Review of Way of the Wolf: Straight Line Selling: Become a Master Closer with Straight Line Selling by Jordan Belfort

This book review was written by Eugene Kernes   

Book can be found in: 

Genre = Economics, Business

Intriguing Connections = 1) To Cooperate Or To Defect?, 2) When Intelligence Goes Wrong, 

3) How Does Data Get Use, And Misused?,

Watch Short Review

Excerpts

“Plain and simple, if your prospect doesn’t trust you, then there’s absolutely no way they are going to buy from you.  And, again, I don’t care how certain they are about your product; they still won’t buy from you.  In fact, if they’re that intent on purchasing your product, then they simply find someone else who sells the same thing – a salesperson they trust – and they will buy it from that salesperson instead.  It’s as simple as that.” – Jordan Belfort, Chapter 1: Cracking The Code For Sales And Influence, Page 19
 
“The simple fact is that we all want to deal with pros or experts, and we also want to deal with people who are sharp and on the ball, and who are enthusiastic about what they do.  Experts have a certain way of talking that literally commands respect.  They say things like “Listen, Bill, you need to trust me on this.  I’ve been doing this for fifteen years, and I know exactly what you need.”” – Jordan Belfort, Chapter 3: The First Four Seconds, Page 62
 
“As previously mentioned, the technical term for this is state management.  |  In essence, when you’re managing your emotional state, you’re temporarily blocking out any troubling thoughts or emotions that might normally make you feel negative – thereby allowing yourself to maintain a positive state of mind.” – Jordan Belfort, Chapter, Page 81

Review

Is This An Overview?

The Straight Line System is a method of making sales.  There are five elements of the system.  1^st: The prospect needs to approve the product.  2^nd: The prospect needs to trust the person selling the product.  3^rd: The prospect needs to trust the company.  Someone who is trying to sell a product to a person who either does not trust the product, the seller, or the company, is wasting their time.  To increase the chances of a sale, is the 4^th element, the action threshold should be reduced.  5^th: amplify pain.  Prospects want to purchase products that they think will prevent greater pain.  The system is supported by how the salesperson presents themselves.  The salesperson needs to control their tonality, body language, and emotional state. 

 

Caveats?

While the benefits of the system are expressed, the consequences are not shared.  The claims being made about the methods are a rebranding of the consequences of using the system.  Demand and supply are rebranded as prospect’s approval of product.  Branding is rebranded as trust of salesperson and company.  Unethical means of obtaining sales is rebranded as ethical.  Pseudoscience and confirmation examples are rebranded as science.  Each rebranding provides favorable platitudes toward the author, as the author is trying to rebrand oneself.  There are short term benefits for salespeople who use the system that preys on the vulnerable, but there are long term consequences for society.

Questions to Consider while Reading the Book

•What is the raison d’etre of the book?  For what purpose did the author write the book?  Why do people read this book?

•What are some limitations of the book?

•To whom would you suggest this book?

•Are the methods presented in the book ethical?

•What is the Straight Line System?

•To whom should a product be sold? 

•What is logical and emotional certainty? 

•What is an action threshold?

•What is a pain threshold?

•What happens in the first four seconds? 

•How to command respect?

•What is state management? 

Book Details

Edition:                   First North Star Way Hardcover Edition

Publisher:               North Way Star [Simon & Schuster]

Edition ISBN:         9781501164286

Pages to read:          247

Publication:             2017

1st Edition:              2017

Format:                    Hardcover 

Ratings out of 5:

Readability    5

Content          2

Overall          2

Review of With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa E. B. Sledge

This book review was written by Eugene Kernes   

Book can be found in: 

Genre = History, War

Book Club Event = Book List (01/03/2026)

Intriguing Connections = 1) War, 2) Biographies: Auto, Memoir, and Other Types, 

3) How Is Sovereignty Is Gained And Lost?, 

4) Get To Know The Peoples Of The World (Japan, United States of America), 

5) Why Conflict Occurs And How To Resolve Them?, 6) To Cooperate Or To Defect?, 

7) What Defines A Culture? How To Belong To A Community?, 8) How Do Humans Age And Die?

