Thursday, May 31, 2018

When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink

When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink was an interesting book about how timing plays a key role in how events turn out, with just a few of the examples provided in the book being that bad decisions are often made in the afternoons when someone tired and the quality of medical care someone receives driven in part by when in a doctor’s shift care is provided.

It's covered that in this trough period, there's a basic decline in vigilance that occurs and being aware of this potential dip can then lead to combating it. Some ways to do that are through checklists or restorative breaks, either quick or extended, with them most effective if someone completely detached from the tasks at hand. Pink as well mentions the benefit of naps, ideally around 15-20 minutes long, and with coffee just prior as it takes about 25 minutes for coffee to kick in.

Also noted is how people driven by biological clocks, with many at their best early in the day, a group known as larks, but some better later, a group referred to as owls. This assignation can also shift over time, as people tend to become owls when they hit puberty, something that negatively impacts them as many high schools start too early in the day, and then they become less owly in their mid-20s.

Towards the later part of the book, Pink covers two other interesting concepts with first beginnings, middles, and endings... the ideas of starting right, starting again, and remembering poignancy at the end of something, and then the idea of syncing to others, doing things in a group such as singing in a chorus, exercising together, or doing improv-related activities.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara was a solid book, with McNamara  chronicling her search for the Golden State Killer, a name she came up with for someone also known as the East Area Rapist and Original Night Stalker.

The crimes began in the mid-1970s in Sacramento, with 50 assaults from 1976-1979, and later included assaults and murders committed along the 680 corridor around San Ramon and Danville and in Southern California into the mid-1980s.

McNamara died prior to completing the book, with it finished due to efforts by her late husband Patton Oswalt as well as people she collaborated with in efforts to track down the killer. It's written towards the end of the book how advances in DNA technology could find him, and ultimately that's what occurred with investigators coming up with a listing of potential familial DNA matches and then tracing the branches of the family tree and arresting Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. in April 2018. McNamara wrote a compelling tale of searching for justice and at a minimum, her efforts helped bring attention to the cold case that eventually was solved.