12 books on the thickness and thinness of our customers and data
If you are in need of a good read these are 12 books which helped me better understand and connect the humans behind our customers with the power and limitations of our data.
1. You look like a thing and I love you, Janelle Shane
Shane explores how Artificial Intelligence (AI) works by building and breaking solutions using AI and Machine Learning. The book is a very good gateway to how these dark boxes work. It’s funny and eye opening. https://www.janelleshane.com/book-you-look-like-a-thing
2. Anthro Vision, Gillian Tett
Tett brings her anthropology background into the world of business introducing us to her field making it relatable to our every day life and work. As many of the books on my list she critiques the simplicity of big data and how it is incomplete when understanding complex issues. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/441314/anthro-vision-by-tett-gillian/9781847942890
“the problem is such tools are incomplete; they are used without an awareness of culture and context, created with a sense of tunnel vision, and built assuming that the world can be neatly bounded and captured by a single set of parameters” — Gillian Tett
3. Weapons of math destruction, Cathy O’Neil
O’Neil introduces us to the world of math, the algorithm and big data undressing its glamour and critiquing its impact on society and democracy. She shares how suggestions and decisions are made and by doing that demonstrates the risk in overreliance on a machine making decisions for us. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/241363/weapons-of-math-destruction-by-cathy-oneil/
4. Sensemaking, Christian Madsbjerg
Madsbjerg writes about what makes human intelligence unique and essential to our understanding of why things happen, the distinction between thin (big) and thick (human, cultural) data and how organizations need both to make their best decisions. https://www.redassociates.com/sensemaking
“when we devalue humanistic endeavors, we loose our best opportunity for exploring worlds different from our own” — Christian Madsbjerg
5. Invisible women, Caroline Criado Perez
Perez presents how our data bias has created a world mostly designed for white men and the cost of this lack of diversity on all groups and populations. From snow plowing in Sweden to toilets in India, heart attacks and car crashes all over the world. https://carolinecriadoperez.com/book/invisible-women/
6. Stand out of our light, James Williams
Williams a former Google engineer takes us into a world designed for profit through attention and the cost of this economy on our human and societal health. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/stand-out-of-our-light/3F8D7BA2C0FE3A7126A4D9B73A89415D
“there’s a deep misalignment between the goals we have for ourselves and the goals our technologies have for us” — James Williams
7. Small Data, Martin Lindstrom
Lindstrom explores what makes our customers tick. He shares stories from his own work observing, exploring and discovering human consciousness and subconsciousness and how the thick human and cultural data can be translated into succesful product and business decisions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Data
8. How to speak machine, John Maeda
In one of the books later chapters Maeda goes into the difference between thin and thick data and the importance of the human context when understanding the world and making better decisions. https://maeda.pm/2020/08/13/how-to-speak-machine-computational-thinking-for-the-rest-of-us/
9. The Geography of thought, Richard E. Nisbett
Nisbett juxtaposes western and Asian thought process to make clearer how and why we are making decisions and acting the way we do. The book brings you closer to your own decision making and how it is not universal but heavliy influenced by how you grew up and the world around you. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Geography-of-Thought/Richard-Nisbett/9780743255356
“nothing exists in an isolated and independent way, but is connected to a multitude of different things. To really know a thing, we have to know all its relations, like individual music notes embedded in a melody” — Richard E. Nisbett
10. Mindf*cked, Christopher Wylie
Cambridge Analytica whistle blower Christopher Wylie published his own story where he amongst others describe how they went from using models intepreting the data that found nothing to models that changed the world. A look into the power of data and what it can give us if we are not concious of the costs. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52269471-mindf-ck
11. Unlocking leadership mindtraps — how to thrive in complexity, Jennifer Garvey Berger
Berger explores how leaders can prepare and make better decisions in a world besotted by complexity. https://www.cultivatingleadership.com/book/unlocking-leadership-mindtraps
12. Why the world needs anthropologists, Dan Podjed et. al.
The book is a collection of articles by renowned and experienced anthropoligists across a wast array of fields presenting a glimpse into their world and thinking — from what is at the heart of anthropology to how it can be used to improve e.g. our digital experiences. https://www.routledge.com/Why-the-World-Needs-Anthropologists/Podjed-Gorup-Borecky-Montero/p/book/9781350147133
“he who speaks no foreign language knows nothing about his own” — Goethe (from Why the world needs anthropologists)
