Seeing What Others Don't

The first story in this book reminded me of Blink by Malcom Gladwell, a book about the power of impulsive thinking. We have here several case studies, that in a similar fashion to Gladwell’s book, illustrate how common sense should normally take over. One example is Bernie Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme was discovered through a mathematical error. A financial advisor was tasked with replicating Madoff’s fund, but found that Madoff’s numbers didn’t add up. The second example is Michael Gottleib, the doctor who discovered AIDS, not by research, but by seeing a man with several rare diseases and saying “this doesn’t make sense!”

I personally didn’t care for this book very much, because there weren’t any great surprises. But I’m going to give the author credit for great writing.