Tim Wu, the professor at Columbia Law School who coined the term “net neutrality,” is the author of an important and extraordinarily well-researched and well-written new book titled The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads. In it, Wu traces the entire history of the technology-enabled work of merchants—those who wish to […]

“Data Science” is a misnomer. Science, in general, is a set of methods for learning about the world. Specific sciences are the application of these methods to particular areas of study. Physics is a science: it is the study of physical phenomena. Psychology is a science: it is the study of the psyche (i.e., the […]

As its default mode of operation, the human brain uses the least amount of information necessary to make sense of the world before making decisions. This product of evolution was an efficient and effective strategy when we lived in a simple, familiar world. We no longer live in that world. We can still use this […]

Last June I celebrated my 62nd birthday. As I look back on my life, my early years seem like distant memories of a different age, yet the years also seem to have flown by in an instant. Our lives are brief when superimposed on history, but they can be rich if we find a way to […]

For data sensemakers and others who are concerned with the integrity of data sensemaking and its outcomes, the most important book published in 2016 was Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, by Cathy O’Neil. This book is much more than a clever title. It is a clarion call of […]