BookWyrm

settingshadow reviewed How To Take Over The World by Ryan North

Ryan North: How To Take Over The World (Hardcover, 2022, Riverhead Books)

A tongue-in-cheek introduction to the science of comic-book supervillainy, revealing the true potential of today’s …

Review of 'How To Take Over The World' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This was a light and humorous read. I liked the framing device of supervillainy and the dry humor. But I think the pop science nonfiction was distributed unevenly with some chapters have a lot more interesting factoids than others. In particular, the first chapters were the best with lots of new info and the later chapters dragged more

settingshadow reviewed Will Super Villains Be On The Final by Yishan Li

Yishan Li: Will Super Villains Be On The Final (2011, Ballantine Books)

Review of 'Will Super Villains Be On The Final' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This is cute, but it's basically 10% of a book that then got abandoned. You can see the seedlings of what ultimately became the scholomance

settingshadow reviewed Determined by Robert M. Sapolsky

Robert M. Sapolsky: Determined (2023, Penguin Publishing Group)

One of our great behavioral scientists, the bestselling author of Behave, plumbs the depths of …

Review of 'Determined' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Pitched as an exploration of whether free will exists and what to do about it if it doesn't, but really a broader neuroscience review about the genetic and environmental influences on behavior. I deeply enjoy Sapolsky, who is accessible, funny and opinionated (and uses musicals for examples!) but I think some of his conclusions were a little over-argued without truly discussing what does "free will" mean and can we have a sense of self while also having a high degree of biological determinism? He agrees that environment influences behavior extensively, but in the discussion about how we mete out justice, he doesn't really follow through with that to the obvious conclusion that we should identify environmental factors that will more positively shape behavior and then do those things, for example. Some of the digressions through chaos theory feel not very on-topic and Sapolsky admits he isn't an expert in this …

Pitched as an exploration of whether free will exists and what to do about it if it doesn't, but really a broader neuroscience review about the genetic and environmental influences on behavior. I deeply enjoy Sapolsky, who is accessible, funny and opinionated (and uses musicals for examples!) but I think some of his conclusions were a little over-argued without truly discussing what does "free will" mean and can we have a sense of self while also having a high degree of biological determinism? He agrees that environment influences behavior extensively, but in the discussion about how we mete out justice, he doesn't really follow through with that to the obvious conclusion that we should identify environmental factors that will more positively shape behavior and then do those things, for example. Some of the digressions through chaos theory feel not very on-topic and Sapolsky admits he isn't an expert in this topic.

Still, an amazing book, especially first third with heavy incorporation of modern neuroscience research, including neuroendocrinology, where Sapolsky particularly shines.