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662 reviews for:
Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us about Who We Really Are
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
3.82 AVERAGE
662 reviews for:
Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us about Who We Really Are
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
3.82 AVERAGE
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
Freakonomics on steroids. Yes, it's okay to compare Everybody Lies to [b:Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything|1202|Freakonomics A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Freakonomics, #1)|Steven D. Levitt|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327909092s/1202.jpg|5397] – the author admits it was the book that inspired him to go into this line of work. So what happens when you take the ideas behind Freakonomics, published in 2005, and apply them in the age of Google, Facebook, Twitter, PornHub, Tinder, OKCupid, etc? Probably when Stephen Levitt published Freakonomics, not many people had thought about being able to collect the incredible quantities of data we now collect about ourselves every day. How much more can we learn about ourselves with all this hard evidence of the way millions of people really act? How much more honest, surprising, even shocking, will it be?
Surprising and even shocking insights about people's real behaviors are the hook that gets you interested and keeps you reading. What really happens to violent crime when violent movies are released? What kinds of porn are people really searching for on the internet? Who's really more insecure about their bodies, men or women? Does getting into a top magnet high school really affect your chances for a lucrative career? Did racism really propel Donald Trump to the White House? Sometimes the results confirm what we already thought, but sometimes they're shockers, and occasionally they're deeply disturbing.
But there's a bigger story to tell here, and it's the way that the Digital Age has revolutionized how we quantify ourselves. It's far more than just social media and online porn. We can and do aggregate incredible amounts of data about ourselves because it's so easy now to collect and store the data. And when you know where to look and how to do it, it's also easy to mine that data to identify trends and correlations. When all the records are online, data mining that would have taken months of legwork in the 20th century (assuming it was possible at all), now takes seconds. We have amassed and continue to amass an incredible and ever-growing storehouse of information on everything from crime reports to how many steps millions of Fitbit users walk every day to what color ad background gets people to click more often. We stand to revolutionize all of the social sciences because what people really do when they're “alone” on the internet is so much more honest than what they say they do in surveys, and also because of the sheer quantity of test subjects voluntarily participating in the world's biggest experiments every day. And it's not just seemingly silly stuff like people's real porn habits that are under the microscope. Take, for example, public health. The potential for improving epidemiological studies is mindblowing.
I have to wonder, though, how accurate insights based on Google searches really are. Raise your hand if you've ever typed some zany thing into Google just to see what insanity the internet has to offer, or if you've ever clicked, “Surprise me!” Doesn't the very fact that you can type in anything, and the thing you type doesn't have to reflect your real self undermine the reliability of this database? The author's answer would probably be, “In theory, yes, but your silly search is just one among millions, even hundreds of millions, of data points, and if tens of thousands of people are asking Google about their penis size or whether their husband is gay, that's a good indicator that tens of thousands of people are really worried about it, even if a few of them are just kidding around.”
Audio Notes: This book is one of those books that's probably better in print than audio. It's fine in audio, but it's obvious there are a lot of charts and graphics and they've had to adapt the text so their content is being described to you. So if you have a choice, probably choose print.
Surprising and even shocking insights about people's real behaviors are the hook that gets you interested and keeps you reading. What really happens to violent crime when violent movies are released? What kinds of porn are people really searching for on the internet? Who's really more insecure about their bodies, men or women? Does getting into a top magnet high school really affect your chances for a lucrative career? Did racism really propel Donald Trump to the White House? Sometimes the results confirm what we already thought, but sometimes they're shockers, and occasionally they're deeply disturbing.
But there's a bigger story to tell here, and it's the way that the Digital Age has revolutionized how we quantify ourselves. It's far more than just social media and online porn. We can and do aggregate incredible amounts of data about ourselves because it's so easy now to collect and store the data. And when you know where to look and how to do it, it's also easy to mine that data to identify trends and correlations. When all the records are online, data mining that would have taken months of legwork in the 20th century (assuming it was possible at all), now takes seconds. We have amassed and continue to amass an incredible and ever-growing storehouse of information on everything from crime reports to how many steps millions of Fitbit users walk every day to what color ad background gets people to click more often. We stand to revolutionize all of the social sciences because what people really do when they're “alone” on the internet is so much more honest than what they say they do in surveys, and also because of the sheer quantity of test subjects voluntarily participating in the world's biggest experiments every day. And it's not just seemingly silly stuff like people's real porn habits that are under the microscope. Take, for example, public health. The potential for improving epidemiological studies is mindblowing.
