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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Amazing Secrets of Sun Tzu's: The Art of War'
This book explains the breath-taking discovery of the secret diagrams hidden in the 2,500 year-old classic on competitive success. Containing a complete copy of Sun Tzu's original text on the left-hand page, the right-hand page explains the meaning of the secret symbols, analogies, and metaphors used by Sun Tzu in that text. The purchase of this book gives the owner Free Access to The Warrior Class, Clearbridge's on-line training center for The Art of War. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Ancient Chinese Revealed'
Winner of the 2003 Independent Publishers Book Award for Best Multicultural Non-fiction. Recognized as the newest and most accurate translation of Sun Tzu's ancient classic with six significant improvements over other translation: 1) It uses the Taipei compilation of the main Chinese textual traditions instead of older fragmentary sources. 2) It individually translates each Chinese ideogram to let readers see the precise formulas in the original text. 3) It offers English sentences that clarify the central meaning of the text but chooses words to demonstrate the range of meaning in the original. 4) It preserves the original weight of ideas by creating one and only one line of English for each line of Chinese. 5) It duplicates the original format of the Chinese by grouping and numbering lines clearly to preserve the original contextual associations. 6) It assumes that Sun Tzu was rigorously consistent in his ideas. The imprecise word usage that creates contradictions in other versions are eliminated. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art of Memory'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art of the Warrior : Leadership and Strategy from the Chinese Military Classics'
From antiquity, the history of China has been marked by invading tribes, warring states, and popular uprisings. This heritage of conflict produced a body of martial literature exploring the fundamental principles of warfare and their methods of employment. Fully aware of the tragic consequences of battle, the authors of these texts emphasized that bloodshed and war should be avoided whenever possible. But, they argued, this is possible only when the principles of leadership and strategy have been mastered and the dynamics of conflict thoroughly analyzed. Over the centuries, these texts have been studied throughout Asia, not only by generals on the battlefield but by leaders of all kinds concerned with the management of human conflict in all its forms. The Art of the Warrior presents eight of these classics (written from 500 BCE to 700 CE), including Sun-tzu's Art of War and Sun Pin's Military Methods. Selections from these writings have been arranged thematically by the translator to give the reader a comprehensive introduction to the Eastern way of strategy. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art Of War'
Conflict is an inevitable part of life, according to this ancient Chinese classic of strategy, but everything necessary to deal with conflict wisely, honorably, victoriously, is already present within us. Compiled more than two thousand years ago by a mysterious warrior-philosopher, The Art of War is still perhaps the most prestigious and influential book of strategy in the world, as eagerly studied in Asia by modern politicians and executives as it has been by military leaders since ancient times. As a study of the anatomy of organizations in conflict, The Art of War applies to competition and conflict in general, on every level from the interpersonal to the international. Its aim is invincibility, victory without battle, and unassailable strength through understanding the physics, politics, and psychology of conflict. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Art of War'
More editions of Art of War:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art of War'
More editions of The Art of War:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art of War'
For more than two thousand years, The Art of War has stood as a cornerstone of Chinese culture-a lucid epigrammatic text that reveals as much about human psychology, politics, and economics as it does about battlefield strategy. The influence of Sun-tzu's text has grown tremendously in the West in recent years, with military leaders, politicians, and corporate executives alike finding valuable insight in these ancient words. In his crisp, accessible new translation, scholar John Minford brings this seminal work to life for modern readers.
