This is the Vision 2057 that Abdullah painted last night:

“A hundred years of Merdeka would see this society, this nation achieve the unimaginable. We will have Nobel laureates, truly global corporations, respected and market-leading brands, internationally acclaimed poets and artists, among the largest number of scientific patents in the world and even the best football team in Asia.

“Our students and professors will dominate Ivy League universities and our own universities will be citadels of excellence for international scholars.

“We will be pioneers in alternative energy, drawing on our strength in biofuels. Our cities will be the most liveable on the globe, blending cosmopolitan facilities that are rooted in a tolerant and just societal ethos.

“This is the Malaysia in my dreams for 2057. One hundred years of independence, one hundred years of advancement.”

Abdullah has been badly served by his advisers, who do not seem to realize that the Prime Minister is stretching to the limit the credulity of Malaysians to paint a visionary picture of Malaysia in 2057 when things in more and more fronts seem to be falling apart, best illustrated by the nation’s failure in the past 44 months to make the transition from “First-World Infrastructure, Third-World Mentality” to “First-World Infrastructure, First-World Mentality” or to prevent backsliding to “Third-World Infrastructure, Fourth-rate Mentality, nine-rate Maintenance”.

Reading list courtesy of Prof Wong Wei Kang
1. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
   • Brilliant book on human development through long history
   • A timely read given SARS

1. The Accidental Theorist, Peddling Prosperity, The Age of Diminished Expectations, The Return of Depression Economics, Pop Internationalism by Paul Krugman
   • Excellent examples of economics applied to the real world
   • See also How I work by Paul Krugman in the American Economist, a journal available from the digital library, I believe

1. Memoirs of An Unregulated Economist by George Stigler
   • One of the best autobiographies by a Nobel Laureate in economics from the University of Chicago

1. Autobiography by George Akerlof
   • An autobiography by Nobel Laureate George Akerlof at University of California, Berkeley (a reminder that we are human)
   • http://www.nobel.se/economics/laureates/2001/akerlof-autobio.html
   • See also An Economic Theorist’s Book of Tales

1. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
   • If you ever have a dream that you are afraid to pursue, this is where you find your inspiration.

1. Autobiography by C.N. Yang
   • Autobiography by C.N. Yang, one of the first Chinese Nobel prize winners in 1957 (Physics), who influenced a generation of Chinese students and showed what is attainable
   • In Chinese only. This has nothing to do with economics. But we shouldn’t discriminate.
   • 傳記: 《規範與對稱之美：楊振寧傳》(聯) 江才健著 / 天下遠見 / ISBN 986-417-064-3

1. A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar
   • The story of John Nash, who needs no introduction for anyone who has taken an introductory game theory course

1. Style: Towards Clarity and Grace by Joseph Williams
   • A book on writing, an essential skill for an economist
   • See also The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White

1. A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Peter Bernstein
   • An excellent and interesting introduction to finance. Very readable
   • There is also a book called A Nonrandom Walk Down Wall Street. The latter is basically a collection of journal articles. I do not recommend it.

1. The Winner’s Curse by Richard Thaler
   • The book is a little old. But still offers a good introduction to Behavioral Economics, a field that consciously integrate economics with insights from psychology

1. The Elusive Quest for Growth by William Easterly
   • World bank economist reviews the lessons from growth

1. “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”: Adventures of a Curious Character
   by Edward Hutchings (Editor), Ralph Leighton, Richard Phillips Feynman, Albert Hibbs (Introduction)
   • The memoir of a physicist

1. 《赖声川的创意学》by 赖声川
   • How to think creatively

1. Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, by Robert Sapolsky
   • What stress can do to you! Sapolsky has been 20 summers observing baboons in the Serengeti and understanding stress levels of baboons in different hierarchy levels. I think you can say the same about individuals in a modern organization.

1. The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz
   • Having too many choices can be bad!? I think the author may have pushed a simple argument too far. But the book contains the history of some ideas in behavioral economics. The history part is quite interesting.