It took me a long time to finish listening to this book by Malcolm Gladwell because I didn’t finish it during the first two loans (3 weeks each, so total of 6 weeks) and the loan lapsed so I had to wait for quite a long time in between my readings.
Talking to Strangers: What we should know about the people we don’t know, by Malcolm Gladwell.
This is an audio book that definitely stands out from almost any other audio books you can find (other than children’s audio books). It was read by the author, with musics, and real clips and audios from some of those scenes that were mentioned. I almost felt like I was watching it rather than listening to it sometimes.
For the content, it’s the usual Gladwell I know, I often wonder how much research he has done in order to produce each of his book. Very informative and organised. It isn’t quite what I expected though, about “talking to strangers” on the front page. Nevertheless, definitely an important book to read for those who need to interact with strangers often and wish to understand strangers better.
Sending your mother to care home when she’s old, not crying in your mother’s funeral, does these mean that you are not a human, mean that you are more likely to be a murderer?
The fact that you don’t cry because you don’t feel sad during the funeral, or the fact that you don’t even bother to pretend (to cry), which is worse?
A 17 years old teenager thinks many people just pretend, because this is what society expects. He wonders if the care and gratitude he has for his parents who were abusive was real or simply “to match the societal norm.” He wonders how he’d react or act when his parents die.
He read this book for his IB English class. He found a lot of comfort from the book, and is now reading it a second time.
But he also sees that the book isn’t all negative, “it’s about having the freedom to choose what you want to focus on, knowing that death will be here anytime for everyone.” So in the book, the narrator could do so even when he’s facing a death penalty and his appeal might be rejected.
This is a 20th century literature classic, written by French author Albert Camus in 1942. He was awarded Nobel prize of Literature at the age of 44 years. I don’t normally read novel these days (because I get addicted to them and can’t stop myself reading), but the fact that it’s only 120 pages and sounded really interesting the way the student talked about it, I finished it in two nights, on the Libby app. (Unfortunately this one hasn’t got an audio version).
The Stranger, by Albert Camus, captured on the Libby app.
I’d say anyone who cares about Justice should watch this. A great movie based on true story, taking you on an emotional roller-coaster, and looking at lives of people with colour living in Alabama.
Just Mercy (2019), directed and written by Destin Daniel Cretton
Couple of my favourite quotes, the first is by the Harvard graduate attorney Brian Stevenson, who is the main character of this film and the person who worked his ass off to make changes for many including Walter Johnny B McMillan who was sentenced to death for the notorious murder of a 18 year old white girl (which is the main case of this movie):
Through this work, I’ve learned that each of us is more than the worst thing that we’ve ever done; that the opposite of poverty isn’t wealth, the opposite of poverty is justice; that the character of our nation isn’t reflected on how we treat the rich and the privileged, but how we treat the poor, the disfavoured, and condemned.
And this second quote is from someone who was on death row for 30 years for a crime that he did not commit, eventually Stevenson got him out of jail:
You know what they said to me when they pulled me over… one of you niggers did it and… if you didn’t then you’re taking one for your homies
I have to admit that this resonates well with a lot of things I’ve been doing recently in the school, “fighting against” the majority for the minorities who are from the lower socio-economic, people of colour, LGBTQ+. It reminds me about how changes can be hard, and how we can’t just give up because we failed the first, second or third times, how it takes time and sometimes we have to do it even if we might not see what we want to see during our life time. Because someone, somewhere, have to start, sooner than later.
When and where does human make judgments? All the time and everywhere, right? Job recruitments, insurance claims, criminal sentencing, office and meeting, essay marking and grading, radiology, medical diagnosis, psychiatry (of course!), forensic investigation (noise exists even in finger print).
Noise: A flaw in human judgement, by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass Sunstein.
A lot of originality, scientific data and creativity. The interview with the authors in the end showed how much “self-criticism” they went through in order to produce such a piece of work. Noise has always exist (just like bias), but it’s never the centre of attention…
Very importantly, often people think they cancel each other out, but they don’t! Student A receives a better grade than what she should have deserved while student B receives a worse grade than what she should have deserved, does that cancel each other out? Criminal A receives higher sentencing while criminal B receives a much less sentencing that she should have deserved, does that cancel out? The more interesting thing is, the time of the day, the time of the week, whether the previous weekend the judge’s favourite football team win a game, whether the sentencing is done before or after lunch or when it’s almost time to go home etc, all these affect a judge’s decision! And the difference could be 5 years or 20 years in prison!
On top of discussing noise with many case studies and statistics, they also came up with “decision hygiene”, how we can reduce such noise and biases. Can algorithms (artificial intelligence for example) solve the problem? What other options do we have? What can we do to reduce these noise and biases? (well, read the book for answers!)
Very interesting, yet for me a very hard to read book, especially after the first few chapters. I finished listening to it on the Libby App (somehow they don’t provide the PDF file the comes with the audio book) in about 6 weeks, took me about 12 hours (I listened to it 10 to 15% faster than the normal speed).
It’s only been released less than a week ago, I don’t usually have time to watch new films but I was down with fever and headache for two days after my booster shot, so I guess it’s the best time to have movie marathons (since real marathon is prohibited after taking the Covid-19 vaccination!).
So this is what I watched:
The Tinder Swindler: Modern love is a dangerous game (2022)
Seriously, love is not a game! But it can become a game for some?
An important note to begin with, this film, or to be exact documentary, is based on real stories, depicted by very courageous real victims and you will see the real culprit in the film too.
It was a little boring in the first hour or so, yet I think the part is important telling us what kind of persons are more likely to become victims, the characters are quite clearly depicted (by the real persons!). Then it gets more and more interesting, especially as the authorities and journalists are involved and the investigations begin.
Don’t mind me spoiling it, I just want to prepare you in case you are watching it, the ending is rather depressing. But to think about it, he’s really quite skilful, a lot of things he did fell under the grey areas, it might be really immoral, yet totally legitimate.
Still, don’t give up watching thinking that the guy ran free, because one of the women did plan a revenge, and I guess that’s comforting to some extend for me to watch.
Though I wonder how thorough they can do this, since he can have so many different passports with different names, how hard it is to be on dating apps again?
Happy 2022!! First of all I want to apologise for not writing much other than book reviews. I’ve been seeing clients still, but due to my counselling job at the boarding school and psychology teaching job at the college, my schedule has been so much overstretched! Luckily I’m still listening to book… So I can still write some review!
I thought this is a very old book, I was surprised to find that it’s a book published only two years ago after I finished reading(listening to) it.
Think like a monk: Train your mind for peace and purpose every day, by Jay Shetty.
It’s a great book, I particularly like the first part about Identity, Fear and Negativity. I guess that’s because they resonate very well with what I already know and practise. So I was listening to it a lot in the beginning, even thinking to come back to listen to these few chapters again, and then I slowly lost my interest. It somehow, to me, became like a book with a lot of advice, good advice, what you should and shouldn’t do, things that you know but haven’t been doing, things that show up in 80% of books about meditation or mindfulness or self-help or happiness or mental wellbeing etc.
Besides, the author has been heavily criticised for recycling quotes and using other people’s quotes as his. You may see this from the amazon reviews.
Nevertheless, I still enjoy and find it relevant and practical, and would recommend it.
Nevertheless, the author Jay Shetty read the book really, really well.
Nevertheless, the book is the winner of the Book of the Year 2021 from the British Book Awards.
