Category: book review

Artificial Intelligence book review Criticism technology sectors UX Research

Review of “More than a Glitch” by Meredith Broussard

By Davood Gozli | by Davood Gozli

In her book “More than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability in Tech,” Meredith Broussard explores how various tech fields, including AI, user-interface design, surveillance, and predictive coding, perpetuate social biases on the basis of race, gender, and ability. She covers topics such as face recognition software, predictive policing, predictive grading in education, and medical diagnosis, and identifies problems in these fields that are exacerbated by blind faith in technology. Broussard uses the term…

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book review Culture Data Science

Review of ‘the Tyranny of Metrics’ by Jerry Z. Muller

By Davood Gozli | by Davood Gozli

Among the books I have recently borrowed from the library, Jerry Muller’s (2018) book, the Tyranny of Metrics, has been the one I’d like to purchase a copy of and keep at hand for future reference. Muller is a historian who has written books on Adam Smith, various aspects of capitalism, and the history of conservative political thought. The initial seed for the Tyranny of Metrics, he writes in the introduction, was a series of…

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book review Data Science

On ‘Weapons of Math Destruction’ (by Cathy O’Neil) Book Review

By Davood Gozli | by Davood Gozli

O’Neil’s book offers a wide-ranging and alarming critique of Big Data technology, profit- and efficiency-driven algorithms. The title and the central concept in the book, Weapons of Math Destruction (WMDs), refers to prediction models that inform decisions at large scale and damage the well-being of many people subjected to them. They include models that categorize, track, screen, and managing “potential” criminals, contingent workers (especially minimum-wage workers), job and loan applicants, and insurance premiums. What makes…

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book review Statistics

Thoughts on ‘Naked Statistics’ (by Charles Wheelan)

By Davood Gozli | by Davood Gozli

Let’s begin this post with a comment by Chris Schuck on my recent video about The Data Detective by Tim Harford. Chris wrote: Some of the books in this genre look really great, but I was also thinking about how these statistical/quant critical thinking analyses are often at their most effective when placed in the context of a specific debate or social problem, often by attentive journalists. Zeynep Tufekci’s writing on the pandemic these past…

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book review

Thoughts on ‘Data Detective’ (by Tim Harford)

By Davood Gozli | by Davood Gozli

Tim Harford’s (2021) book, Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics, isn’t really about statistical methods. It has a much broader scope, and it is less technical than book on methods. It deals with knowledge in general, our relationship with knowledge, and the factors that determine that relationship for individuals and collectives. The book is very well-written. You get the sense that Harford has written the text slowly and patiently, based on…

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