An amazing book that I recommend to everyone. While the title has “exposing data bias in a world designed for men”, the book does way more than that. In addition to using data and case studies to illustrate that point, it shows how correcting this could lead to better results not just for women, but humanity itself.
The premise is excellent. Our consumption, sharing and creation of data could tell us a lot about our society and the evolution of our culture in different parts of the world. The problem is, the book is based solely on the authors’ experiments with datasets using Google Books Ngram Viewer. 30 million books digitized by Google. A lot of books, but still a small subset. The book doesn’t match the expectations set by the title, but is still an interesting read.
As technology continues to accelerate changes, asymmetry, complexity and uncertainty have become the underlying themes across the world. Using nine themes, Joi Ito and Jeff Howe provide both perspectives and food for thought on the kind of adaptive thinking that is required to survive the future.
Everybody lies, as the title suggests, to their colleagues, friends, spouse and most importantly, to themselves. What they search for, and what they click, are better indicators of their true nature. This is the premise of the book, and a major portion of it is dedicated to reasoning out how the troves of data we generate can lead to fundamental insights. But it also provides a counter balance towards the end – the limits of data, intangible measures and the ethics of mining data. The potential of data to create new understanding in social sciences and human behaviour – reason enough to read this!
The books I really enjoy are the ones that capture and articulate a fundamental insight. This is one such. Tim Wu studies the history of information and communication empires, and illustrates a predictable path they follow – he calls it The Cycle. The biggest game changer we have seen in modern times is the internet, and the question he seeks to answer through this book is “which is mightier : the radicalism of the Internet or the inevitability of the Cycle?” An absolutely fascinating read.