Wired Minds: Reverse Psychology and Manipulation in the Digital Age (Paperback)

Finally, a book that treats psychology with the care it deserves.

There is a particular kind of technical book that is dense without being difficult, and this is one of them. The code samples assume a particular environment, which took a bit of fiddling to get running properly. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. This is the book I wish had existed when I started working with psychology.

Useful in parts. Fine as a reference, less so as a cover-to-cover read.

A colleague recommended this and I can see why. It does something that few technical books manage: it respects the reader's time. The balance between theory and practice is well judged; neither side dominates. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. Borrow it first if you can, or at least check the table of contents carefully before buying.

Outstanding. I kept finding reasons to come back to it.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. The book rewards careful reading. Skimming it would be a mistake. I have already recommended it to two colleagues and will recommend it to more.