All the Light we Cannot See

So many books have been written about World War II. I'm not particularly fond of books around war themes and yet, only in the last couple of years, I've probably read more than five novels that use WWII as the scenario for their plot (The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak  The Storyteller, by Jody Picoult; Winter of the World, by Ken Follett; Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, just to name a few).

All the Light we Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, is the title of the last novel I've read and its plot is also set during WWII. I agree with many people that has written reviews about this book that it is a beautiful novel. It is also terrible, and sad as all war books usually are.

In today's extremely interconnected world, in which data communications are ever present, for business and entertainment alike, it almost strikes odd to read a book in which the radio plays a central role in communicating people, for good as well as for bad.

If you are in the mood for a book set on WWII German occupied France this is an original story that you'll likely enjoy.

Thinking Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, summarizes the research that he has done over the past forty years; beginning with his work with Amos Tversky.

What Kahneman, through numerous experiments, comes to demonstrate, is that human beings are intuitive thinkers and that human intuition is imperfect. There’s a large part of the book dedicated to explain the many ways our thinking is biased and how humans make irrational choices.

I studied Economics in the early 80s. Although much of what I studied is buried is some rather inaccessible part of my brain, I still remember a couple of assumptions often at the core of much of what we were taught:  one was that “consumers are rational and make rational choices”, the other was the idea that ”consumers are risk averse”. I never felt quite comfortable with the first (this book proves that my intuition was at least correct that time)

Daniel Kahneman won a Nobel prize in Economics in 2002. Over the last recent decades his research has had a major influence in the area of Behavioral Economics. One key contribution is the demonstration that human beings do make choices that are not rational and this leads to real world results that significantly differ from theoretical predictions based on economics models.

Our “fast thinking” (system 1) is effortless, is an intuitive thinking and is actually the one that takes control most of the time. Our “slow thinking” (system 2) is the one we use to resolve complicated problems; it is effortful, requires attention and, interestingly,  happens to be slept most of the time and is “lazy”, often endorsing what comes from our intuitive selves (without realizing it). Our system 1 is, as Kahneman puts it “a machine for jumping to conclusions” even if there is very little evidence to sustain them and, consequently, our conclusions are sometimes wrong; especially when having to make choices in situations where there is a high degree of uncertainty.

Three interesting features of fast thinking are largely discussed in the book:

• People make decisions in a rather “narrow way”, focusing a lot on the immediate emotional reaction to an outcome rather than to long term consequences
• People are much more sensitive to potential losses than to potential gains, this tends to makes people unreasonably risk averse
• People tend to be optimistic and overconfident, and this leads people to take unreasonable risks

Thinking Fast and Slow is a long book, to read it takes time and patience. It is, I promise, a healthy exercise for our System 2. I found the time invested in it both enjoyable and instructive. 

If you’d rather read some serious review before trying the book itself there’s plenty available in the internet. Lastly, if you do not have much time but are ready to spend an hour having the author walking you through some of the main themes of the book here’s a video for you. Enjoy!

Volunteering will make you happier!

It's been a while since my last post. A new work assignment has been mostly responsible for my lack of  activity in this space.

Yet, despite the extra mental workload associated to changing roles and having tons of new things to learn, o maybe because of it,  I recently accepted an opportunity to do some volunteering job and it was great!

This week we are celebrating the International Women's day. Inevitably, comparisons between man and women are constant in speeches and working sessions. In the volunteering space some studies highlight that we women are ahead of man; I do not know how truthful this really is. One thing I know though: having a great time dedicating some time to help others has no sex.

I have the privilege of working for an organization that gives its employees plenty of opportunity to participate in volunteering activities. This year I decided to take one of these opportunities and collaborate with the Spanish branch of the Junior Achievement International Organization. Junior Achievement's purpose reads: "Junior Achievement inspires and prepares young people to succeed in a global economy".

To make this happen Junior Achievement looks for professionals in different industries and specialties that voluntarily conduct training sessions for young students, often in their schools.

So for a few weeks this year I went back to school. I put myself in front of a group of 17 year old and walked them through the materials of a program called "Skills to Succeed". Some themes resonated more than others and prompted more debate: for me those were the best moments. When you feel that the class is engaged in the discussion, there's participation, even disagreement. 

All my colleagues that have collaborated in this program could tell you great stories about it. If you have an opportunñity to participate I'd recommend you go for it! You'll be happy!