Elaine Chao
“Uncertainty and Enterprise: Venturing Beyond the Known” is a must-read for anyone seeking a roadmap to the bewildering array of new technologies exploding today. Written with considerable charm by the distinguished economist and scholar Amar Bhidé—my Harvard Business School classmate and now a professor at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health—the book makes a compelling case that hard facts alone cannot prove or predict whether a new political movement, business idea, technology or TV series will succeed. The author offers a fascinating array of stories, examples and ideas of great thinkers—some well-known, like John Maynard Keynes, others more obscure, like the economist Frank H. Knight—rather than relying solely on math or statistics. This book provides a new way of looking not only at risk but, more importantly, at uncertainty in an unpredictable world. “Portraits of Ukraine: A Nation at War,” by the American diplomat Gregory W. Slayton and Sergei Ivashenko, is a real-world demonstration of resilience; this beautiful volume offers many insights into Ukraine’s rich history, culture, politics and religious traditions. With more than 300 illustrations, it puts the reader on the ground with stories of ordinary Ukrainians raising children in war zones, fleeing destruction and ministering to war-weary soldiers. The final chapter, “Why Support Ukraine,” is an especially compelling argument for why the U.S. must stand by its ally. With an opening statement by President Volodymyr Zelensky, an introduction by former Vice President Mike Pence and a foreword by Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., it couldn’t be more timely.
Ms. Chao is a former U.S. secretary of labor and secretary of transportation.
