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dr.Pep
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Copyright © 2025 Pepijn van der Laan.
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Corporate executives don’t have a clue about what customers and employees experience

Corporate executives don’t have a clue about what customers and employees experience

Martin Lindstrom – The ministry of common sense

This marketing guy can’t stop whining about his 1st world problems (and when pushed by his editor to deliver another bestseller decided to to make it into a book, together with his ghost writer).

Fishermen tend to kill the thing they love

Fishermen tend to kill the thing they love

Mark Kurlansky – Cod

Everything you always wanted to know about the economic, cultural, historical, and culinary significance of cod.

There is an important distinction between being Agile and having agility

There is an important distinction between being Agile and having agility

Jonathan Smart – Sooner Safer Happier

The book’s premise sounds so blatantly obvious that one wonders why (in many organizations) there is still an issue.

“Art is just a container you poor yourself into”

“Art is just a container you poor yourself into”

Jerry Saltz – How to be an artist

What is good advice for life is typically also good advice for art, and vice versa.

Never trust data scientists, in particular when they do not have data

Never trust data scientists, in particular when they do not have data

Jill Lepore – If then

The writer never really succeeds in making the Simulmatics story seem important, partly because due to endless digressions about the bad marriages of the men who founded the company and partly because she avoids any substantial assessment of the actual models they used.

Seneca and his friends have a lot of practical advice for navigating life

Seneca and his friends have a lot of practical advice for navigating life

Ward Fransworth – The practicing Stoic

there is no reason to get too excited about this book.

Truly understanding strangers is difficult, but failing to do so may cause grave harm to individuals as well as society as a whole

Truly understanding strangers is difficult, but failing to do so may cause grave harm to individuals as well as society as a whole

Malcolm Gladwell – Talking to strangers

Gladwell once more makes his well known point that prejudice is often subconscious and institutionalized (cf. also Blink), this time inspired by a BLM atrocity.

It is a miracle that databases actually work, considering all the things that can go wrong

It is a miracle that databases actually work, considering all the things that can go wrong

Martin Kleppmann – Designing Data-intensive applications

Surprisingly readable for a text of this sort of technical depth

Folk tales about vampires and werewolves are based in an exaggerated fear for rabies

Folk tales about vampires and werewolves are based in an exaggerated fear for rabies

Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy

The detailed synopsis of (what seems like) every book, play, or movie that ever mentioned rabies gets boring pretty fast.

Kill Powerpoint, have to 2-pizza teams, and get your core values straight

Kill Powerpoint, have to 2-pizza teams, and get your core values straight

Colin Brayer and Bill Carr – Working backwards

Somehow, there is no mention of pee bottles or other excesses concerning operational staff in the book.

It requires a lot of dedication to learn superior memorization skills, but it can be done

It requires a lot of dedication to learn superior memorization skills, but it can be done

Joshua Foer – Moonwalking with Einstein

Endearing blend of journalism and personal experience.

Experiencing other people’s suffering leads us away from rational decision making

Experiencing other people’s suffering leads us away from rational decision making

Paul Bloom – Against empathy

The seemingly controversial thesis turns out to be a platitude hidden behind a carefully crafted facade of definitions.

Feigning intelligence is not too difficult, considering that people can be fooled in many different ways

Feigning intelligence is not too difficult, considering that people can be fooled in many different ways

Brian Christian – The most human human

Unfortunately, the book does not explicitly challenge if humans are adequate judges in the Turing test.

It is easy to find an excuse for trying phychedelics when you are in a midlife crisis

It is easy to find an excuse for trying phychedelics when you are in a midlife crisis

Michael Pollan – How to change your mind

It is much harder to relate to the author’s obsession, which seems mostly driven by a some vague feeling of disappointment concerning life in general.

Whenever you need to come to a rational decision: use Mathematics

Whenever you need to come to a rational decision: use Mathematics

Jordan Ellenberg – How not to be wrong

A cornucopia of charming mathematical anecdotes and facts

The left terrorizes the right while bathing in victimhood

The left terrorizes the right while bathing in victimhood

Gad Saad – The parasitic mind

The purposeful one-sided rant makes the book lose all credibility, in particular since the arguments can easily be reversed – especially in the wake of Trump’s desperate challenge the US election outcome.

Poverty is not just characterized by lack of money, but also by unpredictability of cash flow and risk exposure

Poverty is not just characterized by lack of money, but also by unpredictability of cash flow and risk exposure

Daryl Collins – Portfolios of the poor

Thorough application of small data that provides valuable insight in how people live on less than 2$ a day – and what that implies for microfinance.

20th century science gave rise to some truly mind-blowing concepts

20th century science gave rise to some truly mind-blowing concepts

Benjamin Labatut – When we cease to understand the world

A highly entertaining fictionalized history of landmark scientific breakthroughs.

Ongoing advances in technology make that ethical norms develop incredibly fast

Ongoing advances in technology make that ethical norms develop incredibly fast

Juan Enriquez – Right/Wrong

Filled with highly interesting statistics about the evolution of public perception on ethical issues.

The philosophy of the Silicon Valley elite is just a bunch of ill understood one-liners from preferably obscure thinkers

The philosophy of the Silicon Valley elite is just a bunch of ill understood one-liners from preferably obscure thinkers

Adrian Daub – What tech calls thinking

Entertaining and polemic book, although many of the author’s points hardly need to be argued.

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Copyright © 2025 Pepijn van der Laan.
All rights reserved.