“My heart never feels as connected to life as when I am writing. In writing, I find my freedom, a freedom that is absolute, a freedom I have never found in any other activity. In writing, I find myself and begin to know others. It is in writing that I think of causes and effects,…
The Burnout Society (Byung-Chul Han)
I think it was sometime during the summer of 2018 that my friend Peter Limberg gave me a copy of the Agony of Eros. That was my introduction to Byung-Chul Han. Han is an aphoristic philosopher, carrying the influence of Nietzsche quite visibly. He engages with cultural and social topics in a way that is…
Review of ‘the Tyranny of Metrics’ by Jerry Z. Muller
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…
On ‘Weapons of Math Destruction’ (by Cathy O’Neil) Book Review
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,…
Thoughts on ‘Naked Statistics’ (by Charles Wheelan)
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…