Book Review: The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis

I am afraid to say that I would probably not rate The Undoing Project very high. I know it details the life of a Nobel prize winner and I should not be critical of something that I know so little about, but here goes anyway.

There appears to be one huge flaw that rides throughout the volume. There seems to be no acknowledgement of the vast differences that exists among people. Tversky and Kahneman keep talking about how the “people” would evaluate, decide and react. And who are these “people”? The average person in a conglomerate of people no doubt. Though these results may apply to group of people (assuming that you have a statistically correct sample), when considering individual actions, the results can be hopelessly flawed, since they do not distinguish among people who may be neurotic, bi-polar, psychotic, schizophrenic – or just plainly very confident persons, or on the other hand very dependent individuals.

Religion: Book review of "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” by Christopher Hitchens

This is the first book that I have read by an atheist since I read Bertrand Russell’s “Why I not a Christian” in seminary. It is one of a new breed of books by outspoken atheists. It is probably not one of the most balanced of the lot. One should probably look at others such as Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion” or Sam Harris” “The End of Faith”. In any event I think that to read some opposing views from time to time can be stimulating and maybe even useful.