M&M

Today is Megan McArdle's birthday. (I didn't know that--I had to look it up).  So let me belatedly recommend her book The Up Side Of Down.

Part of succeeding is failing--a lesson we may recognize, but prefer not to practice.  We often employ strategies that prevent failure so much that we don't move forward, because the opposite of failure isn't success, it's nothing.  Megan gives us examples from business, as well as her private life, so that we can recognize what kind of failure is good and what isn't.  And also how to get out of the rut that makes you fail.

She also looks at the wider questions regarding what works best for society: how to avoid the phenomenon of blaming (generally based on our politics) some distinct group whenever anything goes wrong; what sort of punishment works (it's not about how harsh it is, but how certain it is); and when we should give people a second chance (she claims easy bankruptcy laws have helped our country overall).

She sometimes goes against common wisdom, but whatever she argues, she's done the research to back it up.  And all in her readable style which anyone who knows her will recognize.