- Type: Data Science
- Title: Everybody Lies
- Author: Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
I came across this book in one of my classes at school. This is what I would call a book that covers the use of Data Science for social good. You do not have to be a data scientist to read it. There are no technical words whatsoever. The author uses data that we produce every day and what we are very familiar with (google searches, AdWords, and google trends) to explain many of the social patterns we see.
Major points:
- Advantages and limitations of Big data in today’s world to solve major social issues
- Some interesting findings from the book: the number of times people report having sex is way higher than the reality; The most watched porn episodes are usually about incest relationships; People from Canada born from poor parents have way more chances to become rich that people born in the US – and looking inside the US, people born in San Jose, California have 12.9% more chances than people from Charlotte, North Carolina (4.4%)
- Privacy: How should we use personal data when we know it can save lives. For example, this is a story of a guy that performed many google searches how to murder someone and this sad event ended up happening to his ex-girlfriend two weeks later, on the day of her birthday party. Accessing these searches in time could have potentially saved her life (who knows? But for sure we need to start addressing a very complicated subject about defining boundaries for the use of personal data).
Hope you guys enjoy this type of post.
Daniela