Archive for the ‘Books’ Category

Everything is Great …Until it’s Not

Posted by Brett Greene | Filed under Beliefs, Books, Psychology, The Brain | Oct 24, 2008 | Tags: 9/11, alan greenspan, chile, current events, economic crisis, economic plan, economy, financial crisis, fooled by randomness, General Pinochet, john mccain, news, Pinochet | No Comments

Yesterday Alan Greenspan told congress `That is precisely the reason I was shocked because I’d been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well.” This is a great example of how we are blindly influenced by the way our brains make meaning in the world. What ...Read more.

Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind

Posted by Brett Greene | Filed under Books, Psychology, The Brain | Oct 24, 2008 | Tags: gary marcus, kluge, lena phoneix | No Comments

This book review was contributed by Lena Phoenix: Kluge is a slang term for “a clumsy or inelegant solution to a problem.” In this new book, Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind, psychologist Gary Marcus argues that the human mind itself is a kluge, and then goes on to discuss how this explains ...Read more.

If it Bleeds it Leads – Why do People Love Bad News?

Posted by Brett Greene | Filed under Advertising, Books, Consumerism, Media, Psychology, Spin | Oct 17, 2008 | Tags: 9/11, crime, crime decline, current events, economic crisis, economy, fear, fear in marketing, fear mongering, financial crisis, financial news, global economy, Media, news, power of fear, scare tactics, self help, self help gurus, television news, terror, terrorism, terrorisy, wall street | No Comments

Have you watched your local nightly news lately? Probably not if you’re like most Americans under the age of 61, but you’ll still get my point. I’m guessing you’ve watched more financial news in the last month than usual in reaction to fear around money, stocks and the economy in general. I accidentally saw the ...Read more.

Are Political Scare Tactics Becoming Impotent?

Posted by Brett Greene | Filed under Books, Politics, Psychology, Religion, The Brain, Videos | Oct 13, 2008 | Tags: barack obama, current events, economic crisis, economic distress, economy, election, fear mongering, john mccain, kluge, political conventions, political rallies, politics of fear, presidential election, race baiting, sarah palin, scare tactics, stock market, stocks | No Comments

Something very cool seems to be happening in politics. It seems like the old politics of fear aren’t working as well as they used to in the current presidential election campaigns. Maybe people have finally been so pummeled with lies in such a short period of time that they’re less inclined to swallow a mouthful ...Read more.

The Secret of How to Get Rich Quick! …Really

Posted by Brett Greene | Filed under Books, Consumerism, Marketing, Money, Psychology, Videos | Oct 10, 2008 | Tags: byron katie, cons, gabe and max's internet thing, get rich quick, infomercial, internet marketing, Money, personal development, scams, scheme, self help, shelf help, the secret, tony robbins | No Comments

The secret to getting rich quick is to not spend your hard earned money and valuable time on schemes that experts are selling you to teach you how to get rich quick. The truth is that if they were rich from their actions they wouldn’t be wasting their time on stages and teleseminars pitching you ...Read more.

Our “Unpredictable” Economic Crisis Was Predicted 12 Years Ago

Posted by Brett Greene | Filed under Books, Money, Politics, Spin, Videos | Oct 8, 2008 | Tags: bailout, bank crisis, banking, current events, economic crisis, financial crisis, fooled by randomness, greed, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, news, the black swan, wall street | 1 Comment

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the #1 NYT Best Selling author of Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets and The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, predicted the current banking crisis 12 years ago. As a trader for 18 years, and an intelligent critical thinker his entire ...Read more.