An intelligent exploration of the psychology of the entrepreneur and the toxic effects of authoritarianism.
A financial book offers a distillation of the entrepreneurial mindset and a discussion of the ways in which it can be inspired in post-Soviet nations.
When Diehl moved to Armenia, he was struck by the lack of a robust entrepreneurial culture. Despite the freedom gained by the demise of the Soviet Union, the country had not yet established a general mindset that exploited it. In fact, the author avers, this was common among the post-Soviet nations—generations were brainwashed to believe not only that capitalistic pursuit was inherently evil, but also that their lots in life were beyond their control, and when in need, they should look reflexively to the government for assistance. Diehl refers to this as the “bureaucratic mentality” or “Post-Soviet Self-Defeatism”—the “pathological fear of stepping off the beaten and culturally condoned path in both the setting of goals and the devising of strategies to achieve them.” To this abdication of rational self-sufficiency, the author proposes the entrepreneurial worldview, which posits goals and then creatively and independently pursues them. Diehl explains the stultifying legacy of authoritarianism, the path out of it, and the worldview of the entrepreneur with admirable clarity and concision. Rather than a book about practical strategy—the author rightfully decries get-rich-quick schemes—this is a careful articulation of the mentality of the entrepreneur, both generally and as it applies to capital goods, commodities, money, marketing, and many of the technical elements of wealth creation. Diehl’s work is refreshingly hopeful without being unabashedly sanguine—he soberly realizes that tectonic cultural shifts only happen in generational time. Readers will wish that he had more to say about what precisely could be done to expedite the process—his recommendations are vague, calling for “unlocking the belief that it is within their power to take control of their own lives.” Still, this is an impressively perspicacious book, and one that should be invaluable for aspiring entrepreneurs from wherever they hail.
An intelligent exploration of the psychology of the entrepreneur and the toxic effects of authoritarianism.Pub Date: March 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-945884-68-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Identity Publications
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2022
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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