Minford opens with a lively, learned introduction in which he explores the life and times of Sun-tzu, looks at The Art of War in the context of the turbulent Warring States period, and discusses how best to read and understand the work today. There follows Minford's translation of the core text itself in two different formats-first, the unadorned thirteen chapters of the original work and then the same text reprinted with extensive running commentary by classical Chinese scholars as well as Minford himself. The result is an opportunity for Western readers to experience Sun-tzu's work in all its intensity as it applies to many aspects of our lives. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art of War'
This book was originally intended to be a set of principals designed to maximize the chances for military victory and national survival and minimize the chances of military defeat and human loss. With this view firmly in mind, Sawyer provides the most detailed introduction and commentary yet offered to the Art of War, its author and his age. Features an extensive overview of the history of Chinese Warfare and military thought, including references to the six less well known classics of Chinese military strategy, as well as battle diagrams to help readers visualize the historic military encounters discussed in the book. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art of War by Sun Tzu'
This special edition of "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu presents three complete versions of the classic text: in Chinese, in English, and fully annotated. Section I contains the complete 13 chapters of Sun Tzu's masterpiece in Chinese together with the facing page English translation by Lionel Giles, without notes or commentary. This presentation avoids the objection that commentary tends to clutter and obscure the clarity of thought of the ancient military genius. Section II contains the complete annotated translation by Lionel Giles, with explanatory notes and critical commentary. It includes an historical account of Sun Tzu's work, evaluations by Chinese commentators, an essay examining the traditional Chinese attitudes toward war and a bibliography that details Giles' source materials. The supplemental text in this section includes critical commentary and notes by both the Chinese historians as well as by Giles himself. This is invaluable information for any Eastern or Western student of Sun Tzu. Lionel Giles, as the British Museum's "Keeper of the Department of Oriental Printed Books," was uniquely qualified to translate and explain this great classic Chinese work to Western readers. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art of War: Complete Text and Commentaries'
Sun Tzu's Art of War, compiled more than two thousand years ago, is a study of the anatomy of organizations in conflict. It is perhaps the most prestigious and influential book of strategy in the world today. Now, this unique volume brings together the essential versions of Sun Tzu's text, along with illuminating commentaries and auxiliary texts written by distinguished strategists. The translations, by the renowned translator Thomas Cleary, have all been published previously in book form, except for The Silver Sparrow Art of War, which is available here for the first time. This comprehensive collection contains:
The Art of War: This edition of Sun Tzu's text includes the classic collection of commentaries by eleven interpreters.
Mastering the Art of War: Consisting of essays by two prominent statesmen-generals of Han dynasty China, Zhuge Liang and Liu Ji, this book develops the strategies of Sun Tzu's classic into a complete handbook of organization and leadership. It draws on episodes from Chinese history to show in concrete terms the proper use of Sun Tzu's principles.
The Lost Art of War: Written more than one hundred years after Sun Tzu's text, by Sun Bin, a linear descendant of Sun Tzu, this classic of political and military strategy is faithful to the principles of The Art of War, while developing their practical application much further.
The Silver Sparrow Art of War: A version of Sun Tzu's Art of War based on a manuscript of the classic text discovered at a Chinese archeological site in China's Shandong Province in 1972, which contains previously unknown fragments. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art of War: In Sun Tzu's Own Words'
The only translation by America's leading expert in Sun Tzu's competitive methods. Buying this version gives you access to the world's most extensive Art of War study area at the Clearbridge website.
This book contains two complete translations: a character-by-character translation with the original Chinese characters and phrase-by-phrase translation into ordinary English. The character translation is shown on the left-hand page. The matching English sentences across from the translated characters on facing right-hand page. This work was created give the readers a better grasp of all the shades of meaning in what Sun Tzu actually said in his historical treatise on war. No simple English translation alone can capture this many insights in Sun Tzu's actual words.
