Very well could make my top books I’ve read this year. I find it so interesting to consider data sets that have been taken from our mind and digitized. The study of data has always been a rather skeptical topic for me. Stephens-Davidowitz uses relevant examples, mixed bag of humour, and some fascinating research to extend his study of Big Data. I particularly enjoyed the themes of social desirability bias in the book. Something I’ve thought about a lot. People lie; how can we make them tell the truth. How can EVERYTHING not be taken with a grain of salt? I feel this way about literature and fiction often too. The link between humans and quantitative study is very intriguing under this scope. Some faults of the book, maybe simply due to lack of space to delve into the topic include; complicity in the magnitude of biases presented by data source itself. Take for example his dissertation on Google Trends; there is a “godification” of google as a data presenter and search engine. Written in 2017, parts already feel outdated. Internet is an endless web that is growing tremendously everyday. Social media too. Could add a bit more depth now with recent revelations. My world will change when comms research includes social media beyond Facebook and Twitter. The day data is presented to me via the form of Snapchat for children in their formative years is a day I yearn for. A lot of the data considered here early in the book takes into factors that the data set doesn’t offer. You can track the location of the search but you can’t track the circumstance it’s made necessarily. The magnitude of factors we can consider is outstanding. I loved this book and how it makes my brain spiral.

This book is filled with interesting facts about our behaviors, but I believe it could have been summarized more effectively. It's highly likely that your experience will differ if you approach the book with a different goal in mind. However, in my experience, it was quite repetitive.

It's good to have your whole perspective changed or shattered once in a while and this books does exactly that.

The author does a great job of showing how big data can help understand how we tick. He shows that there is a lot of data out there that is ripe for analysis on any kind of subject. He also explains what big data can't do, what it shouldn't do and the pitfalls of combing through that much data. His writing has a very readable, first-person-storytelling style which gets you through some subtle concepts. Do read his perfect conclusion to the end! If you are interested in human behaviour or big data, or both, this book is for you.

An enjoyable read that is let down by its extreme US-centricity.

Seth is exploring a brave new world of honests dataset and his favorite being Google searches he come sto quite a few surprising conclusions. Inspired by Freakonomics, and bringing it to next level.

I nerded out on this book, big time. The only reason it took more than two days to finish was because of a four day field trip to Washington DC with my students. Because of said field trip, I did manage to forget significant portions of the first 60% of the book that I read before the field trip although I do remember referencing something I read in the book in conversation with a few of my students. As a self-proclaimed data nerd, I rapidly consumed this book. I loved nearly all of the examples he gave and the pithy conclusions he drew from his various examples. The primary reason I gave this book four stars instead of five is because his self-deprecating comments, while endearing at first, became almost overwhelming in the conclusion. Well, that and the fact that after less than a week, I remember few specifics. I do, however, strongly recommend this book.

3.5 stars

Smart and entertaining. Good and simple book about big data analysis with real cases