Monday, November 11, 2019

The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect

Judea Pearl, Dana Mackenzie
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A Turing Award-winning computer scientist and statistician shows how understanding causality has revolutionized science and will revolutionize artificial intelligence "Correlation is not causation."

This mantra, chanted by scientists for more than a century, has led to a virtual prohibition on causal talk. Today, that taboo is dead. The causal revolution, instigated by Judea Pearl and his colleagues, has cut through a century of confusion and established causality--the study of cause and effect--on a firm scientific basis. His work explains how we can know easy things, like whether it was rain or a sprinkler that made a sidewalk wet; and how to answer hard questions, like whether a drug cured an illness. Pearl's work enables us to know not just whether one thing causes another: it lets us explore the world that is and the worlds that could have been. It shows us the essence of human thought and key to artificial intelligence. Anyone who wants to understand either needs The Book of Why.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

冷思考:社群時代狂潮下,我們如何在衝突中活出自己,與他者共存 (How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds)

亞倫.傑考布斯 (Alan Jacobs)
online access from iRead eBook
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只讀標題,順手按讚和分享、轉貼,之後卻被真相打臉?
網路筆戰、瘋狂洗版,事後才後悔自己被人帶風向?
你在網路上的發言,是自己的想法,還是同溫層的共識?
社群/群組是給你歸屬感的夥伴,還是控制你思想的怪物?

講求效率和速度的網路時代,要求你即時回應,讓你來不及思考;
各種洗腦貼文、帶風向的錯誤訊息、來源不明的假新聞,已成為日常,
不只在個人的社交網絡激發迴響,甚至足以左右社會輿論、影響決定國家前途的大選。
我們該如何在聲量的大洪流時代,保有批判性思考的能力,
跳出牽制自己的心理陷阱、被有心人操縱的棋局?

當「後真相」/「另類事實」時代
與個人追求團體/社群認可的需求合而為一頭吞噬我們的巨獸,
個人因此更迷惑不安,社會因此更傾斜、方向更紊亂,
你需要養成一套思考的策略,找回思考的能力,
學會和不同於你的人一起思考……也許最終大家也能學會一起好好生活。

#不經思考的「討論」算討論嗎?
#思考太麻煩!


後網路時代,每個人身上都有好幾個社群標籤,每天在網路上對分裂的政治、社會等重大議題發表意見——但那是真正的討論嗎?
知名作家暨人文學院教授亞倫・傑考布斯,也是為《大西洋月刊》與《哈潑雜誌》等全國性刊物執筆的文化評論家,本身在各種社群中遭遇過大小衝突。多年經驗下來,傑考布斯發現:大多數爭辯淪為意氣、情緒的發洩,因為牽涉其中的人就是不思考。
我們不想思考,因為思考太麻煩!
它會逼迫我們脫離熟悉、讓人安心的習慣;它可能讓我們跟知心朋友的關係變得複雜;
而且思考很慢,當我們迷失在社群媒體、黨派爭執與確認偏誤的循環中,思考很慢就成了問題。

#大師來幫忙診斷「思考病」......

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)


Monday, November 4, 2019

Blockchain : Transforming Your Business and Our World

Mark Van Rijmenam, Philippa Ryan
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The internet was envisaged as a decentralised global network, but in the past 25 years it has come to be controlled by a few, very powerful, centralised companies. Blockchain is a technological paradigm shift that allows secure, reliable, and direct information transfer between individuals, organisations, and things, so that we can manage, verify, and control the use of our own data.

Blockchain also offers a new opportunity for humanity to fix some major problems. It can authenticate data, manage its analysis, and automate its use. With better data comes better decision-making. In this way, Blockchain can contribute to solving climate change, reduce voting fraud, fix our identity systems, improve fair trade, and give the poor an opportunity to improve their lives by monetising their (digital) capital. A world built upon peer-to-peer transactions and smart contracts can empower individuals and communities.

This book offers a fresh perspective with which to consider this transformative technology. It describes how Blockchain can optimise the processes that run our society. It provides practical solutions to global problems and offers a roadmap to incorporate Blockchain in your business. It offers a blueprint for a better world. Filled with easy-to-understand examples, this book shows how Blockchain can take over where the internet has fallen short.

(Excerpt from amazon.com)

做個‧真選民—選舉工程48講 (Behind Your Vote)

周偉航
online access from HyRead ebook
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經過多年的區議會、立法會選舉洗禮,不少港人愈來愈明白一票在手的價值。然而,選舉期間,各政黨都會出盡渾身解數展開選舉工程:網絡戰、傳媒戰、「蛇齋餅糉」、配票、運用地區椿腳等策略固然人前背後進行得如火如荼;候選人找來專業人士特訓口才、辯才,建立看似能幹、可靠、親切模樣等形象工程,更是層出不窮。誰在耍花招?誰是真材實料?