Buying this version gives you access to the world's most extensive Art of War study area at the Clearbridge website. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art of War: Sunzi Bing Fa'
Written 2500 years ago, The Art of War is the oldest military treatise in the world, a classic study of competition and rivalry that has been utilized by soldiers ever since. Napoleon studied its strategies and tactics. It is required reading for intelligence personnel in the United States Marine Corps. "Warriors" of Wall Street and in corporation cultures rely on it for guidance. It's even been rumored to help players win at the board game Risk. This 1910 translation by the British Museum's Lionel Giles is the most popular one available, a highly readable version of this still startlingly relevant text. SUN TZU lived in China in the 6th century B.C. and was a contemporary of Confucius. LIONEL GILES also translated The Book of Mencius and Sayings of Confucius. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art of War: The Definitive Interpretation of Sun Tzu's Classic Book of Strategy for Themartial Artist'
Sun Tzu's Art of War is perhaps the best known and highly regarded treatise on strategy ever written. Although its wisdom is over two thousand years old, its principles are timeless for today's boardroom battlefields. Thirteen sections present incisive strategems from assessing the foe to proper treatment of troops to espionage. Hanshi Steve Kaufman, the widely acknowledged "Founding Father" of American Karate, translates this classic with respect for its powerful martial applications. Kaufman packs the power of the original text into straightforward prose for the benefits of all martial artists and corporate warriors. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art of War: The Denma Translation'
The Art of War was written over 2,300 years ago in what is now North China. Yet it still remains a contemporary lesson on how to attain victory without going to battle. Modern-day warriors find its ancient strategies helpful regardless of whether the conflict dwells in the boardroom or the bedroom. Despite numerous references to enemies, generals, and armies, The Art of War is about nonaggression. At its core, The Art of War offers a sophisticated lesson on "taking whole," meaning staying openhearted and relaxed in order to sidestep a fight--whether you are a field commander, a CEO, or a frustrated mother putting a resistant son to bed. This particular translation comes from the Denma Translation Group, led by scholars Kidder Smith and James Gimian (publisher of Shambhala Sun magazine). Because of the text's obscure wording (even the Chinese find the original document cumbersome), the translators have inserted helpful commentary that removes some of the linguistic barriers. --Gail Hudson [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art of War: The Essential Translation of the Classic Book of Life'
This classic tract written 2,500 years ago by a leading Chinese philosopher-general proposes a perspective with which to negotiate daily conflicts and insightful tools to help one to succeed in life and define and achieve personal goals. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art of War: The Essential Translation of the Classic Book of Life'
This text was written in a terse and aphoristic style in China almost 2500 years ago and contains wisdom on not just war itself, but the science and skill of manoeuvre and strategy in the broadest terms. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art of War: The Oldest Military Treatise in the World'
Lionel Giles' classic translation of the oldest military treatise in the world. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art of War : Translation, Essays and Commentary by the Denma Translation Group'
The Art of War was written over 2,300 years ago in what is now North China. Yet it still remains a contemporary lesson on how to attain victory without going to battle. Modern-day warriors find its ancient strategies helpful regardless of whether the conflict dwells in the boardroom or the bedroom. Despite numerous references to enemies, generals, and armies, The Art of War is about nonaggression. At its core, The Art of War offers a sophisticated lesson on "taking whole," meaning staying openhearted and relaxed in order to sidestep a fight--whether you are a field commander, a CEO, or a frustrated mother putting a resistant son to bed. This particular translation comes from the Denma Translation Group, led by scholars Kidder Smith and James Gimian (publisher of Shambhala Sun magazine). Because of the text's obscure wording (even the Chinese find the original document cumbersome), the translators have inserted helpful commentary that removes some of the linguistic barriers. --Gail Hudson [via]
More editions of The Art of War : Translation, Essays and Commentary by the Denma Translation Group:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Atlas Shrugged'
At last, Ayn Rand's masterpiece is available to her millions of loyal readers in trade paperback.
With this acclaimed work and its immortal query, "Who is John Galt?", Ayn Rand found the perfect artistic form to express her vision of existence. Atlas Shrugged made Rand not only one of the most popular novelists of the century, but one of its most influential thinkers.
Atlas Shrugged is the astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world--and did. Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged stretches the boundaries further than any book you have ever read. It is a mystery, not about the murder of a man's body, but about the murder--and rebirth--of man's spirit.
Atlas Shrugged is the "second most influential book for Americans today" after the Bible, according to a joint survey conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Blink: The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking'
Blink is about the first two seconds of looking--the decisive glance that knows in an instant. Gladwell, the best-selling author of The Tipping Point, campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading with a gift for translating research into splendid storytelling. Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of "thin slices" of behavior. The key is to rely on our "adaptive unconscious"--a 24/7 mental valet--that provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea.
