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canadianbookworm's review against another edition
4.0
This book has been on my "to read" list for many years and, noticing it in the library, I decided to tackle it. For a book written 14 years ago, it is surprisingly relevant today. If anything, the smog has gotten worse.
The book illustrates the "laws of data smog" and discusses some ways to tackle the problem.
Here are the laws, with some explanation:
1. Information, once rare and cherished like caviar, is now plentiful and taken for granted like potatoes.
This one is pretty self explanatory. Information, or data, comes to us from many sources through many mediums, with information overload replacing information scarcity as a problem. Information is not knowledge and needs to be considered in context and as part of a bigger picture.
2. Silicon circuits evolve much more quickly than human genes.
The power of technology has grown more quickly than our ability to process it. We are overwhelmed and have trouble dealing with the deluge. ADD is on the rise, along with cardiovascular issues, vision issues, and confusion. This leads to impaired judgment and overconfidence. We have grown dependent on technology and it has become like a drug we rely on.
3. Computers are neither human nor humane.
Technology has unexpected consequences (kind of like kudzu) and we are losing control to the machines that were supposed to serve us.
4. Putting a computer in every classroom is like putting an electric power plan in every home.
Computers help access are deliver large amounts of information quickly. They are not filters, but pumps. They can be useful tools, but are not a substitute for learning. Measurement of factual knowledge of various groups from schoolchildren to adults has shown that we know less about the world we live in than we used to, not more.
5. What they sell is not information technology, but information anxiety.
This is the sales call to upgrade to new technologies constantly. The faster and faster pace takes hold of us are instead of helping us be more efficient places more expectations on us.We are forever playing catch-up.
6. Too many experts spoil the clarify.
The opportunity of immense amounts of information allows groups to manipulate and spin data to prove pretty much any point of view. With so much expert opinion, determining which ones are reliable becomes more and more difficult.
7. All high-stim roads lead to Times Square.
It is no longer difficult to get your message out, but finding a receptive audience can be a problem. It takes more to get our attention, and that has led to more extreme efforts to get that attention (shock jocks, trash TV, excessive violence, extreme rhetoric, noisier advertising are all part of this). Everything is a crisis that demands immediate attention and we become jaded and less caring.
8. Birds of a feather flock virtually together.
This is nichification, the more and more specialized places where people of like minds can come together. Instead of information leading to more communication and discourse among people from different backgrounds and with different perspectives, there is more fragmentation and less understanding. Less information is truly shared.
9. The electronic town hall allows for speedy communication and bad decision-making.
People have more of a voice, but less ability to self-govern. Instead of government being leaders of the people, they respond to surveys and research on what people want and respond to that. The government ends up being followers to citizens that don't understand the full nature of the problems that are being faced.
10. Equifax is watching.
Personal privacy has become harder to maintain as information on our habits obtained from merchants, government, and other sources is more easy for others to obtain.
11. Beware stories that dissolve all complexity.
The good story, whether selective, exaggerated or wrong, spreads quickly and without barriers around the globe. This can have great effect to individuals, companies, and even countries that get caught in these apocryphal stories.
12. On the information highway, most roads bypass journalists.
Because it is easier to disseminate information without going through traditional media, anyone can send out information and the average person is less able to assess the quality and factual basis of the information given. This leads to misinformation, misunderstanding and more confidence in less knowledge. The age of the news bite, without the education needed to analyze what it means to us is ultimately less relevant.
13. Cyberspace is Republican.
Technology favours the ideals of libertarian, free-market Republicans towards a decentralized society with little regulation and public infrastructure. This utopia is always long-term with little attention paid to the short-term costs to society.
This book is still extremely relevant and provides much food for thought on how to change the flow of information to make it work for us in a healthier and more helpful way.
The book illustrates the "laws of data smog" and discusses some ways to tackle the problem.
Here are the laws, with some explanation:
1. Information, once rare and cherished like caviar, is now plentiful and taken for granted like potatoes.
This one is pretty self explanatory. Information, or data, comes to us from many sources through many mediums, with information overload replacing information scarcity as a problem. Information is not knowledge and needs to be considered in context and as part of a bigger picture.
