en-US Mon, 05 Aug 2024 07:58:43 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 13543121
Is it delirium or is it faith? She believes she has seen the angels of God. She believes the righteous dead speak to her in dreams. And now she has convinced the faithless Thomas to shepherd her across a depraved landscape to Avignon. There, she tells Thomas, she will fulfill her mission to confront the evil that has devastated the earth, and to restore to this betrayed, murderous knight the nobility and hope of salvation he long abandoned.

As hell unleashes its wrath, and as the true nature of the girl is revealed, Thomas will find himself on a macabre battleground of angels and demons, saints, and the risen dead, and in the midst of a desperate struggle for nothing less than the soul of man.]]> 432 Christopher Buehlman 1937007863 David 0 to-read 4.20 2012
author: Christopher Buehlman
name: David
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/05
shelves: to-read
review:

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Banking and finance, pharmaceuticals, automotive, medical technology, retail. Artificial intelligence (AI) has made its way into many industries around the world. But the truth is, it has just begun its odyssey toward cheaper, better, and faster predictions to drive strategic business decisions--powering and accelerating business. When prediction is taken to the max, industries transform. The disruption that comes with such transformation is yet to be felt--but it is coming.

How do businesses prepare? In their bestselling first book, Prediction Machines, eminent economists Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb explained the simple yet game-changing economics of AI. Now, in Power and Prediction, they go further to reveal AI as a prediction technology directly impacting decision-making and to teach businesses how to identify disruptive opportunities and threats resulting from AI. Their exhaustive study of new developments in artificial intelligence and the past history of how technologies have disrupted industries highlights the striking phase we are now in: after witnessing the power of this new technology and before its widespread adoption--what they call "the Between Times." While there continue to be important opportunities for businesses, there are also threats of disruption. As prediction machines improve, old ways of doing things will be upended. Also, the process by which AI filters into the many systems involved in application is very uneven. That process will have winners and losers. How can businesses leverage, or protect, their positions?

Filled with illuminating insights, rich examples, and practical advice, Power and Prediction is the must-read guide for any business leader or policy maker on how to make the coming AI disruptions work for you rather than against you.]]> 256 Ajay Agrawal 1647824192 David 2
Some material is dated even after only a short time since its release. No mention of generative AI, instead only focusing on machine predictions.

Overly indexes on the healthcare industry to the point of being repetitive.]]> 4.23
author: Ajay Agrawal
name: David
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2023/03/05
date added: 2023/03/05
shelves:
review:
Potentially valuable concept of systems engineering and why some sectors will or won’t embrace AI.

Some material is dated even after only a short time since its release. No mention of generative AI, instead only focusing on machine predictions.

Overly indexes on the healthcare industry to the point of being repetitive.
]]> 53063522 'If you're a progressive, in Britain or elsewhere, and if you think the movement needs fresh ideas, read this book, it's full of them. Then get to work.' Oliver Bullough, The Guardian

'It ought to be required reading for every civil servant, regulator and politician in the UK and elsewhere.' Ian Fraser, Literary Review

Financial malpractice, we're told, is an aberration: the actions of a few bad apples deviating from the norms of a market-governed process and gaming the system. In Sabotage, political scientists Anastasia Nesvetailova and Ronen Palan blow this fiction apart, showing that sabotage is not an anomaly, but part of the business model of finance - and always has been.

Abusive lending practices, misleading investors, manipulating prices, deliberately falsifying figures, cheating, obstruction and taking advantage of 'the dumbest person in the room' - they're actually the main source of profitability in finance, and the surest way to a bonus. If you want to make money in the industry, you need to find ways of sabotaging either your clients, your competitors or the government (or all three), and above all, the market itself. Talking to industry insiders, economists and high net worth customers, examining the history of finance and its workings today, the authors show us how the idea of sabotage not only makes sense of all past economic crises, but must also be at the heart of all future regulations.]]> 240 Anastasia Nesvetailova 0241308151 David 5
Not too long-winded of a read made it a very approachable read.]]> 3.45 2020
author: Anastasia Nesvetailova
name: David
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/01/22
shelves:
review:
Good examples of how firms avoid competition to preserve their profit margins at the expense of each other, their customers, and the government.

Not too long-winded of a read made it a very approachable read.
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