They May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics and Studies Exploit Our Biases – and What We Can Do About It, by Alex Edmans
“In today’s post-truth world, it is more important than ever to separate myth from reality.” So begins this guide to critical thinking by academic and economist Alex Edmans.
The book, Edman's third, provides a road map for how to separate these myths from the real thing and arrive at a better understanding of the world, relying on academic research methods. Edmans, a professor of finance at London Business School, is well placed to share what professional thinkers can teach us about examining our subjectivity to think more clearly about topics from income inequality to cancer treatment.
Some lessons that won't surprise you: Edmans suggests thinking smarter by seeking out articles that take an opposing view to your vision, and realizing that company reports, books, and newspaper articles are written with an agenda. But the willingness to troubleshoot even systems he finds useful is a sign that the author has a refreshingly open mind.
He is a strong critic and advocate of peer-reviewed research, highlighting the shortcomings of even the most respected publications, while noting its great power in enabling us to “stand on the shoulders of giants.” Readers are warned of the dangers of confirmation bias, groupthink, and what Edmans calls “black-and-white thinking,” where people fail to understand shades of gray and nuance.
The book concludes on a positive note with suggestions. Edmans shows how individuals can evaluate situations more objectively, how organizations can create cultures that nurture open debate, and how teaching critical thinking in schools can help build a better society. Edmans may believe we are post-truth, but he also suggests that it is within everyone's power to become smarter thinkers. Jonathan Moles
“Formula: How hustlers, geniuses and speed freaks re-engineered Formula 1 into the world's fastest-growing sport”, by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg
Formula One has gained many new fans with the Netflix reality series Drive to Survive. But do these newcomers know anything about the history of the sport, which has its origins in Europe in the 1920s? The Wall Street Journal's Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg attempt to fill the knowledge gap with this entertaining read.
The duo, whose first book about the English Premier League also dealt with the global explosion of European sport, manage to retell even the most technical moments in Formula 1 at an appropriate pace. In fact, I enjoyed this book faster than I watched Drive to Survive.
Robinson and Clegg's achievement is to provide enough for both hardcore fans and newcomers. Although they lack a protagonist to follow across the decades, their extensive trajectory in Formula 1 history has been deeply researched and reported.
Each chapter features legends, from old-time goalkeeper Enzo Ferrari to tragic icons Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. The authors interviewed contemporary stars such as Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton, and were hosted by 93-year-old Bernie Ecclestone in his living room in Gstaad, Switzerland.
However, the history lesson means it takes until the 13th of 16 chapters to delve into the $8 billion deal that transformed the sport. That's when Liberty Media took over, decided it was worth taking social media seriously and started making drivers the stars of the show.
This new focus is why Liberty Media has been able to bring Formula 1 to Miami and Las Vegas, expanding the calendar to 24 Grands Prix. This month, the group revealed its acquisition of Dorna, which owns the commercial rights to the elite MotoGP motorcycle racing series, for €4.2 billion. If all goes as planned, the authors may have another European sport to explain to Americans. Samuel Ajeni
“Shared Intelligence: Living and Working with Artificial Intelligence,” by Ethan Mollick
If you're interested in how to make the most of the transformative potential of AI—and Ethan Mollick says everyone should be—you should read this book.
The Wharton management professor and his wife, Lilash Molik, an expert in educational development, emerged last year as sought-after leaders in how to make artificial intelligence “dance to our tune,” through constant experimentation with intelligent prompts and pioneering interactions with students. For example, realizing that generative AI would ruin the essay as homework, Mollick encouraged his classes to play with the technology and work on AI-fueled plans that were “impossibly ambitious.”
This book also has a playful tone, though he begins by outlining the “three sleepless nights” that Mollick believes everyone will experience when they realize how these tools can change our future.
Adopting his own principles (“Principle 1: Always invite AI to the table”), he involves AI in writing the book itself—and uses it to brainstorm ideas, critique passages, and even compose an upbeat, if exaggerated, ending. Mollick's own research, and other studies, have shown that knowledge workers “with the weakest skills benefited most from AI, but even the highest performers did,” so he suggests it would be unwise to reject the technology.
