Reviews for Unconventional wisdom

The average rating for Unconventional wisdom based on 4 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-08-12 00:00:00 Adrian Jones I don't know how I feel about this book. I read it on and off for about a year, and finally decided to blitz it this month. Clarkson is basically trying to lead readers from the 1980s (with some background on the post-war Keynesian era) through to 2000 in order to show how CUFTA and NAFTA radically changed Canada economically, politically, and socially. It is a real slog to get through, and I feel that without basic knowledge from an Econ 101 class it might be hard to follow. To his credit, he does try to explain some basic concepts in the first couple of chapters. But the book has a very wide scope, and not a lot of time is spent on each topic. I'd often find myself saying, "oh, and then what happened?" only for Clarkson to move on to something else, and leave whatever he was saying vague. This was a shame because many of the topics were very interesting, but the book was already quite long as well. For me personally, the most interesting chapters were near the end, where Clarkson was describing the various ways NAFTA constrains governments at all levels, governments' industrial strategies throughout the 1990s, and the ways cutbacks dismantled the Canadian welfare state.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-05-21 00:00:00 Jamie Wimber The basic idea, that statistics is an argument, where you need to logically make your case and defend it, is excellent. I agree 100%, and I think statistics needs to be taught in the context of scientific process and epistemology. Ableson is entertaining enough, and his guidelines (Magnitude, Articulation, Generalisation, Interest, and Credibility of argument), plus his 8 laws are excellent (esp. '1. Chance is Lumpy'). Somehow, the execution didn't do it for me, but I can't put my finger on what it is.

Review # 3 was written on 2009-08-12 00:00:00 David Aplin I don't know how I feel about this book. I read it on and off for about a year, and finally decided to blitz it this month. Clarkson is basically trying to lead readers from the 1980s (with some background on the post-war Keynesian era) through to 2000 in order to show how CUFTA and NAFTA radically changed Canada economically, politically, and socially. It is a real slog to get through, and I feel that without basic knowledge from an Econ 101 class it might be hard to follow. To his credit, he does try to explain some basic concepts in the first couple of chapters. But the book has a very wide scope, and not a lot of time is spent on each topic. I'd often find myself saying, "oh, and then what happened?" only for Clarkson to move on to something else, and leave whatever he was saying vague. This was a shame because many of the topics were very interesting, but the book was already quite long as well. For me personally, the most interesting chapters were near the end, where Clarkson was describing the various ways NAFTA constrains governments at all levels, governments' industrial strategies throughout the 1990s, and the ways cutbacks dismantled the Canadian welfare state.

Review # 4 was written on 2012-05-21 00:00:00 Heather Bauer Sullivan The basic idea, that statistics is an argument, where you need to logically make your case and defend it, is excellent. I agree 100%, and I think statistics needs to be taught in the context of scientific process and epistemology. Ableson is entertaining enough, and his guidelines (Magnitude, Articulation, Generalisation, Interest, and Credibility of argument), plus his 8 laws are excellent (esp. '1. Chance is Lumpy'). Somehow, the execution didn't do it for me, but I can't put my finger on what it is.