Stephen Baker's The Numerati

Stephen Baker’s The Numerati, which I first wrote about here.

The book is organized into seven chapters which describe ways that data is being analyzed in mass quantities: Worker, Shopper, Voter, Blogger, Terrorist, Patient, and Lover.

You'd think that Lover would be the most interesting but it had the least substance; Voter (about Josh Gotbaum of Spotlight Analysis) was by far the most interesting chapter.

The Numerati was such a quick read that I finished it in just a few short disappointing hours.

I felt Baker was stretching to fill out his book with examples of how mathematicians are dangerously invading our privacy by quantifying and analyzing our lives.

Still, it was entertaining; just keep your expectations low.

David Cay Johnston on the bailout bill

Whether you were for or against the bailout bill, these three essays by David Cay Johnston, written for The Plank (a blog for The New Republic) are worth reading:

• Who Benefits From the Bailout?
• Celebrating The Bailout Bill's Failure--And Looking Ahead
• Time to Take a Step Back

I've been a long-time fan of Johnston's investigative reporting for The New York Times and after recently reading two of his books -- Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else (click here to read an excerpt of the book or click here to read my entries on this book) and Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) (click here to read my entries on this book or click here to read excerpts and view the table of contents on the author’s website for this book) -- I've come to trust Johnston as an advocate for the common person.

It seems to me that instead of doing concrete research into how the bailout bill might affect Americans and the global economy, most media sources were simply fear-mongering about the chaos that we were doomed to if the bailout failed to pass. I'm also disappointed that Congress appears not to have considered alternatives to the bailout bill initially proposed by Hank Paulson and instead just worked to improve it.

It couldn't have hurt them to talk to some of the world's economists who had differing opinions.

Absent that, we can trust Johnston to speak up for us.

Friends' Recommendations

Got more recommendations from friends this week:

• Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever
• University Inc.: The Corporate Corruption of Higher Education by Jennifer Washburn

Gender equality seems to be on people's minds -- maybe it has to do with Sarah Palin? -- and a friend recommended Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever to learn about why women don't earn the same amount as men. Using research and interviews, this book answers these questions and more:

• Why do most women see a negotiation as an automatic fight instead of a chance to get what they deserve?
• Why are women afraid to ask for what they want in the workplace?
• And perhaps most importantly, why don't women feel entitled to ask for it?

A friend who knows I'm an alum of MIT recommended University Inc.: The Corporate Corruption of Higher Education by Jennifer Washburn. Washburn argues that American universities have discarded the very values and practices that have made them so successful asthey have made secretive connections with private industry that have begun to "undermine the foundation of public trust on which all universities depend." Janet Rae-Dupree quotes Washburn and mentions this book in this September 6, 2008 New York Times article "When Academia Puts Profit Ahead of Wonder," which I found to be an interesting critique of unversity technology licensing.

So much to read...

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder

Many of my friends idolize Warren Buffett.

Truthfully, I don't know much about him so I'm happy to hear that Alice Schroeder, former managing director at Morgan Stanley, has just written a biography of Warren Buffett after spending approximately two thousands hours interviewing and observing Buffett.

The book is titled The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life and refers to one of Buffett's folksy sayings about success: "Life is like a snowball. The important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill."

As usual, I heard about this book from the New York Times -- Janet Maslin's "The Richest Man and How He Grew (and Grew His Company, Too)."

I have no doubt that my local library will carry this unprecedented biography of "The Oracle of Omaha" (after all, even Walmart is selling this book) but I may want to purchase a copy anyway.

Click here to read an excerpt.

The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker by Steven Greenhouse

Last month, I wrote about Steven Greenhouse's latest book The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker after reading this NYTimes.com article adapted from the book.

I thought of this book again when I visited the New York Times Book Review and read Robert H. Frank's review titled "Labor Pains" published May 25, 2008.

I haven't checked it out at the library yet but after reading David Cay Johnston's Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) (click here to read my other entries on this book), I'm even more interested in The Big Squeeze.

Will write more when I get around to reading this book!

The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker by Steven Greenhouse

Just read this NYTimes.com article adapted from Steven Greenhouse's new book The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker. Chapter One is available here on the NYTimes.com website or here on the author's website.

Greenhouse, a labor and workplace reporter for The New York Times, examines the stresses and strains faced by workers at companies like FedEx and Wal-Mart (as wages have stagnated, health and pension benefits have grown stingier, and job security has become virtually nonexistent), and points to Patagonia and Costco and even the casino-hotels of Las Vegas as models for corporate America.

Patagonia sounds like an awesome company to work for! Isn't that everyone's dream to be able to go to work wearing whatever you want, take long lunch breaks or leave early to enjoy life, and to get paid to do volunteer work? Okay, probably not, but it certainly is part of my dream.

On the other hand, FedEx has hired most of its drivers as "independent contractors" to increase the company's earnings. If the same people were employees, they'd have to pay benefits, social security, and would not be able to fire people simply for missing work due to illness.

Reading about this book makes me think of Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (2001). The author left her usual journalist job and spent 1999 and 2000 working jobs paying $7/hour (less than half of a living wage and what millions of low-skilled Americans make). She worked as a waitress in Key West, FL, as a cleaning woman and a nursing home aide in Portland, ME, and in a Wal-Mart in Minneapolis, MN and found that it is nearly impossible for such Americans to lift themselves to middle class.

It also makes me think of Small Giants: companies that choose to be great instead of big by Bo Burlingham, which describes several privately held businesses that have become "giants" in their field without becoming huge corporations. These companies all seemed to honestly care about their employees and the community. I think that many publicly traded companies are focused too much on growth and return -- rightfully so since they are obligated to do what is best to increase returns for shareholders -- and I think the world would be a better place if companies instead aimed to do what's best for the community (owners, employees, existing customers, and potential customers).

I highly recommend Small Giants and plan to add The Big Squeeze to my list of books to read.

Funny, even Wal-Mart sells The Big Squeeze.