Bottle of Lies

Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom is one of the most shocking books I have ever read. It is a rare book that manages to change how I shop, but how I buy pharma products has completely reversed: no longer will I buy any generics that are made in developing countries like India or China until they commit to fixing their issues.

The Sports Gene

While you can get better at anything by practicing, it's pretty clear that given the same amount of practice, some people will be way better than others at most sports. What accounts for this difference? David Epstein drills down into this question in his fantastic book, The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance

Alchemy

There are some fields (e.g. physics) where objective facts carry the day. But in fields involving human behaviour, perception is more important than reality. In Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life, marketing executive Rory Sutherland makes a case for why we pay too much attention to logic and not enough to perception when it comes to marketing.

The Art of Thinking Clearly

We think we are pretty rational, but our behaviour indicates otherwise. In The Art of Thinking Clearly, Rolf Dobelli discusses a number of our biases and suggests solutions for staying rational.

The Misbehavior of Markets

The Random Walk Theory of prices does a half-decent job describing the behaviour of markets in general. But if you want to get specific, it does have a couple of key problems. First, it assumes price changes are independent of each other, which statistical studies have shown to be false. And second, the number of events taking place in the tails is underestimated; the bell curve assumed is far too simplistic for modeling actual market returns.

Neurologic

There are tons of books on human irrationality. I've reviewed many of them on this site! But NeuroLogic: The Brain's Hidden Rationale Behind Our Irrational Behavior is different. The focus is not so much on the irrational behaviour itself, but rather on what's going on inside the brain during this irrational behaviour.

Beazer the Pleaser

Last year, shares of Beazer Homes fell big-time on the expectation that rising rates would kill consumer appetite for homes. So I bought some, as discussed here. Last week, I sold the shares following an appreciation in the stock of over 50%.