Brain Food

In between shopping for a new house and packing to go home (sorting 4-year worth of stuff into ‘bin it’, ‘donate it’, ‘sell it’ and ‘bring it’ can be a pretty daunting task), I also try to catch up with my readings.

One of the books I just finished reading was ‘Predictably Irrational’ by Dan Ariely. It is insightful and entertaining (I laughed out loud reading this book, which is a rarity for an economics/business book) and that is why I’d recommend it to anyone. Written in simple english, it explains how we think we behave rationally, when in fact we are actually irrational and predictable. For example, we would be more willing to go (hunting) to different shops just to save $5 of a $15-good but would be less willing to save the same amount of money ($5) of a $500-good. So, if you have to buy 1 book this year, make IT this book. It can change how you think and hopefully can make us become 'rational' in our decision-making. It’s also good for any would-be entrepreneur and any businessperson as it contains a lot of marketing strategies.

A more serious book is ‘Rogue Economics’ by Loretta Napoleoni. This book is about the dark side of economic force. It actually makes me shiver that economics can actually cause misery to the lives of millions of people (in case you’re wondering, it is beyond ‘trade and globalisation’ stuff). Interestingly, her conclusion was that Syari’ah Economics could play a very positive role in saving the world from rogue economics.

Salaam.