Capture Book Club: What We’re Reading, Vol. 4

Thinking fast and thinking slow … Dispelling myths and uncovering opportunities … Mixing big data with soccer … Capture Book Club is back with heady material to nourish your brain. Capture Higher Ed’s continuing adventures in reading are brought to you by inquiry, curiosity, data and anything connecting different parts of life that would otherwise not be apparent. 

And remember: A.B.R … Always. Be. Reading.

Big Data at Work: Dispelling the Myths, Uncovering the Opportunities by Thomas H. Davenport (2014)

(From the dust jacket flap) When the term “big data” first came on the scene, bestselling author Tom Davenport (Competing on Analytics, Analytics at Work) thought it was just another example of technology hype. But his research in the years that followed changed his mind.

(From Capture) “Good book if you really want to begin understanding the applications of big data in language that won’t be overwhelming.”

Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Spain, Germany, and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia — and Even Iraq — Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World’s Most Popular Sport by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski (2009)

(From the dust jacket flap) Soccernomics pioneers a new way of looking at soccer through meticulous, empirical analysis and incisive, witty commentary. The San Francisco Chronicle describes it as “the most intelligent book ever written about soccer.”

(From Capture) “OK, this is a fun one. What’s better than marrying soccer and data? Want to know why England produces the best clubs in the world but is downright inefficient when it comes to winning World Cups? Read this.”

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (2011) 

(From the dust jacket flap) In the international bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation ― each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions.

(From Capture) “The insights in this book were good enough for a psychologist to earn the Nobel Prize in economics, yet they are super-accessible. This book exposes our psychological hang-ups that keep us from making good decisions in business and in life.”