Reviews
I feel like I write this in every nonfiction book review, but I wished there was more depth! I also wished someone more, I don't know, anthropologically minded had given this book a once over before publication. For example, Rudder treats data showing that bisexual men are more likely to prefer/message other men on OkCupid when compared to older bisexual men as if it were longitudinal, and implies that bi men's sexual preferences change as they get older. However he does not take into account what these men may be doing off the service; a young bisexual man will probably hit on women at a bar, but is at a considerably greater risk of being decked in the face if he were to do so to men. As the dating pool grows smaller with age, he may turn to the internet to scope out both genders. (To be fair, Rudder does responsibly account for a similar phenomenon showing that North Dakotans are surprisingly liberal when it comes to causual sex in the next chapter and why that isn't the case.) Likewise, Rudder says that "yass," which turns up in a list of words distinctive of popular twitter users, is a contraction of "your ass." This is true, but it's definitely not the most popular use. Nonetheless, Dataclysm is an interesting and accessible book, and I imagine it would be especially so to someone with no background in statistics. I appreciated that the author had a sense of humor, and I don't think (reading in 2017) that it has aged poorly, although it would have been helpful if Rudder had cited years in the text rather than simply "last year."
Really 3.5
Who we are - when no one is looking is almost a perfect title for this book. Data captured in the way the users use an internet service can reveal a lot about the collective group's tendencies, behaviors and biases - Christian Rudder exposes these in a light and visual manner while leveraging data from some of the most popular consumer internet services out there including Google, Facebook, Twitter and of course Christian's own Okcupid. The patterns shared through the data might almost come across as intuitive in some cases, but there is nuance in the details that is demonstrated quite well. There are parts on privacy, security and an almost political-sounding data usage discourse that threaten an otherwise quick and fun read.
Pretty darn good book. Very interesting look at Big Data.
The best sort of non-fiction - readable, witty, and well-researched. Rudder does an amazing job breaking down very complicated stats and methodology and also illuminates some thought-provoking questions about what we are all doing while "online." A perfect book to ready slowly, chapter by chapter while on breaks at work.
