book review – Page 2 – 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…

Thoughts on ‘Naked Statistics’ (by Charles Wheelan)

By Davood Gozli | 01/07/2022 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…

book review

Thoughts on ‘Data Detective’ (by Tim Harford)

By Davood Gozli | 21/06/202222/06/2022 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…

book review Religion

Reflections on ‘Saint Francis of Assisi’ by G. K. Chesterton

By Davood Gozli | 19/05/2022 by Davood Gozli

… it is utterly useless to study a great thing like the Franciscan movement while remaining in the modern mood that murmurs against gloomy asceticism. The whole point about St. Francis of Assisi is that he certainly was ascetical and he certainly was not gloomy. Chesterton’s book Saint Francis of Assisi was published in 1923, about two decades after the publication of Heretics (1905) and a decade before the publication of Saint Thomas Aquinas: The…

book review Education Psychology in Everyday Life

Review of ‘The Art of Self-Improvement: Ten Timeless Truths’ by Anna K. Schaffner

By Davood Gozli | 26/03/202227/03/2022 by Davood Gozli

Self-help is a tricky subject. Depending on the audience, it can provoke intense sympathy and intense skepticism. A dismissive attitude toward the current self-help culture can point to the lack of substance and depth in the popular material, the deceitful and self-serving “gurus,” the hyper-optimism of followers, the fixation with “positive thinking,” the unrealistic promises, the individualistic bias, and the social-political blindspots. But should the self-help culture–with all its associated ideas and aspirations–be completely dismissed?…

Category: book review

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

Thoughts on ‘Naked Statistics’ (by Charles Wheelan)

Thoughts on ‘Data Detective’ (by Tim Harford)

Reflections on ‘Saint Francis of Assisi’ by G. K. Chesterton

Review of ‘The Art of Self-Improvement: Ten Timeless Truths’ by Anna K. Schaffner