-11243-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1994
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