Jim Parco's Book Recommendations:

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Micromotives And Macrobehavior by Thomas C. Schelling
This is a tremendously insightful book illustrating the emergence of orderly systems from what otherwise would appear to be random individual behavior.

Games And Decisions by R. Duncan Luce and Howard Raiffa
This book opened up the world's eyes to the power of mathematical modeling of human behavior.

Jim Parco
U.S. Air Force Academy

Choices, Values, and Frames edited by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky
This book helped us understand how people make decisions that often cannot be "rationally" explained.

How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
This is a book well-ahead of its time (published in the 1930s) illustrating the secret of unobtrusive control of relationships -- an essential ingredient for any successful manager.

Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter
Godel, Escher is a brilliant approach to juxtaposing reductionistic and holistic perspectives using music, art, and mathematics to show us the power of levels of analysis.

Johnny Von Neumann by Norman MacRae
This is the story of a man that few people know, but had a tremendous impact on the history of mathematics, science, and American politics in the 20th century.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn RandProvides a profound view of (radical) scientific objectivism illustrating the virtues of capitalism.

A Peace To End All Peace by David Fromkin
If you want to understand why we are where we are in the Middle East conflict, start here.

A New Christianity for a New World by John Shelby Spong
This is a radically compassionate approach to the marriage of science and religion.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
Of all the books written on investing, no other has such deep roots in the annals of finance -- a revolutionary book when introduced in the 1970s and continues to prove its message over and over with each passing decade.

The Evolution Of Desire: Strategies Of Human Mating by David M. Buss
Although not the most scientifically sound treatise on an evolutionary approach to human mating behavior, it does pose a lot of interesting questions and insights for the novice reader.

The Science Of Good And Evil by Michael Shermer
This is a stimulating approach to ethics.



Biographical Info: Major Parco was commissioned in 1991 from the U.S. Air Force Academy with a BS in economics. His first assignment was with the First Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base as a contracting officer. He also served for a short time at the specialized contracting squadron at Headquarters, Air Combat Command. In 1994, he was reassigned to the White House, where he served on the National Security Council as the director of Acquisition and Resource Management. In 1996, he returned to the faculty of the Department of Management at USAFA after completing his MBA at the College of William & Mary. In 2002, he completed his doctorate from the University of Arizona in judgment and decision-making and was reassigned to the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, where he served as the cognizant administrative contracting officer for the Defense Contract Management Agency.