2. Silicon circuits evolve much more quickly than human genes.
The power of technology has grown more quickly than our ability to process it. We are overwhelmed and have trouble dealing with the deluge. ADD is on the rise, along with cardiovascular issues, vision issues, and confusion. This leads to impaired judgment and overconfidence. We have grown dependent on technology and it has become like a drug we rely on.
3. Computers are neither human nor humane.
Technology has unexpected consequences (kind of like kudzu) and we are losing control to the machines that were supposed to serve us.
4. Putting a computer in every classroom is like putting an electric power plan in every home.
Computers help access are deliver large amounts of information quickly. They are not filters, but pumps. They can be useful tools, but are not a substitute for learning. Measurement of factual knowledge of various groups from schoolchildren to adults has shown that we know less about the world we live in than we used to, not more.
5. What they sell is not information technology, but information anxiety.
This is the sales call to upgrade to new technologies constantly. The faster and faster pace takes hold of us are instead of helping us be more efficient places more expectations on us.We are forever playing catch-up.
6. Too many experts spoil the clarify.
The opportunity of immense amounts of information allows groups to manipulate and spin data to prove pretty much any point of view. With so much expert opinion, determining which ones are reliable becomes more and more difficult.
7. All high-stim roads lead to Times Square.
It is no longer difficult to get your message out, but finding a receptive audience can be a problem. It takes more to get our attention, and that has led to more extreme efforts to get that attention (shock jocks, trash TV, excessive violence, extreme rhetoric, noisier advertising are all part of this). Everything is a crisis that demands immediate attention and we become jaded and less caring.
8. Birds of a feather flock virtually together.
This is nichification, the more and more specialized places where people of like minds can come together. Instead of information leading to more communication and discourse among people from different backgrounds and with different perspectives, there is more fragmentation and less understanding. Less information is truly shared.
9. The electronic town hall allows for speedy communication and bad decision-making.
People have more of a voice, but less ability to self-govern. Instead of government being leaders of the people, they respond to surveys and research on what people want and respond to that. The government ends up being followers to citizens that don't understand the full nature of the problems that are being faced.
10. Equifax is watching.
Personal privacy has become harder to maintain as information on our habits obtained from merchants, government, and other sources is more easy for others to obtain.
11. Beware stories that dissolve all complexity.
The good story, whether selective, exaggerated or wrong, spreads quickly and without barriers around the globe. This can have great effect to individuals, companies, and even countries that get caught in these apocryphal stories.
12. On the information highway, most roads bypass journalists.
Because it is easier to disseminate information without going through traditional media, anyone can send out information and the average person is less able to assess the quality and factual basis of the information given. This leads to misinformation, misunderstanding and more confidence in less knowledge. The age of the news bite, without the education needed to analyze what it means to us is ultimately less relevant.
13. Cyberspace is Republican.
Technology favours the ideals of libertarian, free-market Republicans towards a decentralized society with little regulation and public infrastructure. This utopia is always long-term with little attention paid to the short-term costs to society.
This book is still extremely relevant and provides much food for thought on how to change the flow of information to make it work for us in a healthier and more helpful way.
gengelcox's review against another edition
4.0
Are we drowning in a sea of information? Blinded by a smog of data? That's David Shenk's premise, and I have to admit I'm in somewhat of an agreement with him. It's either agree with him, or admit that I'm getting old and can't keep up anymore. We are of an age, however--he relates how his first computer was a Macintosh in 1984. He talks about becoming involved in the early days of digital communication (back then, there was Compu$erve, the $ource, and local BBSes). He went on the reporting route, while I took the technology route. Now we both feel surrounded by too much stuff, data being the prime component. Shenk blames it on the new medium, whereas I think that maybe it is the nature of our general society.
Don't get me wrong. I love data. Databases are your friend, and they've certainly been mine, as I make my living off maintaining them, writing interfaces for them, and creating reports from them. The problem seems to go back to something much older than the Internet, but to the early days of computing. There is a term, not in much use today, called GIGO: Garbage In, Garbage Out. Too much data being stored in databases these days was dumped there, without editing, without sorting, without review. Just because modern tools allow you access to data in these storage areas better, faster, and cheaper, does not mean that data poorly stored has any more value. I am sure many of you have run into a case where the computer was supposed to help you with a task, but instead it just seems that you were able to process more data, not necessarily do the job quicker or easier. More data, as Shenk discusses, is not a solution. Better data would be, but no one is providing quality.