Watch Short Review

Excerpts

“The attitudes held toward the Japanese by noncombatants or even sailors or airmen often did not reflect the deep personal resentment felt by Marine infantrymen.  Official histories and memoirs of Marine infantrymen written after the war rarely reflect that hatred.  But at the time of battle, Marines felt it deeply, bitterly, and as certainly as danger itself.  To deny this hatred or make light of it would be as much a lie as to deny or make light of the esprit de corps or the intense patriotism felt by the Marines with whom I served in the Pacific.” – E. B. Sledge, Chapter 2: Preparation for Combat, Page 64

“Even though none of us had much appetite, we still had to eat.  A way to solve the fly problem was to eat after sunset or before sunrise when the insects were inactive.  Chow had to be unheated then, because no sterno tablets or other form of light could be used after dark.  It was sure to draw enemy sniper fire.” – E. B. Sledge, Chapter 6: Brave Men Lost, Page 166

“The new officers bore a heavy burden.  Not only were they going into combat with all its terrors and unknowns for the first time – conditions even the best of training couldn’t possibly duplicate – but they were untried officers.  Combat was the acid test.  Faced with heavy responsibilities and placed in a position of leadership amid hardened, seasoned Marine combat veterans in a proud, elite division like the First was a difficult situation and a terrific challenge for any young lieutenant.  No one I knew in the ranks envied them in the least.” – E. B. Sledge, Chapter 10: Into the Abyss, Page 241

Review

Is This An Overview?

An American soldier, a Marine, tells the story of the World War II experience fighting Japanese at Peleliu and Okinawa.  When the author joined the war, there were already veterans who had experienced fighting Japanese, and taught skills to counter Japanese tactics.  The skills had saved many lives, including the author’s, but no amount of preparations can compare to actual combat experience.  Each side had many losses. 

 

The Americans and Japanese had mutually recriminating hatred of each other.  Each had killed those they deemed friends and family, causing each to commit atrocious acts on their enemy.  Killing did not end during intense combat, but continued at night.  Staying alive depended on trust that others would perform their duty, and even then, that was not enough.  Soldiers also needed to survive the harsh local environmental conditions, and allies who held different views on what transpired. 

 

Caveats?

As this is a personal account of World War II experiences in Japan, there is a lack of information on the rest of the war.  This is not a political or strategic analysis of the war.  To understand the events in context to the rest of the war, would require more research.

Questions to Consider while Reading the Book

•What is the raison d’etre of the book?  For what purpose did the author write the book?  Why do people read this book?

•What are some limitations of the book?

•To whom would you suggest this book?

•Why was America fighting Japan?

•How was Japan resisting America forces?

•Why were atomic bombs dropped on Japan?

•What were thoughts regarding taking prisoners? 

•How were the soldiers trained?

•What was the mental health of those in conflict zones?

•How did soldiers manage to eat?

•How did combat on Peleliu end?

•How were civilians treated?

•What happened when the views of leaders and combatants differed? 

•How did the soldiers survive nights? 

•Who got decorations? 

•What happened in Okinawa? 

•How did the war end? 

Book Details

Foreword Author:   Walter S. McIlhenny

Introduction Author:  Victor Davis Hanson

Foreword To Part I Author: John A. Crown

Foreword To Part II Author: Thomas J. Stanely  

Edition:                   2007 Presido Press Mass Market Edition

Publisher:               Presidio Press [Random House]

Edition ISBN:         9780307549587

Pages to read:          333

Publication:             2007

1st Edition:              1981

Format:                    eBook 

Ratings out of 5:

Readability    5

Content          2

Overall          3

Review of Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen

This book review was written by Eugene Kernes   

Book can be found in: 

Genre = Economic Development

Book Club Event = Book List (12/27/2025)

Intriguing Connections = 1) How To Allocate Resources?, 2) The Impact of Inequality, 

3) Capitalism, Socialism, their Alternatives and Critiques, 4) Learning Economics: Basic to Advanced, 5) What Goes Into An Economic Crisis?, 6) How Is Sovereignty Is Gained And Lost?, 

7) The Motive, Method, Ideology, and Consequences of Intervention, 8) To Cooperate Or To Defect?, 9) Why Conflict Occurs And How To Resolve Them?, 

Watch Short Review

Excerpts

“Expansion of freedom is viewed, in this approach, both as the primary end and as the principal means of development.  Development consists of the removal of various types of unfreedoms that leave people with little choice and little opportunity of exercising their reasoned agency.  The removal of substantial unfreedoms, it is argued here, is constitutive of development.” – Amartya Sen, Preface, Page Number 14

