A valuable guide for the uninitiated in search of quick, simple explanations.
A brief but impressively thorough introduction to cryptocurrency in general and bitcoin in particular.
Cryptocurrency is among the most hotly debated commercial innovations, but it’s also among the least understood, which is why so many new investors typically fail according to publisher alkeyTAB Pro (no author listed). This remarkably concise overview—barely more than 100 pages—attempts to clarify both the underlying technology and the operations of the market. The author begins with a quick, conventional history of cryptocurrency that traces it back to both its embryonic precursors, like DigiCash, invented in 1995, and the now-infamous essay written by the nebulous Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008, a kind of founding manifesto. Readers take an accessible guided tour of blockchain technology and the basic characteristics of bitcoin and are given some brief, comparative descriptions of its principal competitors like Ether and Ripple. The author notes the primary advantages of cryptocurrency over traditional currencies—the allure of decentralization, the elimination of third parties in transactions, and the absolute anonymity of the user are among the most attractive. And after discussing a host of questions the prospective investor might have—the book unfolds sort of like a long FAQ sheet—the author outlines a reasonably prudent investment strategy. Introductions to bitcoin are typically less practical, focusing on the political philosophy that undergirds it. By way of contrast, the book makes a point of providing basic, actionable information for those keen on entering the market. Also, while the author candidly considers bitcoin “one of the most important discoveries of recent times,” he also acknowledges its risks and limitations, including a vulnerability to hackers and the volatility of its market. In fact, he concedes it will not soon replace gold: “There is no evidence to conclude that bitcoin will ever take over gold as an investment asset. It can be expected, however, that the gold will hold its market, and bitcoin will gradually gain its own market share.” This isn’t the most detailed or searching account of bitcoin available, but it’s a useful resource for the newcomer looking for an easily digestible primer.
A valuable guide for the uninitiated in search of quick, simple explanations.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: alkeyTAB Pro
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.
Helping liberals get out of their own way.
Klein, a New York Times columnist, and Thompson, an Atlantic staffer, lean to the left, but they aren’t interrogating the usual suspects. Aware that many conservatives have no interest in their opinions, the authors target their own side’s “pathologies.” Why do red states greenlight the kind of renewable energy projects that often languish in blue states? Why does liberal California have the nation’s most severe homelessness and housing affordability crises? One big reason: Liberal leadership has ensnared itself in a web of well-intentioned yet often onerous “goals, standards, and rules.” This “procedural kludge,” partially shaped by lawyers who pioneered a “democracy by lawsuit” strategy in the 1960s, threatens to stymie key breakthroughs. Consider the anti-pollution laws passed after World War II. In the decades since, homeowners’ groups in liberal locales have cited such statutes in lawsuits meant to stop new affordable housing. Today, these laws “block the clean energy projects” required to tackle climate change. Nuclear energy is “inarguably safer” than the fossil fuel variety, but because Washington doesn’t always “properly weigh risk,” it almost never builds new reactors. Meanwhile, technologies that may cure disease or slash the carbon footprint of cement production benefit from government support, but too often the grant process “rewards caution and punishes outsider thinking.” The authors call this style of governing “everything-bagel liberalism,” so named because of its many government mandates. Instead, they envision “a politics of abundance” that would remake travel, work, and health. This won’t happen without “changing the processes that make building and inventing so hard.” It’s time, then, to scrutinize everything from municipal zoning regulations to the paperwork requirements for scientists getting federal funding. The authors’ debut as a duo is very smart and eminently useful.
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781668023488
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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