Shared Intelligence is entertaining and thought-provoking—and short. It will require regular sequels or updates, given the pace at which generative AI is evolving (a need partly met by Mollick's Substack, One Useful Thing). Above all, it is a call to action. To understand the benefits of AI, he writes, we have to use it, becoming a “centaur” (switching between tasks for which AI or human skills are better suited) or a “cyborg” (working alongside AI).
Mollick has never been fazed by the challenges AI might pose, but his default stance is one of studied optimism. Using a term coined by J. R. R. Tolkien for unexpectedly favorable endings, he urges readers to “aim for disaster, lest our inaction make disaster inevitable.” Andrew Hill
“Work Assumptions: What we thought we knew about work before Covid and generative AI – and what we know now,” by Julia Hobsbawm
Julia Hobsbawm has been a leading voice on business, from the future of the office to generational dynamics to revolutionary technologies. In her Bloomberg column, “Business Assumptions,” she reflects on the complexities of the office. Now, in a book of the same name, she reveals how the Covid-19 pandemic and artificial intelligence will impact our working lives.
According to Hobsbawm, the working assumption is “like a work in progress coupled with a rear-view mirror”; A view of the future based on a snapshot of “what is happening now and what has happened before.”
The pandemic has disrupted established norms, from the daily commute and five-day work week to the “job for life” stability that older workers expect. Data on widening divisions between “haves and have-nots,” on burnout and stress in the workplace, and on our cultural fascination with television about toxic managers, amplify Hobsbawm’s claim that “business doesn’t work.”
However, Hobsbawm considers herself “an optimist in a pessimistic world” and sees this era of workplace disruption as an opportunity for reinvention. Business Assumptions is a complex data exploration of this inevitable disruption.
Given the confusion I have described, some readers may feel unconvinced by Hobsbawm's “strongly pro-work” position. Her criticism of a generation that she sees as failing to share the optimism of her office is also likely to be off-putting to younger readers. Hobsbawm wrote about Generation Z: “[lack] The “sense of a lifelong vocation” is “highly individualistic” and “lacks . . . respect.”
What Work Assumptions teaches us is that instead of seeing the disruptions in the post-Covid-19 world of work as something to be upset about, we should see them as an opportunity to innovate and build a career that works for all of us. Leah Quinn
“Burnout Immunity: How Emotional Intelligence Can Help You Build Resilience and Heal Your Relationship at Work,” by Candy Wiens
After two decades working at management consulting firm Huron, Candy Wiens found herself teetering on the brink of collapse, her health deteriorating under the pressure of work overload. Having given up her lucrative career to study the burnout crisis—and now a distinguished fellow at the University of Pennsylvania—her book is seen as a survival guide for white-collar professionals in the grip of workplace trauma.
Intervene in a timely manner. Business concerns about wellbeing have multiplied since the pandemic has amplified deep-rooted structural problems in professional workplaces. However, in surveys, American workers routinely complain of stress and disengagement—classic burnout.
Wiens interviews hundreds of senior leaders who excel at work despite enduring high levels of stress in the workplace. They are united by emotional intelligence and their ability to use it to guide their behavior.
Wiens links this anthropology of emotional intelligence “strategies” with a practical synthesis of research on burnout to date. She has identified an “optimal stress tolerance window” – a sweet spot that can improve cognitive function and strengthen our memory.
Chronic stress often causes our brains to shut down, dragging individuals or organizations into a negative spiral. But as Wiens explains, it is possible to avoid these traps.
The way a person thinks about their ability to cope with stress in the workplace is key: by viewing stressors as challenges rather than insurmountable crises, and practicing “adaptive emotional regulation” through mindfulness techniques, they can use stress to achieve success. .
Those who consider their work to be of great importance, especially the helping professions, are most at risk of burnout. Although overcoming this problem may require a radical overhaul of company culture, the Vienna Guide will be useful to those who are struggling now. Alexander James
