Archives
- April 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- January 2013
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- March 2012
- January 2012
- October 2011
- July 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Books read | The Optimist on Books read – June through September 2013
- This Week I Learned: Higher Education Edition | The Optimist on Thought of the day
- Clippings: PERSONA!!! Edition » Matchsticks for my Eyes on Books read – June through September 2013
- This Week I Learned – Robotic Dairy Farming, the Reincarnation of Steel, EULAs, And More | The Optimist on Thought of the day
- Books read – June through September 2013 | The Optimist on Three books on the history of finance and trade: Conquest, Tribute, and Trade, by Howard J Erlichman; Vermeer’s Hat, by Timothy Brook; The Ascent of Money, by Niall Ferguson
Categories
Categories
My Other Sites
- Matchsticks for my Eyes Blogging about games, books, anime, TV and movies. Analysis, commentary, feature articles and more.
- My Amazon page Buy my fiction from Amazon here!
- My fiction Where I bring worlds of wonder to life. Stories available at Amazon, Smashwords and other retailers!
- My Smashwords page No Kindle? Buy my fiction in a variety of formats from Smashwords!
-
Author Archives: Peter Sahui
The data of cities
A fascinating article in The Economist: …Â Carlo Ratti, who heads the Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was one of the first to sift through the data produced by telecoms networks. One aim was to find … Continue reading
Posted in Societies
Leave a comment
The life of an analyst, in charts
Elisabeth Fosslien’s “14 ways an economist says ‘I love you’” did the rounds of the blogosphere around Valentine’s Day, and her latest, “Portrait of the young grad as an analyst” is even better. “Analyst” is a very broad job … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellaneous
Leave a comment
Why the West industrialised before the rest: David Landes’ The Wealth and Poverty of Nations; Kenneth Pomeranz’s The Great Divergence
Still in search of why the Industrial Revolution occurred, why it came first in Britain, and why the West beat the Rest to the punch, I turned to two more books: David Landes’ The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, and … Continue reading
Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellaneous
Leave a comment
What traditional agriculture has to do with female labour force participation
I love to discover why something is the way it is, and my favourite historical reads are often those that deliver this kind of “big picture” revelation. It was in this vein that, a while back, I discussed research … Continue reading
Posted in Societies
Leave a comment
Book review: Adapt, by Tim Harford
Please note I am not an expert in the topics covered by this book; rather, my perspective is that of an interested lay reader. Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure, by Tim Harford (2011): At the very top … Continue reading
Posted in Behaviour, Reviews, Societies
Leave a comment
Two books on the history of human civilisation: Civilization, by Niall Ferguson; Why the West Rules – For Now, by Ian Morris
Conquest and imperialism have been part of human history since the first caveman speared his rival in a fight over a hunk of mammoth meat, and they reached their zenith with the European powers of the nineteenth century. But why … Continue reading
Posted in History, Reviews
5 Comments
Optimism, 140 characters at a time
Interested in a curated feed of the most interesting news, knowledge and research around the Web? Check out my Twitter account (@PeterSahui), or click the button below! (At this stage, the plan is to update the Twitter feed … Continue reading
Posted in Website
Leave a comment
Here’s a fascinating blog on economic history – Bloomberg’s “Echoes”
So I’ve taken a bit of a break from reading non-fiction – the last non-fiction book I finished was Niall Ferguson’s Civilization: The West and the Rest, about a month ago. (Stay tuned for the review!) Since then, I’ve been … Continue reading
Three books on the history of finance and trade: Conquest, Tribute, and Trade, by Howard J Erlichman; Vermeer’s Hat, by Timothy Brook; The Ascent of Money, by Niall Ferguson
Over the last year or so, I’ve become increasingly fascinated by economic and financial history. How trade forms bridges between civilisations; how empires funded their wars; how new things made their way into the homes and lives of ordinary people … Continue reading