A review by readwithmaleah
Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us about Who We Really Are by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

2.0

I waited a week or so to write this review because I wondered if I was a bit too harsh with my 2-stars. However, I’m already finding most of the information to be pretty forgettable. This book had such potential to be great. I was excited to read it, especially since I was a social data analyst in my former life (aka pre-children). Numbers are my friend. I love numbers so, so much. But with this book I found myself losing interest almost immediately. I finished it only because I am committed to completing all book club reads this year, otherwise this would have been a DNF for me.

I found the author to be very full of himself, name-dropping throughout the entire book, and filling the pages with “fluff” that has no real value. A lot of his findings are poorly researched or incomplete, forcing him to use language such as “I believe” or “at least to me”. Real science should not be based on assumptions.

If you’re looking to read a book full of odd (sometimes interesting, sometimes inappropriate) tidbits, this book might be for you. It was definitely not for me.