000 Computer science, knowledge & systems
005.7 Weapons of Math Destruction
How big data increases inequality and threatens democracy by Cathy O’Neil
218 pages (not including notes and bibliography)
This book was interesting. I think I never realized how assumptions can skew data in weird and interesting ways. I also never knew how the data can feed itself into a cycle of reinforcing assumptions.
This was a very easy read. The author made the information very accessible and easy to understand. That said, I disagreed with two points mentioned in the book (one was stressed often, one came up passing). I don’t want to go into tons of detail for various reasons, but (1) I think the best way to keep members of minority communities out of prison is for members of those communities to not commit crimes and (2) the United States is a republic, not a democracy, and that is why the electoral college matters.
Overall, I enjoyed myself when I read this, but I think that’d be true of almost any book!
Next up - 010 Bibliographies. I’m going to attempt to read The Joy of Reading by Charles Van Doren (shelved as 011.73 in my library). It’s a bit long - 510 pages - so it may take a while.