I have to wonder, though, how accurate insights based on Google searches really are. Raise your hand if you've ever typed some zany thing into Google just to see what insanity the internet has to offer, or if you've ever clicked, “Surprise me!” Doesn't the very fact that you can type in anything, and the thing you type doesn't have to reflect your real self undermine the reliability of this database? The author's answer would probably be, “In theory, yes, but your silly search is just one among millions, even hundreds of millions, of data points, and if tens of thousands of people are asking Google about their penis size or whether their husband is gay, that's a good indicator that tens of thousands of people are really worried about it, even if a few of them are just kidding around.”
Audio Notes: This book is one of those books that's probably better in print than audio. It's fine in audio, but it's obvious there are a lot of charts and graphics and they've had to adapt the text so their content is being described to you. So if you have a choice, probably choose print.
This book thought itself more edgy and cool than it actually was. "Watch me throw in porn search terms. Bet you didn't expect THAT in your economics book!" Well, no, other than the fact I heard the author promoting the book on 6 different podcasts, I wasn't expecting it. But he kind of sounded like an 8-year-old who's just learned the F word.
Also, I was kind of annoyed off the bat, in Chapter 1, where he says his Grandma is "big data" because she has so many years of experience to draw on. Isn't the ENTIRE POINT of your book that humans are really bad at interpreting data? You need anonymous information! Unbiased computers to interpret it! It was a really dumb analogy, which didn't even fit the narrative of his own book.
OK, *deep breath*, I have one more rant in me about how the audiobook reader mispronounced "doppelganger" but I'll spare you. Overall, I liked the book! Really! It might not be strictly necessary to read it if you've already heard the guy on nearly every interview-style podcast to which you're subscribed, but it wasn't a waste of time.
Also, I was kind of annoyed off the bat, in Chapter 1, where he says his Grandma is "big data" because she has so many years of experience to draw on. Isn't the ENTIRE POINT of your book that humans are really bad at interpreting data? You need anonymous information! Unbiased computers to interpret it! It was a really dumb analogy, which didn't even fit the narrative of his own book.
OK, *deep breath*, I have one more rant in me about how the audiobook reader mispronounced "doppelganger" but I'll spare you. Overall, I liked the book! Really! It might not be strictly necessary to read it if you've already heard the guy on nearly every interview-style podcast to which you're subscribed, but it wasn't a waste of time.
Listened to the audiobook. It kinda reads like a Google Trends advert. I enjoyed it. Very insightful.
Here's a great, painless, even entertaining romp through the world of big data sets. Best of all, the only charts and tables are easily understood, even if one hates statistics and econ books. Stats were always tough for me. I could do all the problem sets and thought I understood them... only to stare blankly at the problems on the exams. ugh.
Nevertheless, this was an important read. The rapidly expanding field of big data set analysis underlies the successes and failures of Google, FB, TikTok and all the others. While he doesn't suggest we should drop out of all those online sites, it isn't hard to formulate an argument for doing just that.
Of course, at the end, his last sentence is, "Every narrator is unreliable."
The Goodreads blurb gives a pretty good overview of his arguments.
Nevertheless, this was an important read. The rapidly expanding field of big data set analysis underlies the successes and failures of Google, FB, TikTok and all the others. While he doesn't suggest we should drop out of all those online sites, it isn't hard to formulate an argument for doing just that.
Of course, at the end, his last sentence is, "Every narrator is unreliable."
The Goodreads blurb gives a pretty good overview of his arguments.
I found this book to be absolutely fascinating. It has inspired me to learn more about the uses of big data.
interesting lessons about what data can tell people about ourselves and our true behavior. Uses strange examples and data set (talks a lot about sex, racial topics) that can draw attention away from what the author is trying to emphasize
I found this book super fascinating and did not want to stop listening. I think it was the perfect length because I do believe it would have gotten too repetitive and drawn out had he kept going.
Listened to the audiobook. A+ narration.
Listened to the audiobook. A+ narration.
Overall, this was pretty boring. It’s very similar to the Freakonomics and Gladwell style but doesn’t bring new things to light so you don’t feel like you’ve gained much after reading it.
A fascinating study of internet data from Google, Facebook, and Pornhub that kept me entertained throughout. Fair warning, though: there is a good bit of disturbing content about racism, sexism, child abuse, abortion, and other touchy topics that are well-suited to this type of anonymous study.