Gladwell includes caveats about leaping to conclusions: marketers can manipulate our first impressions, high arousal moments make us "mind blind," focusing on the wrong cue leaves us vulnerable to "the Warren Harding Effect" (i.e., voting for a handsome but hapless president). In a provocative chapter that exposes the "dark side of blink," he illuminates the failure of rapid cognition in the tragic stakeout and murder of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx. He underlines studies about autism, facial reading and cardio uptick to urge training that enhances high-stakes decision-making. In this brilliant, cage-rattling book, one can only wish for a thicker slice of Gladwell's ideas about what Blink Camp might look like. --Barbara Mackoff [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Complete Art of War'
Sun Tzu's Art of War is the most famous, and the most thought-provoking, work of strategy ever written. The profound insights of this book have endured for over two thousand years, and they continue to reward careful study. The Military Methods of Sun Pin, the great-grandson of Sun Tzu, is a brilliant elaboration on his ancestor's work, which has been lost for nearly two millennia. Presented here together for the first time are the greatest of the ancient Chinese classics of strategic thought: The Complete Art of War.The Sun family writings on strategy represent a unique contribution to our understanding of human affairs. By unveiling the complex, often unexpected, interrelationships of armies locked in battle, their wisdom reveals the enduring principles of success in the struggle of life itself.With a unique index to the essential principles of strategy, and Sawyer's thoughtful chapter-by-chapter commentaries, The Complete Art of War is designed to guide the reader to new insights into the nature of human conflict and a greater understanding of every field of human activity, from playing the game of politics to building a successful marriage, from closing a deal to managing a large organization, and even from making war to making peace. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'El mundo de Sofia'
Esta extraordinaria obra de divulgacion que se ha convertido ya en una obra de culto aporta una coherente vision de conjunto sobre aquellos aspectos imprescindibles para comprender la historia de la filosofia occidental. El mundo de Sofia tiene el merito de haber conjugado, acertadamente, rigor y amenidad en una narracion donde una joven ira conociendo su propia identidad mientras descubre la capacidad humana de hacer preguntas. «Si no sabemos en todo momento a donde vamos, puede resultar util saber de donde venimos. Para manejar mi propia vida tambien necesito entender mis raices en la historia. La mision de la filosofia es estimular el analisis critico para poder ayudar en el avance de la comprension de aquello que tiene valor y por lo cual merece la pena luchar.» [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'El Mundo de Sofia/ Sophie's World: Novela Sobre La Historia De La Filosofia / a Novel About the History of Philosophy'
Esta extraordinaria obra de divulgacion que se ha convertido ya en una obra de culto aporta una coherente vision de conjunto sobre aquellos aspectos imprescindibles para comprender la historia de la filosofia occidental. El mundo de Sofia tiene el merito de haber conjugado, acertadamente, rigor y amenidad en una narracion donde una joven ira conociendo su propia identidad mientras descubre la capacidad humana de hacer preguntas. [via]
More editions of El Mundo de Sofia/ Sophie's World: Novela Sobre La Historia De La Filosofia / a Novel About the History of Philosophy:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Essential Art Of War'
More editions of The Essential Art Of War:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Fahrenheit 451'
In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad. Fire Captain Beatty explains it this way, "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs.... Don't give them slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy."
Guy Montag is a book-burning fireman undergoing a crisis of faith. His wife spends all day with her television "family," imploring Montag to work harder so that they can afford a fourth TV wall. Their dull, empty life sharply contrasts with that of his next-door neighbor Clarisse, a young girl thrilled by the ideas in books, and more interested in what she can see in the world around her than in the mindless chatter of the tube. When Clarisse disappears mysteriously, Montag is moved to make some changes, and starts hiding books in his home. Eventually, his wife turns him in, and he must answer the call to burn his secret cache of books. After fleeing to avoid arrest, Montag winds up joining an outlaw band of scholars who keep the contents of books in their heads, waiting for the time society will once again need the wisdom of literature.