And this is where I say the problem is not the technology but the society. Americans have a hard time with quality. We give it lip service, but what we really want is quantity. The tagline for Godzilla, "Size matters," was perfect for us. Yes, we want more. We want a biggie fries and a biggie shake. We want to Super Size that Extra Value Meal. We purchase Range Rovers and the only range we rove is the median when there's a traffic jam. Let's go to CostCo and get the five-pound jar of spaghetti sauce, even though we only eat spaghetti at home once every two months. We'll take 52 channels of crap on the cable, although only four are worth watching. Bigger, we imply, is always better. Our hardware store here has a tagline that says they have "more of everything."
Shenk says, more is less. You are a limited creature; you can only handle a limited amount of input. Why not get some quality input for a change? I like the idea, and I have to admit that Jill and I were already working towards this goal before our move. Jill calls it "divesting ourselves of the material culture," but mainly it's just getting rid of stuff. Why did we have 700 CDs? We couldn't listen to them all, and hadn't listened to more than 5% in the last year. Why did we have 2000 books--did we intend to reference or reread all of them? I have been keeping bank and billing records for the last 15 years? Why? We cleaned out the closet, evaluating the things we really needed to meet our goals. And it isn't that much. Why did we have all that stuff. Because we were being good little members of the consumer society.
This simplification of the life style is one of Shenk's answers to Data Smog. The others include being your own filter (limit your inputs--cut off the TV, unsubscribe from those lists), being your own editor (take your time to understand what you read and hear, don't settle for sound bites), become a generalist (Robert Heinlein said, "Specialization is for insects."), and, lastly, take part in government rather than forsaking it. These antidotes are strong medicine towards regaining control of your life. Shenk probably didn't mean this as a self-help book, but if the tool pouch fits....
Don't get me wrong. I love data. Databases are your friend, and they've certainly been mine, as I make my living off maintaining them, writing interfaces for them, and creating reports from them. The problem seems to go back to something much older than the Internet, but to the early days of computing. There is a term, not in much use today, called GIGO: Garbage In, Garbage Out. Too much data being stored in databases these days was dumped there, without editing, without sorting, without review. Just because modern tools allow you access to data in these storage areas better, faster, and cheaper, does not mean that data poorly stored has any more value. I am sure many of you have run into a case where the computer was supposed to help you with a task, but instead it just seems that you were able to process more data, not necessarily do the job quicker or easier. More data, as Shenk discusses, is not a solution. Better data would be, but no one is providing quality.
And this is where I say the problem is not the technology but the society. Americans have a hard time with quality. We give it lip service, but what we really want is quantity. The tagline for Godzilla, "Size matters," was perfect for us. Yes, we want more. We want a biggie fries and a biggie shake. We want to Super Size that Extra Value Meal. We purchase Range Rovers and the only range we rove is the median when there's a traffic jam. Let's go to CostCo and get the five-pound jar of spaghetti sauce, even though we only eat spaghetti at home once every two months. We'll take 52 channels of crap on the cable, although only four are worth watching. Bigger, we imply, is always better. Our hardware store here has a tagline that says they have "more of everything."
Shenk says, more is less. You are a limited creature; you can only handle a limited amount of input. Why not get some quality input for a change? I like the idea, and I have to admit that Jill and I were already working towards this goal before our move. Jill calls it "divesting ourselves of the material culture," but mainly it's just getting rid of stuff. Why did we have 700 CDs? We couldn't listen to them all, and hadn't listened to more than 5% in the last year. Why did we have 2000 books--did we intend to reference or reread all of them? I have been keeping bank and billing records for the last 15 years? Why? We cleaned out the closet, evaluating the things we really needed to meet our goals. And it isn't that much. Why did we have all that stuff. Because we were being good little members of the consumer society.
This simplification of the life style is one of Shenk's answers to Data Smog. The others include being your own filter (limit your inputs--cut off the TV, unsubscribe from those lists), being your own editor (take your time to understand what you read and hear, don't settle for sound bites), become a generalist (Robert Heinlein said, "Specialization is for insects."), and, lastly, take part in government rather than forsaking it. These antidotes are strong medicine towards regaining control of your life. Shenk probably didn't mean this as a self-help book, but if the tool pouch fits....
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