Books I Added to my Zeitgeist in January 2022
Books that I have read and discovered in January 2022
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New Year means another chance to expand your Zeitgeist. Here are some books that I have added to my list of things to read and things I have read in the first month of the new year.
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Read
Dataclysm: Love, Sex, Race, and Identity — What Our Online Lives Tell Us about Our Offline Selves by Christian Rudder
Source: Christmas gift
Thoughts: While the examples from this book are a little out of date (it was published in 2015), the overall narrative is great for any data professional. Trust the data, follow its conclusions and try not to allow your prejudices to influence your analysis.
In this daring and original book, Rudder explains how Facebook “likes” can predict, with surprising accuracy, a person’s sexual orientation and even intelligence; how attractive women receive exponentially more interview requests; and why you must have haters to be hot. He charts the rise and fall of America’s most reviled word through Google Search and examines the new dynamics of collaborative rage on Twitter. He shows how people express themselves, both privately and publicly. What is the least Asian thing you can say? Do people bathe more in Vermont or New Jersey? What do black women think about Simon & Garfunkel? (Hint: they don’t think about Simon & Garfunkel.) Rudder also traces human migration over time, showing how groups of people move from certain small towns to the same big cities across the globe. And he grapples with the challenge of maintaining privacy in a world where these explorations are possible.
