Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 30
 A surprisingly interesting read. April 23, 2010
Tony J. Ridley (Singapore)
A surprisingly interesting read.
Very good reference material and theories on risk psychology with supporting/relevant case examples. Essential support content for those charged with the identification, assessment and classification of risk and the perceptions/challenges with the target audience to which you are communicating the findings.
Specifically, the elements around the psychology and social influences regarding emergency building evacuations and egress routes for urban planners is very helpful for crisis planners and simulation planners alike
 Introduction to simplexity March 7, 2010
Steven A. Peterson (Hershey, PA (Born in Kewanee, IL))
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Early on, author Jeffrey Kluger notes the difficulty of pinning down what we mean by simplicity and complexity (Page 15): "Trying to distill all of this down to a working definition of just what simplicity is and just what complexity is has always been difficult." One approach--pure chaos and pure robustness at ends of a continuum. As one observer notes (Page 29): "It's the region between order and disorder that gives you complexity, not the order and disorder at the ends." That said, we still don't have a clear idea of the nature of the concept. The word that is the title of this book, simplexity. Simple things can quickly become complex and complex things can simplify. This book attempts to explore this.
Examples used: Groups of people tend to make better decisions than single individuals (e.g., guessing the number of jelly beans or investing clubs' ability to get a good return); traffic engineers trying to reduce traffic jams and major slowdowns by rather simple adjustments in traffic flow. A political example? Failed states and totalitarian states are very easy to model; they are pretty predictable. Multiparty states or Western democracies, on the other hand, are more complex. This facilitates openness in communication.
There are many intriguing and thought-provoking examples. But the final chapter does not pull things together; one ends with a sense of pastiche. In addition, there really aren't any principles presented to show how to handle complexity, how to gain leverage with respect to simplexity. So, thought-provoking but also a bit maddening.
 Engaging and challenging, but...(yawn) November 21, 2009
Future Green Girl (Chicago, Il USA)
The book started off with a fascinating introduction. But I somehow kept dropping off listening to the audiobook. Not that it wasn't interesting material, but I think it probably is a better read than a listen. Kluger has skillfully produced a well-written thoughtful book, and it leaves you seeing the world a little differently. I have heard the audio any number of times and as much as I didn't want it to happen, I...just...couldn't...stay...awake...and I hope it's just me.
Either I need to get more rest or I would recommend reading the book. I did enjoy it, and every time I listen, I get more and more from it (probably because I got another chance to listen to stuff I slept through). To be fair, the narrator is lively and does a great job, but his voice is so...soothing...and...
The material does get kind of dense at times, and maybe being read to doesn't work as well for me. Anyway. The author has written a fantastic and thought-provoking read. I just don't recommend you listen in your car...
 NOT a real complexity book October 16, 2009
Irfan A. Alvi (Towson, MD USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is clearly the work of a journalist. On the positive side, that means that Kluger has chosen interesting topics and he's written about them in a smooth and engaging way. But on the negative side, there are a host of problems, many of which have been pointed out by other reviewers:
- Kluger apparently coined the term "simplexity" himself. I haven't heard complexity researchers use the term, and Kluger gives it no meaningful definition or illustrations in this book. He doesn't even meaningfully distinguish between complicated and complex. The book title is thus essentially a gimmick.
- The topics Kluger covers are only loosely affiliated with complexity, and some hardly at all. At the same time, the majority of core topics in complexity theory recieve little or no mention in this book. And making matters worse, the topics Kluger does discuss aren't linked together in any coherent way. So this isn't really even a book on complexity, but instead closer to a random collection of (mostly) interesting topics.
- Kluger's understanding is often rather shallow, even by journalistic standards, and there are some outright errors in the book (eg, his short discussion on bridge design and construction is riddled with misunderstandings).
In short, this book has little to do with complexity and no new concept of "simplexity" is genuinely introduced, so the book's title is a severe case of false advertising, hence my 2 stars. For a proper introduction to complexity, I recommend Complexity: A Guided Tour by Melanie Mitchell.
 Terrible September 29, 2009
J. Kaminoff (Herndon VA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you're looking for a book covering Complexity Theory and/or the Sante Fe Institute, go elsewhere. There is no mention of the Complex Adaptive System, Genetic Algorithms, Game of Life, Cellular Automata, or really anything else associated with Complexity Theory, though he does refer to the Sante Fe Institute occasionally. Many of his topics are likewise completely unrelated to Complexity Theory, or even Chaos or Systems Theories. He spends an entire chapter on healthcare spending, for instance, with no explanation for how any of it is complex. In short, I do not recommend this book to anyone for any reason. Save your money.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 30
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