The subtitle of this book is “Exposing why the rich are rich, the poor are poor - and why you can never buy a decent used car!” Despite the catchy subtitle, this book will not teach you how to become rich. This book is for “armchair economists” who like to understand why things are the way they are and what we can do to make things better. For example, rush hour traffic, the US healthcare system, corrupt governments, the food quality at tourist traps, coffee pricing, etc… The author, Tim Harford, writes in a very enjoyable style and this book is full of extremely interesting ideas. Anyone who enjoyed Freakonomics should definitely check this out. 5/5 stars.

Wow! This really might be the best Bond movie ever. Don’t let anyone tell you this is short on action because it was jam packed with some of the best action I’ve ever seen. Also, lots of poker! Daniel Craig plays a very different bond than his predecessors… he is not charming, he has a far rougher edge and is extremely physical. I think he is covered with blood for most of the movie and he definitely piles up the bodies more than in most Bond movies. Not as much character development as I’d hoped, but this Bond is much more complex than ever before, so without hesitation I’m giving this 5/5 stars.

I just read a great summary of why doing business in Web 2.0 is a rough and uncertain game. Notions of a “web 2.0 bubble” I think are ridiculous, since the phrase “web 2.0″ has been twisted by the media to mean the vaguest of things. BusinessPundit says at the end of that article: “The problem with web 2.0 is that low barriers to entry means a lower quality of entrepreneurs overall. Add to that a target market that is smaller than most people realize and what you get is a handful of techies getting millions of dollars to build websites that only a handful of techies want to use - all so they can play the Google acquisition lottery.” I wholeheartedly agree, and I’d like to add one important point about that target market: They aren’t going to pay for something when there are free alternatives elsewhere on the Internet. This market is so accustomed to getting everything for free that they will not want to pay a dime for anything. I think the only way to make money is to run advertising, and that’s what Google is going to try to do with YouTube somehow.

This super-intense action-drama stars Clive Owen in a gritty future (2023) which has fallen to pieces after a flu pandemic in 2008 caused a 100% infertility rate among all women on the planet. Miraculously, one woman becomes pregnant, and a political activist group tries to make the best of this opportunity. Director Alfonso Cuaron pays meticulous attention to detail and it pays off. I hate to make a comparison to such a different movie, but I absolutely loved his treatment of Harry Potter in the Prisoner of Azkaban. Children of Men was much deeper and more thought provoking, however. Will birth triumph over death? Or will politics cause the downfall of mankind? 4/5 stars.

I assure you, I never would have seen this voluntarily, but I was forced to watch it while on the bus from DC a few weeks ago. Amazingly, it was not as bad as I had expected. There were several funny moments, but overall it was pretty dumb. 2/5 stars.

Merry Christmas! I saw Dream Girls earlier today and I was very happy with it. I thought the music was a lot of fun, and the story was very compelling. The theme (as I saw it): sometimes you should compromise, sometimes you should not. Jennifer Hudson, who was voted off American Idol a couple of seasons ago even though she was probably the best one there, really shows her stuff. Also, Beyonce Knowles is very good, as expected. Eddie Murphy is surprisingly good as a James Brown-esque character. Jamie Foxx adds his talents along with Danny Glover. Overall, a fun movie worth watching. 4/5 stars.

This movie was not as good as I had hoped it would be. I assumed there would be lots of plot twists and complexity, but there were really only one or two surprises. Bruce Willis’ character is not exactly likeable, and Mos Def’s character is difficult to relate to. It was suspenseful, but not altogether gripping. I suppose one could call this a cross between film-noir and action. 3/5 stars.

Oscar Wilde said: “What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

If you don’t see the value of anything you will never be motivated to invest anything… and you will expect everything for free, or simply be repulsed by the idea of paying for anything.

I was very glad to read this op-ed piece which is titled “Getting Paid For Getting It Wrong: Bad Brokers Get Fired, Bad Pundits Get Hired”. I think in general, most people are in some way or another in denial of reality (I am probably one of those people, so somebody please help me and tell me what I’m doing wrong!)… so when some guy on TV chimes in with his opinion which has been carefully calculated and weighed against important and trustworthy evidence… and it supports some aspect of reality which you just can’t bear to acknowledge, you will change the channel (”I hate this guy”) and instead you will watch the guy who gives his cleverly worded opinion which agrees with your own view of the world (”That’s more like it!”).

Pundits are always bending the truth regardless of which side they are on. By taking a side at all, they are simplifying a complex issue into one dimension. John Stewart’s must-watch appearance on Crossfire (which prompted the show’s cancellation) was a great and rare illustration of when moderation has actually beaten out extremism in the media. As he says, debate makes for wonderful theater, but by allowing ourselves to be swayed by one side of the theater is to forget how important it is to have good government. It is quite obvious that the Bush administration has a wonderful PR team: they spin everything the way their voters want to hear it. The truth is not something which they feel the public needs to know. The democrats are in a tight spot because their voter base tends to be obsessed with the truth. How do you satisfy the democratic voters who want the truth and still win over Joe “Swing State” Voter who is somewhat susceptible to spin tactics?

I think it’s fair to say that reality has a far lower value than fantasy… in the entertainment industry. When it comes to managing money, programming computers, mixing chemicals, building a bridge, etc… we value the reality more than the fantasy. Obviously, when we want to be entertained, we want something incredible, not something mundane. It’s a rare person that is actually entertained by reality. However, I think it’s a wonderful sign that a book about statistics and economics (Freakonomics) is a smashing success. There is also the sudden popularity of Malcolm Gladwell (author of Blink and The Tipping Point). Maybe to get people interested in reality, it takes an amazing person like Gladwell to make the fascinating complexities accessible to a general audience.

Half-baked idea:

Part of the problem with human-computer interaction comes from the issue that computers have the potential for any kind of computation, calculation, or analysis, but they are entirely devoid of judgment. Judgment is what allows people to work together without telling the other every single detail of what they expect. Computers just don’t have this. Programmers must make trade-offs between offering the user power (in the form of configurability) or ease-of-use. The latter offers less variation, but a simpler interface. The former requires the user to provide lots of details about how they want something done, even if they seem “obvious” to a novice user who may not have the same need for flexibility as a professional.