Category: Education

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Cyberinfrastructure Education Flat World Globalization Innovation Network OpenSource Reading Technology

Latest Read: The Undoing Project

Michael Lewis wrote The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Change Our Minds. This story is about the lives of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Honestly I am not sure why it took me so long to read this book. Kahneman’s book Thinking Fast and Slow was very enjoyable (my review here) and one that I think about often.

Lewis acknowledged this story was a result of his bestseller Moneyball.

He learned the insights to data he was seeking about baseball was already available from Kahneman and Tversky.

Daniel accepted the Nobel Prize in 2002 for his work. He acknowledged it should have been a joint award with Amos, who died from cancer eight years earlier.

Kahneman and Tversky focused on behavioral economics known as heuristics in judgment and decision-making. Their unique collaboration proved how unreliable human intuition can be. The results of their research can be staggering. For over twenty years they worked to prove our minds play tricks on us. This is simply based upon inaccurate memories and false stereotypes.

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Cyberinfrastructure Education Network OpenSource Reading

Latest Read: Ghost in the Wires

Kevin Mitnick is one of the most famous hackers. His story, Ghost in the Wires is wonderful to read. His book is very similar to the story of Frank Abagnale Jr. from the movie Catch Me if You Can. Mitnick’s arrest for hacking into DEC and Pacific Bell made international headlines.

Ghost in the Wires

I found his story a common story of addiction. His innocent position is difficult to support after repeated high level corporate hacking continued to grow. Kevin met with international computer criminals and began sharing documents.

Many will enjoy this story. Only briefly is there a deep dive on telephone switch technology. Mitnick actually began ‘hacking’ the LA bus system at age 12. His computer and telephone crimes starting at just 16 years of age.

There is little doubt that from a young age Mitnick was very intelligent. It was Kevin’s interest in ham radios that served has his source for playing with technology.

Ghost in the Wires moves from chapter to chapter with each hack seemingly growing in sophistication and risk. Mitnick lived as a fugitive on the run from FBI. Yet the story of Kevin’s hack of Tsutomu Shimomura, who worked at Sun Microsystems proved his undoing. Sun was acquired by Oracle.

Mitnick is able to deliver impressive details for each company he hacked. These remain very accomplished tasks. Maybe the best reason to read Ghost in the Wires is to learn how social engineering gave Mitnick easy access to systems.

In 2020 the lessons of Mitnick’s story should serve as a legacy view of penalties of computer hacking. The broad law gave the FBI a large brush. Here again Mitnick takes a position of innocence. He stood firm his actions resulted in no sale of stolen data.

His choice to continue hacking throughout his probation reveals he could not control (to some extent) his addiction.

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Cyberinfrastructure Education Innovation Network OpenSource Reading Technology

Latest Read: Flash Boys

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis is a remarkable Wall Street story. Lewis lays out a series of interwoven stories that result in flaws around High Frequency Trading (HFT). While not the subject of a SEC investigation, the book’s publication has resulted in fines for companies trading in less-than-honest environments.

Flash Boys begins with the story of Sergey Aleynikov. Sergey is a talented programmer who is key to this story. We meet him as he faces prosecution.

The early chapters involve cutting fiber optic cable runs via Spread Networks from Chicago to New Jersey, This was most appealing to me. There was an understanding that trades could be altered in measurements of just milliseconds. 4 milliseconds is the timeframe trading companies needed in order to gain an advantage against their trading competitors. 4 milliseconds!

Enter the ability for large corporate banking firms to trade within their own dark pools. The practice of front running was taken to a new level with millisecond transfers. It adds up to shifts in profits away from smaller traders to benefit Wall Street banks.

The idea of milliseconds sounded strange at first. It is impressive to learn how trading firms and large banks were pouring money into advanced networks. Yet this resulted in the 2010 Flash Crash. Most could not understand how computers could cause the market to crash. It was just the beginning of questionable trading practices.

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Design Education Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: Think Like a Freak

The authors of Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner publish Think Like a Freak. This is their third, and potentially last book in the Freakonomics platform.

think like a freak

Their idea is to train people to … well, think like they do, like a Freak. For example, the soccer penalty kick. Which way will the kicker try to strike the ball into the net? Go left side, middle or right? Well this is their first lesson to dig into the analytics and the mental thoughts of the kicker and goalie.

The level of attention they pay to the soccer question may be viewed as overthinking. Yet with your legacy riding on the kick, you have to decode a lot of data in a minute. Take this idea further. You will see the book’s insights develop for your life.

They teach readers to boil events down to incentives. Then measure the hell out of it. Yes this is an interesting take on how to change someone’s position. They even address the idea that you are too old to change your ways. The book’s subtitle is their offer to retrain your brain.

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: The Power of Moments

Chip and Dan Heath have written The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact. This is a wonderful book of insights. The book has four themes: Elevation, Insight, Pride and Connection. This ‘epic’ outline is their foundation to address why moments can elevate and change your life and workplace.

The Power of Moments

I shared with colleagues that I was learning new ideas in this book. I was very pleasing to learn many of my new colleagues were also reading this book!

The opening moment is more of a reaction to an ‘accepted practice’ in high schools. In order to drive viewership to younger audiences ESPN began televising national signing day. High school athletes now declare their college football program scholarship choice on TV. Two teachers created the same for high achieving students, providing them the same stage to show off their academic accomplishments. This book delves into fascinating mysteries of experiences we can move into memorable experiences. The Power of Moments shows us how to be the author of richer experiences.