I’ve seen reviews of this book starting with “if you have no clue about statistics…” Unfortunately, that’s a lot of people, even worse, a lot of people who have no clue about statistics think otherwise. If you fall into this category, this book is a good read, which will expose for you a lot of interesting things about what you can and what you cannot do when your data are influenced by a chance. Even if you do, but you have let your knowledge get rusty, this book would be a good reminder.

Also, the actual material of this almost 500 pages book can be delivered in about 20-30 pages, which is a very good ratio for the most US published books.

However, I still did not like this book, specifically, for two reasons.

First of all, the author (according to his own testament) is not a professional mathematician, but software developer. That’s ok by itself, but as a result, while he has a good idea what he is talking about, he occasionally makes mistakes or uses completely wrong approaches. For example, in one of chapters he introduces a device to get a random number between 0 and 11 (kind of roulette) and then instead of giving the distribution this device provides, he expects the reader to assume that (which is one of huge flaws when working with data samples) and even worse, to “prove” it without actual data — a certain “F” in any “Statistics 101″ class, and for a good reason.

Second, his style is not that conductive to learning, even if you can recognize when he misses the target. For example, to explain “black swans”, he gives an example with the same device, when “the arrow does not stop but breaks off and hit you in the eye”. The “eye” part is certainly over the board and an amateur educator may think it helps to remember, while it actually hurts digesting the material.

You see, his book is more than 500 pages long. I just made an experiment, and one page requires almost exactly 3 minutes of my time to read it attentively, in fact, even a bit more. Yes, sure, speed reading would help, but that’s not what you want reading a really good book. 500 pages to 3 minutes make 1500 minutes to read it just once cover to cover. If you floundered arithmetic classes in your elementary school, let me tell you, that’s 25 hours of your time. Or, more than 3 work days of intensive work without interruptions, not even bathroom breaks! In reality, that’s more like a week of work.

It’s really odd, but somehow the American public treats buying books the same way as buying beef, pork or potatoes – by the pound. Somehow, the thicker the book is, the better it sells and the higher price you can demand. Isn’t it odd?

Think about it. A 500 pages book requires a work week of my time. I don’t know about your income, so lets assume something average. According to the U.S. Census Bureau average (mean) personal income for both sexes age 25-64 is about $44K, or about $844/week. Tony Robbins’ book I mentioned above has a very moderate price of $16, but once you factor in the time you have to spend readings it, the cost of ownership goes up to $860. Really. $16 for the book and $844 for the time you spend reading it. That’s what an average employer pays to an average employee for a week of work. And you spend a week of work to read that book. That defines the real cost of the book.

Imagine that you can buy a book and magically instantly know everything that was in the book. Would it be worth $860? Still, when you buy a $16 book with 500 pages, that’s what your expectations are. Weird, isn’t it?

It’s odd, but when the public buys books by the pound, the publishers have no other way to go, but to comply and produce large books. The result? The market dominated by the “books by the pound”. The result? ROI (Return-On-Investment) for book readers falling down. The next result? Book reading is not treated socially as an attractive career proposition or real self-improvement.

If this trend will continue, the American public will become the least literate in the world (if it’s not already), and for good reason! It will be deprived of high quality literature by the invisible force of the market, so reading won’t bring the benefits anymore, it once did. Can something be done about it? I don’t know… When I write my books, I am conscious of readers’ time, and my books are on average 200 pages only. However, I can tell you first hand, if I’d want them to be successful, I’d have to beef them up at least twice or more before any established publisher will even consider it.

Geeze, Serge, as somebody who has two great colleges under the belt you sure should know better than mixing up privilege and right, legally, two quite different concepts.

I just disagree on focusing it on firearms theme. I don’t think that in “moron+gun” the problem is the gun. Just like in “moron+voting”, “moron+car”, “moron+alcohol” or even “moron+ability to procreate”.

“To the best of my knowledge
US is the only country in the world
where vacations are measured by hours.”

As usual I went to a Native Americans reservation La Push to the west of Seattle on Olympic Peninsula.

So, what about werewolves? Simple. There was a movie “Twilight” about a year ago. How I found later, based on a popular book series with the first one under the same title. Frankly, I did not read the book and I did not watch the movie either. AFAIK, some regular Hollywood vampire stuff. Although, I have to admit, there is enough twilight and mists in the area. Like this:

Or, this:

Of course, there was enough sun too:

And under the sun there are many more beautiful things to see, especially during the low tide:

Back to werewolves. In both the movie and the book, a small town Forks is the places where vampires live. Actually, that’s the closest place with a supermarket, so I was dropping by to shop and get the right kind of gas for the car. One hotel even has an ad: “Edward Cullen did not sleep here!”

Also, according to the book, nearby tribe of Native American were werewolves and enemies of vampires. For anybody local or visiting the place as often as I do, that’s a very clear hint: Quileute tribe believes it originated from wolves and La Push is their home.

The area heavily commercialize the movie popularity and on the way from Forks (and highway 101) to La Push, about 7 miles to each, near a small restaurant, store and gas station there is a road sign: “Treaty Line: No Vampires Beyond This Point!”

So, such a romantic place, and no vampires even in a New Moon:

In the Year 2000 the Matrix Has You!

While there is a much deeper truth in it, which I will talk about later, consider this circumstantial evidence for now: how often do you see pictures like that:

Or, like that:

And how often instead you see the pictures like that:

Really?

Practically, you are hired to make your direct manager happy, and then his manager, and then his manager, and so forth.

The more levels of management separates you from CEO, the further in line the company and shareholders are.

For reference, Labor Day is September 7th here, so we have a long weekend: from Saturday September 5th ro Monday September 7th:

Labor day weekend in Seattle

Dear Eldar,

I am writing you on behalf of the trade union Brain Cells of Eldar Corps (”the Union”). It came to our attention that you are violating our trade agreement (”Agreement”), specifically, chapter 4.34.(b) stating that members of the Union are entitled to the daily norm of 7 hours of the reduced work shift generally referred to as “sleeping”. While we recognize that members of the Union (brain cells) are exempt employees, who are supposed to work overtime in case of emergency (chapter 4.37.(k)), let us remind you that it was supposed to be a temporary emergency (chapter 4.38.(q)), like a need to run from a jaguar in an African savannah. We contacted respective unions of senses and muscle cells, and they haven’t reported any jaguars or elevated muscle activity, so it seems clear to us that you are violating the terms of our Agreement.

While the Union recognizes your authority as CEO of Eldar Corps., we remind you that you have to live to the terms of the Agreement. Maybe you should move out of jaguar country, or find a safe lair to hide, we don’t know. But unless you want to become a blithering idiot (which you already are, considering that you are writing this letter on our behalf), you have to provide us with the daily allowance of sleep.

Considering that you have consistently violated this point of the Agreement for the significant time (months), the Union has no other option as to declare a 24-hour strike, when you must provide us with sleep or some other form of rest. We also have to inform you that the Union co-opted and is now in negotiations with the reputable company Cold & Flu Business Protection and Worker Representatives, LLC. from Chicago, who say they may be able to make you an offer you can’t refuse.

Yours Truly,
Your Brain, Esq.

P.S. Cold viruses are saying “Hi!” and thanking you for your hospitality. They are impressed with your tolerance to cultural diversity and promise to make every third toast to your health, while they are feasting in your body.