The Numerati

This book is amazing, it explains in an extremely plain and simple manner how our personal data is being used these days to create very exact profiles of our habbits and our desires and the powerfulness of this data for the companies worldwide, it also predicts how this data will be used even more in the near future so that The Numerati, the world's best mathematicians together with the most powerful computers will analyze every bit, every zero or one of information we produce everyday in order to rule our lifes. In brief, is an easy to read book that makes you realize about how your personal data is being used in situations and things you won't ever imagine and which in some passages of the book could even scare you. Definitively a must read!

Are you somebody, whose role is to make sense of vast pool of data within your company ? Do you try to model (or even predict) the behavior of your customers, business partners or voters ? Then this book is (most probably) a piece of relief for you, as it has been for myself. For several years I am part of different bodies and institutions that try to draw conclusion from their customer historical track records. After several years of working in this trade we all come to stage, where you do not have enough source of inspiration from peers (because you left them far behind) in your industry or you already have tried most of what makes just a bit of the sense. Stephen Baker took the time to collect the best practice and inspiration from wide array of industries and environments on how data can be systematically turned into more business or power within your battlefield. Even though some of the concepts are not easily transfarable into my industry, I still was amazed and inspired by way they were approaching their data hurdles. It is very thought provoking how far we already reach in datamining - and top of that - utilizing the results of it. I launched several projects within my company to tranfer the principles discussed in this book. If you still are unsure about buying this book, then invest few dollars of its price at least into understanding how much digital traces and hints you leave around and how much more privacy invading is just around the corner for next years.

It was such an interesting book I had to read it more than once. I use it as a reference and also have given it as a gift to several of my clients. I follow Mr. Baker and read his blog [...] and periodic Business Week Articles, I believe his approach at simplifying very complex terms and technologies for the understanding of many readers without losing the essence of what is happening is an admirable talent you can clearly see in this book. I was originally attracted to the book after reading an Article on How consultants where being gauged for performance and overall business value by creating software that would include many factors of each individual consultant and giving them a specific ranking or value. Being a consultant myself and having worked for Big Four Consulting Firm in its Planning Management Office assisting in the placement of resources on multiples projects this was a subject very appealing to me. I was captivated by all the new emerging technologies that are being created to improve our lifestyle and to enhance existing technologies. I think it is a great gift for any client who wants to stay up to date on what technologies are appearing regardless of industry.

I would highly recommend reading Baker's book immediately before or after reading How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of "Intangibles" in Business by Douglas Hubbard. Baker would probably consider Hubbard one of the "numerati". Both authors talk about some of the specifics of the analysis methods (but moreso Hubbard) and both talk about the general trends and impacts (but moreso Baker). Like his table of contents (which is simply worker, shopper, voter, blogger, terrorist, patient, lover), Baker's book is sweeping if a bit terse in places. As a quant, I find Numerati an easy read with virtually no math but still enlightening even for the most quantitatively adept reader. There were several examples in Baker's book where I already knew of the mathod but had not heard of that application. He did some great research and covered a lot of topics in this giant and elaborate field of work. My main concern for many management-level readers of this book is that in some cases Baker gives a reader just enough information to think they can apply it to a similar problem they have, falling into the "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" trap. Again, this can be offset with a read of Hubbard's book. It might also have been helpful to talk about the rise of "crackpot rigour" in a world with lots of data and relatively few competent mathematical analysts (various "data mining" experts come to mind). In all, its one of my favorite reads of the year. I felt like someone was finally casting light on my own obscure field.