From Omar’s desk - a recommended read for this week is: The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It . . . Every Time, by Maria Konnikova.
About the author: Maria is a journalist and writer with a doctorate in psychology from Columbia University. She has also written "Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes" and "The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win." Her work has been published in numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times.
Key premise: In "The Confidence Game", Maria argues that anyone, regardless of intelligence or education, can fall victim to a confidence game and that the only way to protect ourselves is through skepticism, critical thinking, and an awareness of the techniques used by con artists. In order to avoid manipulation, she emphasizes the importance of understanding our own psychological vulnerabilities and biases and being willing to acknowledge and confront them.
Why read? This book is well-written and serves as a wake-up call on an important topic: the psychology of deception, and provides practical tools for avoiding falling victim to scams and con artists.
Another recommendation along similar lines? Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker by Kevin Mitnick with William L. Simon.
