HundredFlowersBloom

Yet another pop science book where economists try to convince you that they came up with a basic concept. This time: statistical variation.

The absolute state of contemporary science fiction. A Goodreads book through and through.

Although I do not doubt the credibility of this book's various claims, this was a poor history. The chapters jump between periods and narratives so frequently that I found no use in attempting to form a conceptual sequence of events. A “history of Rome” is simply too great a task for any single publication to accomplish, and this book ends up disjointed and spread thin over many concepts.

Grossly simplifies and cites outdated studies like the Milgram experiment. Full of truisms that serve only to appeal to the intended liberal reader's sense of superiority and intelligence. I didn't find it worth finishing despite its brevity.

Ringing in the century that shall create the material means for both great artistic output and great ambiguity in art, Conrad's psychological novel bridges the 19th and 20th centuries, marrying romantic moralism to modern inscrutability. A slog in parts but well worth it.

6.0/10.