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ant's review against another edition
4.0
While this is written in the style of a phd thesis it manages to be interesting, thought provoking and accessible to the layperson. It also manages to walk that line where not necessarily agreeing with the author at certain points doesn’t spoil the book or the enjoyment of the story as it unfolds.
strong_extraordinary_dreams's review against another edition
3.0
Twice I read (that is, listened) to this book, because I thought, the first time, that there must have been something more to it. Pretty much there wasn't.
The Bad:
* constant puddles and swamps of art-wank, intellectual-wank writing that often isn't even correct, only obscure.
* excessive reference to a few books (yes, I have read Snow Crash and nearly all the others mentioned) reduce the power of the thesis overall.
* just not well written, somewhat shocked but not really shocking.
* by "Algorithms" he means "large systems of computational workings" and hardly ever 'algorithms'.
* the constant attempts to connectalgorithms large computational systems to culture don't really work.
The last two are acceptable, the first a disaster.
The Good:
* nuggets of awesome insight into all kinds of systems, like about how High Frequency Trading is - really - bizarre. I would have *much* preferred a few articles with the good, hard, stuff, and dump the rest.
That's it. There's nothing else to say.
The Bad:
* constant puddles and swamps of art-wank, intellectual-wank writing that often isn't even correct, only obscure.
* excessive reference to a few books (yes, I have read Snow Crash and nearly all the others mentioned) reduce the power of the thesis overall.
* just not well written, somewhat shocked but not really shocking.
* by "Algorithms" he means "large systems of computational workings" and hardly ever 'algorithms'.
* the constant attempts to connect
The last two are acceptable, the first a disaster.
The Good:
* nuggets of awesome insight into all kinds of systems, like about how High Frequency Trading is - really - bizarre. I would have *much* preferred a few articles with the good, hard, stuff, and dump the rest.
That's it. There's nothing else to say.
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