Johnny reviewed Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil
An excellent demonstration of the devastating pervasiveness of Big Data
4 stars
This book takes you on a journey through all areas of life and shows how Big Data systems cause harm in all of them. Through the examination of these case studies, it also gets to the fundamental issues with Big Data and proposes ways to change our perspectives on it.
This book is really good. It is clear, understandable for a layperson and very well-rounded. I would give it a 5/5 if there weren't these two points:
- it is completely US-centric. The case studies are all domestic. This weakens its explaining power for the rest of the world, imo. (this isn't to say that it doesn't make sense or that it's wrong for a US citizen to only write about the US)
- it's 8 years old now, and while it's analyses are not at all outdated, the world of Big Data has evolved since 2016. I often wondered what ended …
This book takes you on a journey through all areas of life and shows how Big Data systems cause harm in all of them. Through the examination of these case studies, it also gets to the fundamental issues with Big Data and proposes ways to change our perspectives on it.
This book is really good. It is clear, understandable for a layperson and very well-rounded. I would give it a 5/5 if there weren't these two points:
- it is completely US-centric. The case studies are all domestic. This weakens its explaining power for the rest of the world, imo. (this isn't to say that it doesn't make sense or that it's wrong for a US citizen to only write about the US)
- it's 8 years old now, and while it's analyses are not at all outdated, the world of Big Data has evolved since 2016. I often wondered what ended up happening to some of the real-world cases discussed in the book. I would be super curious to read a "follow up", maybe a "10 years later" kind of addendum or revision.
