Historical anecdotes coupled with nostrums for the business-as-warfare crowd. Drawing on George Santayana’s by now tired saw that those who cannot remember the past will necessarily repeat it, the authors (Allison is a magazine publisher, while Adams and Hambly are history professors) offer a sturdy assemblage of historical oddments that in themselves make for entertaining little studies. One, for instance, concerns the Roman senator Gaius Popillius Laenas, who singly faced down a Syrian army that was poised to invade Egypt; Laenas sternly told the Syrian satrap that although he may have been alone, he had the whole might of the Roman empire backing him. Another recounts the fabulous wealth that fledgling financier Nathan Rothschild made by speculating on the British bond market at the time of Waterloo; Rothschild had employed a network of private spies who followed Wellington and Napoleon into the field, and armed with the information these spies provided, Rothschild was able to predict the outcome of that great battle and to manipulate the market accordingly. Still another relates the medieval European belief that in the far corners of Asia lay a fabulous realm whose Christian king, Prester John, awaited the arrival of fellow believers on whom he would shower wealth and titles. The morals the authors append to these little studies are less entertaining. When they are not immediately transparent—and the authors seem utterly convinced that theirs is the only possible interpretation of events—these preachy lessons are sometimes even vaguely creepy. They view the world of commerce as a battleground, competitors as conspiratorial enemies whose aim is to keep the righteous, namely readers of this book, from their rightful riches. Thus the lesson of Laenas’s bravery is “A bluff works only when it is believed,” of Rothschild’s cunning that it’s a good thing to cultivate reliable sources, of the quest for Prester John, “Your hopes are not reality”—hardly surprising conclusions. Readers who like their Machiavellian theory dumbed down will find this book of value.
Pub Date: May 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-85951-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1998
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
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
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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