Bradbury--the author of more than 500 short stories, novels, plays, and poems, including The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man--is the winner of many awards, including the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America. Readers ages 13 to 93 will be swept up in the harrowing suspense of Fahrenheit 451, and no doubt will join the hordes of Bradbury fans worldwide. --Neil Roseman [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Fahrenheit Four Hundred Fifty One'
In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad. Fire Captain Beatty explains it this way, "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs.... Don't give them slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy."
Guy Montag is a book-burning fireman undergoing a crisis of faith. His wife spends all day with her television "family," imploring Montag to work harder so that they can afford a fourth TV wall. Their dull, empty life sharply contrasts with that of his next-door neighbor Clarisse, a young girl thrilled by the ideas in books, and more interested in what she can see in the world around her than in the mindless chatter of the tube. When Clarisse disappears mysteriously, Montag is moved to make some changes, and starts hiding books in his home. Eventually, his wife turns him in, and he must answer the call to burn his secret cache of books. After fleeing to avoid arrest, Montag winds up joining an outlaw band of scholars who keep the contents of books in their heads, waiting for the time society will once again need the wisdom of literature.
Bradbury--the author of more than 500 short stories, novels, plays, and poems, including The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man--is the winner of many awards, including the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America. Readers ages 13 to 93 will be swept up in the harrowing suspense of Fahrenheit 451, and no doubt will join the hordes of Bradbury fans worldwide. --Neil Roseman [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything'
Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. In Freakonomics (written with Stephen J. Dubner), Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don't need to be so mysterious: They could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. For example, Levitt traces the drop in violent crime rates to a drop in violent criminals and, digging further, to the Roe v. Wade decision that preempted the existence of some people who would be born to poverty and hardship. Elsewhere, by analyzing data gathered from innercity Chicago drug-dealing gangs, Levitt outlines a corporate structure much like McDonald's, where the top bosses make great money while scores of underlings make something below minimum wage. And in a section that may alarm or relieve worried parents, Levitt argues that parenting methods don't really matter much and that a backyard swimming pool is much more dangerous than a gun. These enlightening chapters are separated by effusive passages from Dubner's 2003 profile of Levitt in The New York Times Magazine, which led to the book being written. In a book filled with bold logic, such back-patting veers Freakonomics, however briefly, away from what Levitt actually has to say. Although maybe there's a good economic reason for that too, and we're just not getting it yet. --John Moe
Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner Answer The Amazon.com Significant Seven
Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, author and co-author of this season's bestselling quirky hit, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, graciously answered the Amazon.com Significant Seven questions that we like to run by every author.
Levitt and Dubner answer the Amazon.com Significant Seven questions
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything'
Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. In Freakonomics (written with Stephen J. Dubner), Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don't need to be so mysterious: They could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. For example, Levitt traces the drop in violent crime rates to a drop in violent criminals and, digging further, to the Roe v. Wade decision that preempted the existence of some people who would be born to poverty and hardship. Elsewhere, by analyzing data gathered from innercity Chicago drug-dealing gangs, Levitt outlines a corporate structure much like McDonald's, where the top bosses make great money while scores of underlings make something below minimum wage. And in a section that may alarm or relieve worried parents, Levitt argues that parenting methods don't really matter much and that a backyard swimming pool is much more dangerous than a gun. These enlightening chapters are separated by effusive passages from Dubner's 2003 profile of Levitt in The New York Times Magazine, which led to the book being written. In a book filled with bold logic, such back-patting veers Freakonomics, however briefly, away from what Levitt actually has to say. Although maybe there's a good economic reason for that too, and we're just not getting it yet. --John Moe
Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner Answer The Amazon.com Significant Seven
Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, author and co-author of this season's bestselling quirky hit, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, graciously answered the Amazon.com Significant Seven questions that we like to run by every author.
