This is a book more people need to sit down and read; not just read but also study. A book like this should be required reading for economics, science, and psychology classes in college, maybe high school. Mr. Buchanan makes a valid attempt to try and find laws in our social world that match the laws from our physical world, not an easy feat to do.
The idea that he presents that if physics has well-established laws then shouldn't peoples' behavior have solid laws as well? The case is a hard one to prove but if you look carefully, as their experiments have shown, it has proved why certain neighborhoods naturally segregate themselves, why certain societies fall apart, and why small companies prosper better than large mature companies.
For the longest time I wanted to read this book. I skimmed it at first and thought this book contained a gold mined of ideas and thoughts. I started it in the beginning when it first came out but decided I wanted to wait a bit more. I realize after finally reading this book that I need to read it again. So many of the conclusions found in this book prove so much about human behavior that this is one that should be connected with the famous psychology book, Influence by Robert Cialdini.
If you want to understand why the rich keep getting richer and the poor stay poor and why unintended consequences play such a huge role in our future than you need to sit down and study this book. Take your time to really get why people see the color of someone's skin, not as a negative, but as a way to understand the people around them then it makes sense how someone interacts with people. There are so many little behaviors that have been proven over and over again that they should be made to be memorized in school but the studies in this book tell you that politics will prevent such an action from happening.
I'm glad I can say I have read this book and plan to go back and pick out the important parts from this book. I will say that I was happy to see that the authors addressed the religious people who view books like this as a threat to their beliefs. That right there shows the real cause of decline for science and social sciences research. The book, Reality Check by Donald Prothero, shows a perfect case of how religion is affecting the progress of science research. A lot of the ideas in this book can seem threatening if you do not have a clear understanding of this world because its hard to believe that the thought of Free-Will, at most times, is just an illusion. We all would love to believe that we can decide and do whatever we want at any given point but the real case is that it is not always true.
I will add one other thing about, in all this time since this book has been out I have not heard this book recommended by anyone, so that makes me a little concerned because books like this need more attention. The little actions, for anyone who decides to follow what this book has proven, will lead to a life full of understanding about the people around you but also to a better chance of improving one's own financial situation in life. You will learn the secrets of why the rich get richer and the poor stay poor and how to fix that.
An interesting read. Not my field of experteise but I can see how some of it would ring true. Like some other reviewers he lost me at the end when he started attacking religion. Surely it, like all other human traits should be worked with rather than against.
It's an interesting look at the fact that humanity tends to work in groups and that a lot of people find it very hard to go against the group. He's a physicist and has some pet theories about social sciences that he feels need airing.
It's one to read, think about and use some salt with. Peppered with interesting ideas and encouages thinking.
I'm disappointed in this book. I thought it would be a good complement to Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point, which explained how change happens. Perhaps I heard too much about The Social Atom on Public Radio, but it felt as though he was telling me much of anything new. The other complaint I have is that he could have taken a few sentences from each chapter and put together a nice paper on the subject. All in all, I feel like I didn't get much out of it.
I've worked in complex systems research for years and have been looking for a book like this. It's a robust, highly readable account of some very important results. Mark has done a terrific job of communicating the results and framing their relevance accurately.
Che libro interessante! Finalmente un giusto equilibrio tra semplificazione e rigore. Un'ottima appendice con approfondimenti anche piuttosto tecnici, e argomenti di estrema attualit脿. L'idea principale dell'autore consiste nel fatto che la complessit脿 sociale sia un fenomeno collettivo, emergente, e non costituito semplicemente dalla somma delle complessit脿 dei singoli individui. Un "Must have" per chiunque si sia mai chiesto perch茅 dopo aver fatto un'ora di coda in autostrada scopriamo poi che non c'era nessun incidente, oppure come sia possibile regolamentare i flussi di dieci, venti o anche centomila persone che si sono riunite tutte nello stesso luogo (ad esempio, per un concerto). E tante altre cose, dalla sociologia alla geologia all'antropologia. Che ci sia una speranza che, finalmente, le "scienze sociali" entrino in contatto con il metodo scientifico?
It doesn't quite live up to the title, but overall an interesting read about consistent trends that show up in society. This book describes how scientific methods similar to chemistry or physics can be applied at the societal level to predict societal situations/actions.
Personally, I found it interesting that there was a study that found people want to punish others that violate group norms even it if costs themselves something to do so. It turns out I'm not petty and vindictive, I'm programmed.
Overall a very similar writing style to Malcom Gladwell who also writes science oriented books in an accessible way. Life is too short to read bad writing.
Este livro tem uma proposta bastante interessante, analisar as intera莽玫es sociais das pessoas sob o ponto de vista da f铆sica. Dessa forma o ser humano 茅 comparado a um 谩tomo, a menor parte da mat茅ria da qual ele faz parte, a sociedade. Seguindo este princ铆pio, as pessoas passam a seguir padr玫es de comportamento muito mais simples do que aparentemente julgam.
Os tr锚s primeiros cap铆tulos s茫o um tanto cansativos, o autor, f铆sico te贸rico, tem dificuldade em tornar o assunto interessante para os n茫o iniciados. A partir do quarto capitulo come莽a a ficar mais interessante e a leitura flui com mais facilidade.
A vers茫o traduzida para o portugu锚s tem 156 p谩ginas.
I found this book both fascinating and enjoyable. It's an easy read and presents a solid argument. The book does feel a little light on in places and could have been expanded to include a few more examples and possibly more comprehensive analysis of the potential for this new way of looking at the patterns behind human behavior. Overall a great read though, definitely recommended.
This book is pretty good for people who start to learn more about sociology in scientific ways. I believe in science and that is why this book is good because it explain societies and how we interact with others in the new way.
I like all examples that are pretty interesting and some of them are historical events that everyone knows, but we just didn't think about them that way.