A convincing treatise on the value of immigration, though not necessarily on the virtuousness of the American dream.
An impassioned defense of immigration and the strength of the American dream.
As he describes in this highly personal account of immigration to America, Hsu arrived in America from Taiwan with $500 in his pocket. He’s now the very successful founder of an environmental engineering and renewable energy company. The story sounds a bit simplistic at first, and indeed in this debut work, Hsu doesn’t shy away from his beliefs that the American dream is alive and well and that he is proof of this theory. He opens the book bemoaning the fact that Americans feel so negative and cynical about their country, though he spends little time actually trying to understand why that might be. Instead, his mission is a more positive one—and not wholly ineffective. According to Hsu, one in 30 people around the globe wants to permanently leave his or her country and move to the United States. Rather than focusing on the pessimism he cites early on, he reminds readers that, for nonnatives, the country often holds nothing but promise. “In spite of all the controversy surrounding immigration policies,” he writes, “America remains the most welcoming place for immigrants.” Further, Hsu is also quite convincing when talking about the positive effects of immigration on the American economy, as when he reminds readers that immigrants are 30 percent more likely to start a business in the United States than nonimmigrants. Hsu effectively relates his own story and those of other successful immigrants, but on the downside, his argument would be stronger if he made more effort to understand why certain populations, native and nonnative, might not feel that “making it” in America is merely a matter of perseverance and hard work. Some of the statements—“Here, it’s not about who your parents are or where your family is from. It’s about your ability to dream big and the determination to get there”—may seem shortsighted and narrow-minded, particularly to someone who grew up impoverished and with few educational opportunities. The book would have been strengthened by an acknowledgment of such and by including a broader discussion of how to open opportunities for everyone.
A convincing treatise on the value of immigration, though not necessarily on the virtuousness of the American dream.Pub Date: April 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-0986073502
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Maxwell Publishing LLC
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.
A well-constructed critique of an economic system that, by the author’s account, is a driver of the world’s destruction.
Harvard Business School professor Henderson vigorously questions the bromide that “management’s only duty is to maximize shareholder value,” a notion advanced by Milton Friedman and accepted uncritically in business schools ever since. By that logic, writes the author, there is no reason why corporations should not fish out the oceans, raise drug prices, militate against public education (since it costs tax money), and otherwise behave ruinously and anti-socially. Many do, even though an alternative theory of business organization argues that corporations and society should enjoy a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit, which includes corporate investment in what economists call public goods. Given that the history of humankind is “the story of our increasing ability to cooperate at larger and larger scales,” one would hope that in the face of environmental degradation and other threats, we might adopt the symbiotic model rather than the winner-take-all one. Problems abound, of course, including that of the “free rider,” the corporation that takes the benefits from collaborative agreements but does none of the work. Henderson examines case studies such as a large food company that emphasized environmentally responsible production and in turn built “purpose-led, sustainable living brands” and otherwise led the way in increasing shareholder value by reducing risk while building demand. The author argues that the “short-termism” that dominates corporate thinking needs to be adjusted to a longer view even though the larger problem might be better characterized as “failure of information.” Henderson closes with a set of prescriptions for bringing a more equitable economics to the personal level, one that, among other things, asks us to step outside routine—eat less meat, drive less—and become active in forcing corporations (and politicians) to be better citizens.
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.Pub Date: May 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5417-3015-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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