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I recently got around to reading Systemantics (which was recommended by Raymond Chen), and I really liked it. It's pretty short (only 100 pages or so) and written with a very tongue-in-cheek tone. Made me laugh out loud in a couple of places, which not a lot of books do. It basically describes certain "laws" of system behavior, most of which are proved by example (i.e. non-rigorously). Despite that, it does provoke some interesting thoughts about how stuff works (or doesn't work, as the case may be) in general, so it's a good book to read. And it's not a technical book either, so it should appeal to anybody who doesn't take it too seriously. Highly recommended.

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Now that exams are over, I've finally gotten the chance to catch up on my reading - I finished reading Freakonomics the other day, and was somewhat disappointed. Although it was a decent read, I think all the hype I've heard about it kind of ruined it for me. It seemed to be mostly an illustration of the practical benefits of critical thinking - while useful, it was hardly the eye-opening read I was expecting it to be. The sequel seems to be more of the same - a bunch of anecdotes on random topics illustrating how things may not be what they appear. I don't think I'll be diving into that any time soon.

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