“Development requires the removal of major sources of unfreedom: poverty as well as tyranny, poor economic opportunities as well as systematic social deprivation, neglect of public facilities as well as intolerance or overactivity of repressive states.  Despite unprecedented increases in overall opulence, the contemporary world denies elementary freedoms to vast numbers – perhaps even the majority – of people.” – Amartya Sen, Introduction, Page 21

 

“If we have reasons to want more wealth, we have to ask: What precisely are these reasons, how do they work, on what are they contingent and what are the things we can “do” with more wealth?  In fact, we generally have excellent reasons for wanting more income or wealth.  This is not because income and wealth are desirable for their own sake, but because, typically, they are admirable general-purpose means for having more freedom to lead the kind of lives we have reason to value.” – Amartya Sen, Chapter 1, Page 31

Review

Is This An Overview?

Wealth is a means of obtaining what a person wants.  Freedoms are a reward for the efforts in obtaining wealth.  Wealth is meaningless without the freedom of choice and opportunity to use the wealth, to exercise one’s agency.  Freedoms enable people to use their capabilities, which improve personal and collective outcomes. 

 

Development is a process of expanding freedoms that people have, by removing unfreedoms.  Unfreedoms are poverty, tyranny, low economic opportunities, social deprivation, neglected public facilities, and intolerance of repressive states.  Various states have restricted political liberty, with the claim that that the restrictions were for economic development.  But there is more evidence of economic development within politically inclusive systems. 

 

How Do Markets And Government Affect Society?

Markets and governments can enrich or harm human lives.  Statecraft provides social support, public regulations.  Markets provide opportunities for freedom to exchange products, gifts, are a method of how people interact.  Rejection of labor markets, causes people to be in bondage and captivity.  Arbitrary restrictions on markets leads to deprivations of economic opportunities. 

 

Economic unfreedom brings social unfreedom.  Social or political unfreedom brings economic unfreedom. 

 

What Freedoms?

The freedoms focused on are political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective security.

 

Political freedoms are about the ability to disagree with state officials.  Economic facilities are the ability to use economic resources.  Social opportunities are access to public infrastructure.  Transparency guarantees provide for equitable governance.  Protective security are the social safety nets for preventing abject misery.

 

Caveats?

Can be difficult to read.  The examples are varied and numerous, but would take more research to understand each. 

Questions to Consider while Reading the Book

•What is the raison d’etre of the book?  For what purpose did the author write the book?  Why do people read this book?

•What are some limitations of the book?

•To whom would you suggest this book?

•Why provide freedoms when developing the economy?

•What are the freedoms?

•What are the limits to freedoms?

•What are unfreedoms? 

•What is the role markets?

•What is the role of statecraft? 

•What is agency?  

•What is the purpose for wealth?

•How does politics and economics affect each other? 

•Why do politicians repress people? 

•What are the roles of freedom?

•What are the instrumental freedoms?

•What are theories of justice? 

•What is utilitarianism? 

•How does poverty deprive capabilities? 

•What is the effect of democracy? 

Book Details

Edition:                   Vintage Books Edition

Publisher:               Vintage [Penguin Random House]

Edition ISBN:         9780307874290

Pages to read:          279

Publication:             2011

1st Edition:              1999

Format:                    eBook 

Ratings out of 5:

Readability    3

Content          3

Overall          3

Review of Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O'Neill

This book review was written by Eugene Kernes   

Book can be found in: 

Genre = Decision Making

Book Club Event = Book List (11/29/2025)

Intriguing Connections = 1) How Does Data Get Use, And Misused?, 2) The Style of Math,

3) The Persecuted and The Persecutors, 4) When Intelligence Goes Wrong, 

5) The Motive, Method, Ideology, and Consequences of Intervention, 6) How To Allocate Resources?, 7) The Impact of Inequality, 8) What It Means to be an Activist, 9) To Cooperate Or To Defect?, 

10) Why Do People Think Differently?, 11) Learning Economics: Basic to Advanced

Watch Short Review

Excerpts

“The math-powered applications powering the data economy were based on choices made by fallible human beings.  Some of these choices were no doubt made with the best intentions.  Nevertheless, many of these models encoded human prejudice, misunderstanding, and bias into the software systems that increasingly managed our lives.  Like gods, these mathematical models were opaque, their workings invisible to all but the highest priests in their domain: mathematicians and computer scientists.  Their verdicts, even when wrong and harmful, were beyond dispute or appeal.  And they tend to punish the poor and the oppressed in our society, while making the rich richer.” – Cathy O'Neill, Introduction, Pages 10-11

