3 Good Reads

Study Hacks blog. “Seneca on Social Media.” About 2000 years ago, the stoic philosopher Seneca observed that many people do not understand that “free” gifts often come with strings attached, such as what they cost us in time: “Our stupidity may be clearly proved by the fact that we hold that ‘buying’ refers only to the objects for which we pay cahs, and we regard as free gifts the thigns for which we spend our very selves.” Blogger and author Cal Newport asks us to look at our use of social media services like Facebook in terms of the cost […]

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The Art of Intelligence

In The Art of Intelligence: Lessons from a Life in the CIA’s Clandestine Service, Henry Crumpton recounts a conversation he had with Cofer Black, the former Director of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center, just days after the 9/11 attacks. In the conversation, Black detailed the many advance warnings the CIA had given to President Bush and administration officials that an Al Queda attack in the United States was imminent. Referring to the infamous daily briefing report given to President Bush on August 8, 2001 titled “Bin Laden Determined To Strike in the U.S.,” Crumpton writes: I later studied the document and […]

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3 good reads

New York Review of Books. “We Are Hopelessly Hooked,” by Jacob Weisberg. Review of four books on the impact of digital devices are having on how we think and behave. Favorite lines are from a section on trolls: “We can’t just deal with the emotional toll of brutality on the Web by toughening up. We need a Web that is less corrosive to our humanity.” Mind Hacks blog. “A quartet of complementary brain books.” Four must-read books on neuroscience for the lay person. On Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience: It tackles several areas as examples of where these fallacies […]

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