[This Week's Books] 'Jang Ha-joon's Economics Recipe' and 5 More Titles

◆Jang Ha-joon's Economics Recipe = This is a practical economics book delivered by Professor Jang Ha-joon, who explains economics easily by excluding complex economic formulas. The author, who is usually interested in food, intertwines stories of food and economics. Using 18 familiar ingredients and foods, from garlic to chocolate, he unravels economic issues closely related to us such as poverty and wealth, growth and decline, freedom and protection, fairness and inequality, manufacturing and service industries, privatization and nationalization, deregulation and restrictions, financial liberalization and financial supervision, welfare expansion and welfare reduction. For example, the story of the coconut, which symbolizes both abundant natural resources and laziness, is used to pinpoint the causes of poverty in poor countries. Additionally, he shares interesting stories such as carrots originally being white rather than orange, and bananas originally being staple foods on slave ships and slave plantations. (Written by Jang Ha-joon · Bookie)

◆Drifting World = The author, a management thinker, argues that the "American world" is drifting. As America drifts, the world order is collapsing. The author asserts that America has made clear choices at historical turning points over the past 100 years, and that the choices made in the future will determine the entire landscape for the next 30 years. He analyzes the possible choices America may make amid accelerating geopolitical conflicts, hegemonic crises, polarization, and internal division. The author reviews major political-economic events that shaped today's America, such as World War II, 1980s Reaganomics, and the 2008 financial crisis, and delves deeply into the causes that have turned America into a dystopia today, including the collapse of the middle class and social safety nets, economic polarization and the strengthening dominance of Big Tech, social division intensified by polarization and social media, and low trust in government and journalism. (Written by Scott Galloway · Readersbook)

◆Learn from Difference = This is an essay by Stein Hanna Gazby, a stand-up comedian with Emmy and Peabody awards. For over 10 years, he was a leading figure in the Australian and UK comedy festivals, working as an actor, screenwriter, and broadcaster before suddenly announcing a hiatus. Afterwards, he gained great acclaim by introducing a new form of comedy that refuses to follow the traditional comedic formula of making the public laugh at social minorities and the vulnerable as scapegoats. The book captures this journey. As a neurodivergent person diagnosed with autism and ADHD and identifying as genderqueer, he powerfully tells his experiences of trauma and shame through compelling storytelling, providing a detailed background on the birth of sharp comedy that criticizes a world suppressing diversity. (Written by Hanna Gazby · Changbi)

◆Cold Start = This book is about how to leverage the "power of networks" to sell new products. The author, who has worked at various startups including Uber, focuses on the "network effect" based on his experience. The network effect refers to the phenomenon where more connections attract more users, thereby increasing the value of a product or service. He conducted over 100 interviews with CEOs and employees of successful companies such as Slack, Twitch, Zoom, Dropbox, Uber, Tinder, Airbnb, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Microsoft to analyze the network effect. The book organizes the path for a new product to start from zero and dominate the market into "5 stages of network effect," introducing specific corporate success cases at each stage. (Written by Andrew Chen · RH Korea)

◆Rediscovery of Matter = This book dissects 11 types of materials, from very common and ordinary substances like metals, magnets, and glass to semiconductors and insulators, which are often heard of but difficult to explain, through the lens of physics concepts. Eleven physicists have come together to closely examine the history of material discovery and invention, as well as the latest material physics and industry trends. The authors, experts in their respective fields, share their research stories and reveal new aspects of "matter" that we thought we understood. At the same time, they introduce what good questions provoke scientific insight and what unresolved questions remain. The book offers "general knowledge" about the nature of matter derived from the discovery of quantum mechanics, and countless new materials, new substances, and devices created by linking such understanding to industrialization. (Written by Jeong Se-young and 10 others · Gimyoungsa)

◆History of Emotions = This book is about the history of emotions, which began to be seriously studied in the West only in the 2000s. It analyzes the role of emotions in different eras in detail. According to the author, emotions were closely linked to religion from the 16th to 18th centuries, functioning as a core mechanism for establishing moral communities. In the 19th century, emotions moved into the economic sphere but morality still existed and was used as a mechanism to justify capitalism. Regarding the period after 1970, the author offers a somewhat provocative interpretation that as psychotherapy became included in health insurance and its category expanded, emotions came to be regulated by pharmaceutical laboratories and university chemical engineering. Based on this analysis, the author emphasizes that emotions should not be blindly accepted as positive or negative but should be reflected upon in terms of domination and resistance. (Written by Kim Hak-i · Pureun History)