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Education Reading

Latest Read: Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum. Beverly received an M.A. in Clinical Psychology and Ph.D. in clinical Psychology from the University of Michigan. She also holds a M.A. in religious studies from Hartford Seminary.

Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum

She has taught at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Westfield State College, and Mount Holyoke College. In addition, The American Psychological Association has recognized her with the Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Psychology. In fact, this is one of the most well written psychology books addressing race. Beverly’s research will certainly bring the reader into a well researched conversation. This is also a perfect demonstration of empathy.

Perhaps the most effective message is that across America the historical need to educate ourselves on race has never been taught formally. By not addressing this issue we are like history to repeat ourselves. This includes a lot of very awkward conversations passed down across families for generations.

The goal Beverly submits is to achieve a true understanding of inequality across all races and cultures. There is without question a true level of stress that is a result of basic, general discussions. Beverly certainly demonstrates how this can be improved. In addition, there are explanations racism now directing at Native/Indian, Asian, and Latinos.

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Categories
Education Reading

Latest Read: The Drunkard’s Walk

The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow. Leonard is an American theoretical physicist and mathematician, screenwriter and author.

The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow

There is no doubt you can learn many lessons from talented people. Leonard is indeed one of those authors you need to consider. Seriously. This 2008 book became a New York Times bestseller, a New York Times notable book, and Leonard received the Robert P. Balles Prize for Critical Thinking for this book. In 2010 Leonard was named the Liber Press Award for the Popularization of Science.

He holds a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. Actually, his dissertation demonstrated a new type of perturbation theory for nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, based upon solving the problem in infinite dimensions then correcting for the fact that we live in three.

Leonard is definitely an author you want to read. Why? Well he joined the faculty at Caltech in 1981 and was then named an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow and worked at the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in Munich, Germany. However (as amazing as it seems) in 1986, he left his position as a full-time professor and researcher to begin writing. He indeed wrote episodes for Star Trek: The Next Generation and MacGyver. To further illustrate his talent, he created computer games with Steven Spielberg and Robin Williams. In 2009 he wrote a screenplay for the movie Beyond the Horizon. Above all, Leonard is continuing to working in theoretical physics.

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Why We Sleep

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker. Matthew is a British scientist and professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Previously, Matthew was a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Matthew is the director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Human Sleep Science. His research focuses on the impact of sleep on human health and disease.

I found this to be a very insightful book and it has sharpened how I view my own sleep requirements. It would not be odd to say that many of us have in our younger years pulled all-nighters on a regular basis. We had not idea how damaging this would be in our later life. In fact, I can recall this in some detail over the beginning of my career. In fact, I would say the American culture is shaped around this type of sleep loss.

Matthew has the data to prove that our culture has in fact, robbed our health. In addition, for anyone with medical conditions may in fact be at greater risk due to the lack of sleep impacting their health. Too many Americans do not yet quite understand the severe ramifications. This book will enlighten them and easily demonstrate how powerful eight hours of sleep can shape your life.

Penguin Books UK | How To Improve Your Sleep
The lack of sleep can shorten your life

For many readers perhaps this is the first time they can understand the impacts of neglecting sleep. Shortcomings in our brain functionality is easily at less than 100%. In addition, our body’s physical and mental health including our emotional well being suffers.

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Education Reading

Latest Read: Outnumbered

Outnumbered: From Facebook and Google to Fake News and Filter-bubbles – The Algorithms That Control Our Lives by David Sumpter. He is a professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. David was awarded the UK’s Institute of Mathematics 2015 prize for communicating mathematics to a wider audience in his research How to Model Honeybee Colonies.

Outnumbered: Exploring the Algorithms That Control Our Lives by David Sumpter

As this title implies, the exploitation of algorithms is brought into focus. The timing of reading this book today is almost perfect. The abuse by Facebook and Google continue. The fallout of the Cambridge Analytica scandal also continues. In fact, David’s work is perhaps even more poignant as OpenAI’s ChatGPT-3 has taken the world by storm.

Perhaps now in early 2023 the coming GPT4 will shift the common misconception that AI algorithms are actually more advanced that many considered.
While the world was somewhat confused by the integrity of ChatGPT-3 data, OpenAI’s collaboration integrating Wolfram|Alpha as the Way to Bring Computational Knowledge Superpowers to ChatGPT.
Give it less than six to eight months and this will spin the ChatGPT non-believers into new knots.

However there are certainly many interesting examples that follow revealing when statistical techniques require advanced mathematical knowledge and ultimately requiring more time (and effort) to fully understand and ultimately communicate outcomes effectively to general audience.

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Categories
Education Reading

Latest Read: The Art of Statistics

The Art of Statistics: How to Learn from Data by David Spiegelhalter. David is a statistician and chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication in the Statistical Laboratory at the University of Cambridge.

The Art of Statistics: How to Learn from Data by David Spiegelhalter

David’s background is medical statistics. He has served as the president of the Royal Statistical Society and has been knighted for his services to statistics. This book is a certainly amazing read for anyone as David is displaying lessons that provide me new perspectives of risk management.

David presents a generally refreshing approach to statistics that many readers will enjoy. Early chapters certainly enforce long standing knowledge (never use 3D pie charts to compare proportional metrics).

However there are certainly many interesting examples that follow revealing when statistical techniques require advanced mathematical knowledge and ultimately requiring more time (and effort) to fully understand and ultimately communicate outcomes effectively to general audience.

I continuously seek insights to regression. A sample addressing regression analysis further illustrates while this is a powerful tool, it is often misused and results in misleading trends.

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