在台灣,選舉期間候選人同樣出盡花招。台灣熱門博客「人渣文本」版主周偉航,曾當過馬英九和國民黨議員的幕僚,也做過民進黨的競選總幹事和辦公室主任,選戰經驗極之豐富。本書由他以專業角度拆解選舉工程,從理論到實務,深入探討台灣選舉的眾生百態,藉由撥開眾多選戰花招迷霧,引領讀者建立公民意識、強化自身思考能力。

香港與台灣從來都是互相學習,本地政治人物便經常往台灣觀戰。書中拆解台灣選舉工程中的每一環都十分值得香港選民借鑑。作者深信,每次選舉的結束,都是下次選舉的開始;今次誤投錯的人,只要在下一次修正便好。讀完此書,明白選舉工程的箇中玄機後,冀讀者也能了解甚麼是選舉,更能真正運用手中的選票。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)


Monday, October 28, 2019

New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World—and How to Make It Work for You

Jeremy Heimans, Henry Timms
online access from EBSCOhost Ebooks
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Shortlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award
“The best window I’ve seen into this new world.” —David Brooks, The New York Times

In this indispensable guide to navigating the twenty-first century, two visionary thinkers reveal the unexpected ways power is changing--and how 'new power' is reshaping politics, business, and life.

Why do some leap ahead while others fall behind in our chaotic, connected age? In New Power, Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms confront the biggest stories of our time--the rise of mega-platforms like Facebook and Uber; the out-of-nowhere victories of Obama and Trump; the unexpected emergence of movements like #MeToo--and reveal what's really behind them: the rise of 'new power'.

For most of human history, the rules of power were clear: power was something to be seized and then jealously guarded. This 'old power' was out of reach for the vast majority of people. But our ubiquitous connectivity makes possible a different kind of power. 'New power' is made by many. It is open, participatory, and peer-driven. It works like a current, not a currency--and it is most forceful when it surges. The battle between old and new power is determining who governs us, how we work, and even how we think and feel.

New Power shines fresh light on the cultural phenomena of our day, from #BlackLivesMatter to the Ice Bucket Challenge to Airbnb, uncovering the new power forces that made them huge. Drawing on examples from business, activism, and pop culture, as well as the study of organizations like Lego, NASA, Reddit, and TED, Heimans and Timms explain how to build new power and channel it successfully. They also explore the dark side of these forces: the way ISIS has co-opted new power to monstrous ends, and the rise of the alt-right's 'intensity machine'.

In an era increasingly shaped by new power, this groundbreaking book offers us a new way to understand the world--and our role in it.

(Excerpt from goodreads.com)

蔡康永的情商課──為你自己活一次

蔡康永
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很多人說要做自己,只是說著玩的。
先弄清自己是怎麼回事,才可能開始做自己啊。──蔡康永


這些年間,他發現有件事跟會說話同樣重要,那就是擁有「高情商」。他凝聚30年來在演藝圈摸索出的門道,舉大量實例、動人的故事和對話,以及獨到的幽默感和奇思妙想,幫讀者掃除自卑、恐懼、自欺、空虛……等負面情緒,踏出高情商的第一步。

提高情商,改變的不只是人際關係,甚至能改變一個人的命運。

◆我不是為你活的,你也不是為別人活的。你知道到今天為止,你已經為了別人,放棄了多少自己嗎?
◆情緒,就是我們當下的自己。想要高情商,就要做到適合與平衡,而不是極端的壓抑情緒,或極端的放任情緒。
◆消化情緒需要採取有效的行動,而選擇有效行動的依據,是釐清自己的感受。
◆幸福指需要「人和」──與人和、與自己和。而且最奇妙的是,如果一個人能夠「與自己和」,就能「與別人和」。
◆你也許聽說過,世界有世界的規則,但那不是你的規則。世界上只有一種值得你遵行的規則,那就是~你的規則。
◆你以為情商是壓住你的情緒嗎?如果手腳都被壓住。你要怎麼奔跑與舞蹈?對於情緒,我們要珍惜,並且恰當的分配,而不是壓制或遮蓋。
◆我們的心力,那麼有限,那麼珍貴,你怎麼捨得每分每秒的揮霍你的心力,去評價各種與你無關的人?去反應各種與你無關的事?
◆別老是相信那些動不動就要死要活的戲劇與歌曲,那些東西本來就被設計成情緒的炸彈,誰會抱著炸彈過日子呢?如果想要寧靜,並且內心強大,就要多看書,多與自己相處。
◆所有好看的戲劇,其中的人物情商都很低。追劇時請順便拿出抬槓的精神,當作自己的情商訓練。

(摘錄自博客來網路書店)