“Our own values and desires influence our choices, from the data we choose to collect to the questions we ask.  Models are opinions embedded in mathematics.  |  Whether or not a model works is also a matter of opinion.  After all, a key component of every model, whether formal or informal, is its definition of success.  This is an important point that we’ll return to as we explore the dark world of WMDs.  In each case, we must ask not only who designed the model but also what that person or company is trying to accomplish.” – Cathy O'Neill, Chapter 1: Bomb Parts: What Is a Model?, Page 26-27

 

“That’s a problem, because scientists need their error feedback – in this case the presence of false negatives – to delve into forensic analysis and figure out what went wrong, what was misread, what data was ignored.  It’s how systems learn and get smarter.  Yet as we’ve seen, loads of WMDs, from recidivism models to teacher scores, blithely generate their own reality.  Managers assume that the scores are true enough to be useful, and the algorithm makes tough decisions easy.  They can fire employees and cut costs and blame their decisions on an objective number, whether it’s accurate or not.” – Cathy O'Neill, Chapter 7: Sweating Bullets: On the Job, Page 126

Review

Is This An Overview?

Models are abstract representations of a process, used to make predictions.  Everyone has and uses models every day to form expectations for events, and then make a decision.  Models are simplifications of reality, with a variety of information left out.  Models are based on the choices of the people that make them.  Choices about what variables and data to include or exclude.  Choices that can have good intentions, but have negative consequences.  Choices that can code prejudice, bias, and misunderstanding into a model, into a software system.  Models are opinions embedded in mathematics.  Models can be used to improve society, but models can also be harmful.  Models can become weapons of math destruction.

 

Models that function well are those that use enough and as much data as possible, without trying to exclude data which does not conform to expectations.  Data that is relevant to what is trying to be understood.  Data that becomes used to update the model.  Models require feedback to correct for mistakes.  Without feedback, there is no method of learning from mistakes.  Models that seek to understand reality need to constantly change based on feedback received.  Models are based on past experiences, used to form expectations of the future.  Models need to change as the future is not necessarily like the past. 

 

What turns functional models into weapons of math destruction, is when the model is opaque, has scale, and does damage.  When models are opaque, such as when they are hidden from the public, and only accessible to a select few, the model losses access to feedback.  By hiding the details of what goes into the model, the model is difficult to question and disagree with.  The model camouflages human bias with technology.  What is coded becomes dependent on information that is accessible to being measured, rather than what is wanted and effective. 

 

Weapons of math destruction are models that embody their own reality, rather than search to understand reality.  The model defines reality, with the results being justified by code.  Success is based on who sponsored the model, for business or political reasons.  The models are not necessarily beneficial to the people the model is used on, even if the model is claimed to be beneficial to those the model is used on.  When the model does harm on a massive scale, the human victims are held to a higher standard of evidence than the model is.  Harm is deemed more acceptable when the decision was validated by a mathematical model, even though the model was coded by humans with an intention. 

 

Caveats?

Even as this book is based on math, there is no need for a mathematical background to understand the content.  There is a lack of a technical explanation for models, nor an explanation for how the weapons of math destruction were formed.  The book is based on examples of when the models do harm on a massive scale.  There are few references to when models can be useful.  As models are coded with a human bias, the author is a human who wrote the book with a bias, revealed by political decisions and examples.   

Questions to Consider while Reading the Book

•What is the raison d’etre of the book?  For what purpose did the author write the book?  Why do people read this book?

•What are some limitations of the book?

•To whom would you suggest this book?

•What are models?

•How to use statistics to experiment? 

•What are Weapons of Math Destruction (WMDs)?

•What evidence does a human need compared to a WMD?

•What is success for a model?

•What is Moneyball?

•What are ads? 

•What is the broken windows study? 

•What are financial WMDs?

•What are educational WMDs? 

•What are employment WMDs?

•What are labor market WMDs?

•What are incarceration WMDs?

•How can WMDs be used by politicians? 

