This is a book about human creativity in the age of analytics. I loved the book because he believes that it is important to be creative, and that nothing can really replace it, not even technology.
In a world that is increasingly ruled by numbers and algorithms, why do those who stand out in a wide range of fields insist on incorporating the Eye Test?
The Eye Test is a necessary course correction, a call for a more balanced, personal approach to problem-solving.
Award-winning journalist makes the case for the human element—for what smart, practiced, devoted people can bring to situations that have proved resistant to analytics.
Jones shares what he's learned from an army of extraordinary talents, including some of the best doctors, executives, athletes, meteorologists, magicians, designers, astrophysicists, and detectives in the world. There are a lot of lessons in their mastery that are discussed here in this book.
There is also a place for numbers in decision-making. No baseball player should be judged by his jawline. But the analytics revolution sparked by Michael Lewis's Moneyball now threatens to replace one kind of absurdity with another.
We have developed a blind faith in the machine, the way a driver overly reliant on his GPS might be led off the edge of a cliff. Not all statistical analysis is sound. Algorithms aren't infallible, and spreadsheets aren't testaments.
What's worse, data's supremacy in our daily lives has led to a dangerous strain of anti-expertise: the belief that every problem is a math problem and anyone given access to the right information will find the right answer. That taste doesn't matter, experience doesn't matter, creativity doesn't matter. That we can't believe our eyes, no matter how much they've seen is a real problem, and should be, dare I say.
This is a wonderful book about the importance of keeping our awareness on the prize.
No comments:
Post a Comment