Levitt and Dubner answer the Amazon.com Significant Seven questions
More editions of Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Freakonomics Intl Pb: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything'
More editions of Freakonomics Intl Pb: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid'
Twenty years after it topped the bestseller charts, Douglas R. Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid is still something of a marvel. Besides being a profound and entertaining meditation on human thought and creativity, this book looks at the surprising points of contact between the music of Bach, the artwork of Escher, and the mathematics of Gödel. It also looks at the prospects for computers and artificial intelligence (AI) for mimicking human thought. For the general reader and the computer techie alike, this book still sets a standard for thinking about the future of computers and their relation to the way we think.
Hofstadter's great achievement in Gödel, Escher, Bach was making abstruse mathematical topics (like undecidability, recursion, and 'strange loops') accessible and remarkably entertaining. Borrowing a page from Lewis Carroll (who might well have been a fan of this book), each chapter presents dialogue between the Tortoise and Achilles, as well as other characters who dramatize concepts discussed later in more detail. Allusions to Bach's music (centering on his Musical Offering) and Escher's continually paradoxical artwork are plentiful here. This more approachable material lets the author delve into serious number theory (concentrating on the ramifications of Gödel's Theorem of Incompleteness) while stopping along the way to ponder the work of a host of other mathematicians, artists, and thinkers.
The world has moved on since 1979, of course. The book predicted that computers probably won't ever beat humans in chess, though Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in 1997. And the vinyl record, which serves for some of Hofstadter's best analogies, is now left to collectors. Sections on recursion and the graphs of certain functions from physics look tantalizing, like the fractals of recent chaos theory. And AI has moved on, of course, with mixed results. Yet Gödel, Escher, Bach remains a remarkable achievement. Its intellectual range and ability to let us visualize difficult mathematical concepts help make it one of this century's best for anyone who's interested in computers and their potential for real intelligence. --Richard Dragan
Topics Covered: J.S. Bach, M.C. Escher, Kurt Gödel: biographical information and work, artificial intelligence (AI) history and theories, strange loops and tangled hierarchies, formal and informal systems, number theory, form in mathematics, figure and ground, consistency, completeness, Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry, recursive structures, theories of meaning, propositional calculus, typographical number theory, Zen and mathematics, levels of description and computers; theory of mind: neurons, minds and thoughts; undecidability; self-reference and self-representation; Turing test for machine intelligence. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud'
Peter Watson's hugely ambitious and stimulating history of ideas from deep antiquity to the present day—from the invention of writing, mathematics, science, and philosophy to the rise of such concepts as the law, sacrifice, democracy, and the soul—offers an illuminated path to a greater understanding of our world and ourselves.
[via]More editions of Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Illustrated Art of War'
Sun Tzu's Art of War just got better. The Illustrated Art of War enlivens Thomas Cleary's complete translation, including commentaries, with full-color reproductions of paintings and statuary from China and Japan. Talk about martial art--these depictions show full battles scenes, the Chinese god of war, weaponry, processions--even an ancient map. --Brian Bruya [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Illustrated Art of War'
Sun Tzu's Art of War just got better. The Illustrated Art of War enlivens Thomas Cleary's complete translation, including commentaries, with full-color reproductions of paintings and statuary from China and Japan. Talk about martial art--these depictions show full battles scenes, the Chinese god of war, weaponry, processions--even an ancient map. --Brian Bruya [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sophie's World'
Wanting to understand the most fundamental questions of the universe isn't the province of ivory-tower intellectuals alone, as this book's enormous popularity has demonstrated. A young girl, Sophie, becomes embroiled in a discussion of philosophy with a faceless correspondent. At the same time, she must unravel a mystery involving another young girl, Hilde, by using everything she's learning. The truth is far more complicated than she could ever have imagined. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sun Tzu: The New Translation'
Sun-Tzu is a landmark translation of the Chinese classic that is without a doubt one of the most important books of all time. Popularly known as The Art of War, Sun-Tzu is one of the leading books on strategic thinking ever written. While other books on strategy, wisdom, and philosophy come and go, both leaders and gentle contemplators alike have embraced the writings of Sun-tzu.