Book Details

Publisher:               Crown [Penguin Random House]

Edition ISBN:         9780553418828

Pages to read:          202

Publication:             2016

1st Edition:              2017

Format:                    eBook 

Ratings out of 5:

Readability    5

Content          5

Overall          5

Review of A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains by Max Bennett

This book review was written by Eugene Kernes   

Book can be found in: 

Genre = Science

Book Club Event = Book List (11/15/2025)

Intriguing Connections = 1) The Evolution of Evolution, 2) How Does Digital Technology Modify Society?, 3) How Does Data Get Use, And Misused?, 4) Intelligence, Of The Artificial Kind?, 

5) How to Teach? How to Learn?

Watch Short Review

Excerpts

“But the sheer number of connections is only one aspect of what makes the brain complex; even if we mapped the wiring of each neuron we would still be far from understanding how the brain works.  Unlike the electrical connections in your computer, where wires all communicate using the same signal – electrons – across each of these neural connections, hundreds of different chemicals are passed, each with completely different effects.  The simple fact that two neurons connect to each other tells us little about what they are communicating.  And worst of all, these connections themselves are in a constant state of change, with some neurons branching out and forming new connections, while others are retracting and removing old ones.  Altogether, this makes reverse engineering how the brain works an ungodly task.” – Max Bennett, Introduction, Page 14

“Species fall into different survival niches, each of which optimizes for different things.  Many niches – in fact, most niches – are better served by smaller and simpler brains (or no brains at all).  Big-brained apes are the result of a different survival strategy than that of worms, bacteria, or butterflies.  But none are “better.”  In the eyes of evolution, the hierarchy has only two rungs: on one, there are those that survived, and on the other, those that did not.” – Max Bennett, Introduction, Page 23

“This was the breakthrough of steering.  It turns out that to successfully navigate in the complicated world of the ocean floor, you don’t actually need an understanding of that two-dimensional world.  You don’t need an understanding of where you are, where food is, what paths you might have to take, how long it might take, or really anything meaningful about the world.  All you need is a brain that steers a bilateral body toward increasing food smells and away from decreasing food smells.” – Max Bennett, Chapter 2: The Birth of Good and Bad, Page 45

Review

Is This An Overview?

The complexity of the brain was developed over time through the process of evolution.  Different species have their own survival strategies, their own evolutionary niches, which incorporate various brain sizes, of various complexity, or no brain at all.  What led to human intelligence was a series of five breakthroughs.  The five breakthroughs were steering, reinforcing, simulating, mentalizing, and speaking.  The development of Artificial Intelligence, is based on how people have come to understand the brain. 

 

Intelligence first breakthrough was steering.  All a brain needed to do was steer a body toward increasing food smells, and away from decreasing food smells.  Steering also enabled the brain to avoid dangers.  Steering developed preferences, and emotions.  Intelligence second breakthrough was reinforcing.  Enabled a brain to explore the surroundings, to be curious, and learn what could work or not work.  Intelligence third breakthrough was simulating.  Which is the ability to make predictions, that enabled planning, and to direct attention.  Intelligence fourth breakthrough was mentalizing.  Learning behaviors based on observations of others.  Learning created demand for teaching, which is effective only when someone has a theory of mind, a theory about what information the other has.  Intelligence fifth breakthrough was speaking.  Speaking enabled the accumulation of information. 

 

Caveats?

While there is a lot of content meant for a general audience, there is some content that requires a more technical background.  

Questions to Consider while Reading the Book

•What is the raison d’etre of the book?  For what purpose did the author write the book?  Why do people read this book?

•What are some limitations of the book?

•To whom would you suggest this book?

•How has A.I. changed? 

•What makes the functioning of the brain difficult to understand? 

•How are human brains compared to other brains? 

•What are the layers of the brain? 

•What are evolutionary niches?  

•What is DNA?

•What are cyanobacteria? 

•What was the Oxygen Holocaust?  

•How do fungi survive? 

•What information do neurons send?

•What are bilaterians? 

•What is breakthrough #1, Steering?

•What is valance?

•What are deaths of despair? 

•What is the credit assignment problem?

•What is breakthrough #2, Reinforcing?

•How to learn? 

•What is breakthrough #3, Simulating?

•How does being warm-blooded effect intelligence? 

•What is breakthrough #4, Mentalizing?

•How to teach?

•What is breakthrough #5, Speaking?

•Where is the language organ?

Book Details

Edition:                  First Edition

Publisher:               HarperCollins Publishers

Edition ISBN:         9780063286368

Pages to read:          312

Publication:             2023

1st Edition:              2023

Format:                    eBook 

Ratings out of 5:

Readability    4

Content          3

Overall          3