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Re:Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books by tptacek on Friday February 08, 2019 @03:08PM (#19118160)
What book reporting on economics that wasn't written or co-written by an economist are you concerned is too influential or widely read?

As we can obviously see, even professionals in medical sciences were wrong about Theranos. How did John Carreyrou, a WSJ reporter, do such a good job reporting on them?

Re:Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books by kortilla on Saturday February 09, 2019 @03:57AM (#19121413)
Flash boys was pretty much one sided incorrect views about how HFTs work designed as an advertisement for a new exchange.

It was highly read and picked up by armchair experts everywhere leading to lots of outrage against... not much in particular other than evil Wall Street people stealing muh money.

The Big Short is in a similar category although it wasn’t really an ad so much as an excuse for everyone who overleveraged on their mortgage to pat themselves on the back and shirk the responsibility of financial ignorance onto “evil Wall Street people”. The movie (while entertaining) was even worse.

>As we can obviously see, even professionals in medical sciences were wrong about Theranos. How did John Carreyrou, a WSJ reporter, do such a good job reporting on them?

Simple, medical professionals aren’t equipped to sniff out business fraud signals like investigators of businesses. Given that Theranos didn’t have technology, it didn’t take any more medical expertise to explain that then it took medical expertise to explain Bernie Madoff.

Re:Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books by tptacek on Saturday February 09, 2019 @12:18PM (#19123417)
I don't like Flash Boys at all either. But it's not my argument that all books by journalists are good. Ninety percent of everything is crap.
Re:Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books by mc32 on Friday February 08, 2019 @03:33PM (#19118371)
To do journalism well, I think you need insider help: a whistleblower without ulterior motive, corroborating evidence and subject matter experts who can confirm suspicions. So, I think there are ways for journalists to marshall resources and then do their part which is to write a coherent story based on credible evidence and opinion, but much of what comes from journalism is hurried and often put together after having formed a conclusion and finding data supporting the conclusion and omitting data which would weaken the conclusion.
Re:Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books by tptacek on Friday February 08, 2019 @03:45PM (#19118490)
This is an answer to some question, but to neither of the questions I actually asked. Did my questions not make sense?
Re:Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books by mc32 on Friday February 08, 2019 @03:53PM (#19118561)
I’m implying this journalist had the luck of right resources at the right time for the right subject and proceeded in a manner to seek the truth rather than to simply want to bring Theranos down.

W/re economics. We have the likes of Fukuyama and Krugman who have influence on Americans with regards to economics but who are often taken as oracles, rather than accepting they are economics thinkers who can be wrong.

Re:Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books by tptacek on Friday February 08, 2019 @03:55PM (#19118574)
Krugman won a Nobel prize in economics. Like him or not, you can't use him as an example of a "journalist" writing about a technical subject with which they have no expertise.

My argument isn't "all books are good". That would be a stupid argument. My argument is that these rules suck.

Re:Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books by mc32 on Friday February 08, 2019 @04:15PM (#19118747)
In that, I agree with you.