Sun-Tzu is not simply another of many translations already available, but an entirely new text, based on manuscripts recently discovered in Linyi, China, that predates all previous texts by as much as one thousand years. In translating the text, researcher and interpreter J. H. Huang traced the roots of the language to before 221 B.C. to get to the original intent; Besides offering a wonderfully clear translation, Huang adds an introduction to the history behind Sun-Tzu and his own comments on the meaning of the text. In addition, Sun-Tzu includes six appendices, five of which were uncovered at Linyi and are not found in other editions.
The writings of Sun-tzu have stood the test of time, and J. H. Huang's Sun-Tzu is the edition for the next millennium and beyond. [via]More editions of Sun Tzu: The New Translation:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Sun Tzu's Art of War: The Modern Chinese Interpretation'
For 2,400 years, Sun Tzu's "Art of War" has inspired some of history's greatest victories. Asian warlords for centuries have formulated their battle plans following Sun Tzu's precepts. Mao Zedong and General Eisenhower are two of the many great military leaders to adopt Sun Tzu's principles. This work is more than a military manual - its tactics of winning are applied by tough Fortune 500 executives, corporate raiders and labour union negotiators. Even computer strategy-game players and wargamers are getting in on the act. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sun Zi: The Art of War'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sun-Tzu: The Art of War'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference'
"The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life," writes Malcolm Gladwell, "is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do." Although anyone familiar with the theory of memetics will recognize this concept, Gladwell's The Tipping Point has quite a few interesting twists on the subject.
For example, Paul Revere was able to galvanize the forces of resistance so effectively in part because he was what Gladwell calls a "Connector": he knew just about everybody, particularly the revolutionary leaders in each of the towns that he rode through. But Revere "wasn't just the man with the biggest Rolodex in colonial Boston," he was also a "Maven" who gathered extensive information about the British. He knew what was going on and he knew exactly whom to tell. The phenomenon continues to this day--think of how often you've received information in an e-mail message that had been forwarded at least half a dozen times before reaching you.
Gladwell develops these and other concepts (such as the "stickiness" of ideas or the effect of population size on information dispersal) through simple, clear explanations and entertainingly illustrative anecdotes, such as comparing the pedagogical methods of Sesame Street and Blue's Clues, or explaining why it would be even easier to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with the actor Rod Steiger. Although some readers may find the transitional passages between chapters hold their hands a little too tightly, and Gladwell's closing invocation of the possibilities of social engineering sketchy, even chilling, The Tipping Point is one of the most effective books on science for a general audience in ages. It seems inevitable that "tipping point," like "future shock" or "chaos theory," will soon become one of those ideas that everybody knows--or at least knows by name. --Ron Hogan [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wisdom Of Crowds'
In this fascinating book, New Yorker business columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea: Large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliantbetter at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future.
With boundless erudition and in delightfully clear prose, Surowiecki ranges across fields as diverse as popular culture, psychology, ant biology, behavioral economics, artificial intelligence, military history, and politics to show how this simple idea offers important lessons for how we live our lives, select our leaders, run our companies, and think about our world. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business,Economies, Societies and Nations'
No one in this world, so far as I know, has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. H. L. Mencken
H. L. Mencken was wrong.
In this endlessly fascinating book, New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea that has profound implications: large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliantbetter at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future.
This seemingly counterintuitive notion has endless and major ramifications for how businesses operate, how knowledge is advanced, how economies are (or should be) organized and how we live our daily lives. With seemingly boundless erudition and in delightfully clear prose, Surowiecki ranges across fields as diverse as popular culture, psychology, ant biology, economic behaviorism, artificial intelligence, military history and political theory to show just how this principle operates in the real world.
Despite the sophistication of his arguments, Surowiecki presents them in a wonderfully entertaining manner. The examples he uses are all down-to-earth, surprising, and fun to ponder. Why is the line in which youre standing always the longest? Why is it that you can buy a screw anywhere in the world and it will fit a bolt bought ten-thousand miles away? Why is network television so awful? If you had to meet someone in Paris on a specific day but had no way of contacting them, when and where would you meet? Why are there traffic jams? Whats the best way to win money on a game show? Why, when you walk into a convenience store at 2:00 A.M. to buy a quart of orange juice, is it there waiting for you? What do Hollywood mafia movies have to teach us about why corporations exist?
The Wisdom of Crowds is a brilliant but accessible biography of an idea, one with important lessons for how we live our lives, select our leaders, conduct our business, and think about our world.
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› Find signed collectible books: 'El Arte de la Guerra / The Art of War'
La versión de Thomas Cleary, de El Arte de la Guerra, libro de ds mil años de antiguedad, saca a la luz uno de los mas importantes textos clásicos chinos. En el que, a pesar del tiempo transcurrido, ninguna de sus máximas ha quedado anticuada. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Blink Inteligencia Intuitiva?/blink.: Por Que Sabemos La Verdad En Dos Segundos/ the Power of Thinking Without Thinking'
In Blink, bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant ¯in the blink of an eye¯ that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? How do our brains really work - in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others? [via]
More editions of Blink Inteligencia Intuitiva?/blink.: Por Que Sabemos La Verdad En Dos Segundos/ the Power of Thinking Without Thinking:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Freakonomics: Un Economista Polfticamente Incorrecto Explora El Lado Oculta De Lo Que Nos Afecta'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Gdel, Escher, Bach'
¿Puede un sistema comprenderse a sí mismo ? Si esta pregunta se refiere a la mente humana, entonces nos encontramos ante una cuestión clave del pensamiento científico. Y de la filosofía. Y del arte. Investigar este misterio es una aventura que recorre la matemática, la física, la biología, la psicología y, muy especialmente, el lenguaje. Douglas R. Hofstadter, joven y ya célebre científico, nos abre la puerta del enigma con la belleza y la alegría creadora de su estilo. Sorprendentes paralelismos ocultos entre los grabados de Escher y la música de Bach nos remiten a las paradojas clásicas de los antiguos griegos y a un teorema de la lógica matemática moderna que ha estremecido el pensamiento del siglo XX : el de Kurt Gödel. Todo lenguaje, todo sistema formal, todo programa de ordenador, todo proceso de pensamiento, llegan, tarde o temprano, a la situación límite de la autorreferencia : de querer expresarse sobre sí mismos. Surge entonces la emoción del infinito, como dos espejos enfrentados y obligados a reflejarse mutua e indefinidamente. Gödel, Escher, Bach: un Eterno y Grácil Bucle, es una obra de arte escrita por un sabio. Versa sobre los misterios del pensamiento e incluye, ella misma, sus propios misterios. / Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this book applies Godel's seminal contribution to modern Twenty years after it topped the bestseller charts, Douglas R. Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid is still something of a marvel. Besides being a profound and entertaining meditation on human thought and creativity, this book looks at the surprising points of contact between the music of Bach, the artwork of Escher, and the mathematics of Gödel.mathematics to the study of the human mind and the development of artificial intelligence. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'El Mundo de Sofia/ Sophie's World: Novela Sobre La Historia De La Filosofia / a Novel About the History of Philosophy'
Esta extraordinaria obra de divulgacion que se ha convertido ya en una obra de culto aporta una coherente vision de conjunto sobre aquellos aspectos imprescindibles para comprender la historia de la filosofia occidental. El mundo de Sofia tiene el merito de haber conjugado, acertadamente, rigor y amenidad en una narracion donde una joven ira conociendo su propia identidad mientras descubre la capacidad humana de hacer preguntas. «Si no sabemos en todo momento a donde vamos, puede resultar util saber de donde venimos. Para manejar mi propia vida tambien necesito entender mis raices en la historia. La mision de la filosofia es estimular el analisis critico para poder ayudar en el avance de la comprension de aquello que tiene valor y por lo cual merece la pena luchar.» [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'La rebelion del atlas/ The Rebellion of the Atlas'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sofies Verden: Roman Om Filosofiens Historie'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Fahrenheit 451'
All books are shipped from Austria! [via]
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