Dataclysm

Who We Are (When We Think No One's Looking)

By: Christian Rudder

Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith

A New York Times Bestseller

An audacious, irreverent investigation of human behavior—and a first look at a revolution in the making

Our personal data has been used to spy on us, hire and fire us, and sell us stuff we don’t need. In Dataclysm, Christian Rudder uses it to show us who we truly are.

For centuries, we’ve relied on polling or small-scale lab experiments to study human behavior. Today, a new approach is possible. As we live more of our lives online, researchers can finally observe us directly, in vast numbers, and without filters. Data scientists have become the new demographers.

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.

Visually arresting and full of wit and insight, Dataclysm is a new way of seeing ourselves—a brilliant alchemy, in which math is made human and numbers become the narrative of our time.

©2014 Christian Rudder (P)2014 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

An NPR Best Book of 2014

A Globe & Mail Best Book of 2014

A Brain Pickings Best Science Book of 2014

A Bloomberg Best Book of 2014

One of Hudson Booksellers' 5 Best Business Books of 2014

Goodreads Semifinalist for Best Nonfiction Book of the Year

Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize

"Most data-hyping books are vapor and slogans. This one has the real stuff: actual data and actual analysis taking place on the page. That’s something to be praised, loudly and at length. Praiseworthy, too, is Rudder’s writing, which is consistently zingy and mercifully free of Silicon Valley business gabble."—Jordan Ellenberg, Washington Post

"As a researcher, Mr. Rudder clearly possesses the statistical acumen to answer the questions he has posed so well. As a writer, he keeps the book moving while fully exploring each topic, revealing his graphs and charts with both explanatory and narrative skill. Though he forgoes statistical particulars like p-values and confidence intervals, he gives an approachable, persuasive account of his data sources and results. He offers explanations of what the data can and cannot tell us, why it is sufficient or insufficient to answer some question we may have and, if the latter is the case, what sufficient data would look like. He shows you, in short, how to think about data."—Wall Street Journal

For my personal research

Very enlightening!!! I wasn’t aware of how our data is used and how it’s collected. Also the shocking truths backed by the data of how men and women choose potential partners is invaluable.

Too little data, too much pedantry

This book is a moderately well-written explainer of very standard left-wing political and social opinion. I don’t criticize except that it billed itself as being based on data analysis. Beware, the title is a misnomer.

Know thyself

A fascinating, if unsettling, look at true human behavior as extrapolated from Internet data. The chapters dealing with racism are some of the most revealing about American race relations.

Best book on big data yet!

There's a revolution going on around big data and this book explains it better than any other that I've read so far. The author explains how data is cataclysmic (like a flood), how it is changing the way we can study the world, and what are some of the kinds of conclusions we can draw about people by analyzing the data correctly.

Today is a social scientist's dream world. We can learn things about how individuals (or segmented groups) behave unlike any other time before in history and our abilities to understand our networks, desires and motivations are just waiting for some behavioral scientist (or even more nefariously an evil corporation or a corrupt government) to fully analyze the data trail we leave behind. Instead of guessing about human nature we are in a position to know about our behavior (at least for people up to the age of 50!, post 50 year olds aren't always fully represented in the datasets).

There is one warning about this book for audible listeners. Of all the books I have listened to this one handled tables and graphs the least effectively. Note to author: take a minute or two and re-write the graphs and tables with the audio version in mind. Sometimes the narrative got lost in reading a table out loud. I could follow the conversation, but it got deadly boring at times.

This book reminds me of a Gladwell book or Freakenomics, but is much better because it never strays from the data and never lets the model under discussion stray to far from what the data (reality) is really saying. The real strength of this book is not so much the specific examples he gives in the book, but it acts as a guide to how a smart person can change the data from just a bunch of messy information, to organized data, then to knowledge and then finally wisdom.

interesting but not satisfied

I feel like some parts were very interesting like what ratings different races give other races. But there wasn't enough of that and to much "dry" info. Also the author needs to study evolutionary psychology a little to get some obviously answers to some questions he seemed to be clueless about based on his comments. Like for instance straight women and sex partners being different than other groups, like gay on either side or straight men.

Soooo......not as exciting as the title leads on

Would you try another book from Christian Rudder and/or Kaleo Griffith?

Naw

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Nothing earth shattering here. Some data that most of us already knew in our gut, nothing mind blowing.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

no

Any additional comments?

Interesting to see how the data could be parsed. I was hoping for some real revelations here, but none found. I listed on 1.5 speed to move through it more quickly. I think it would have been a good article -- but not book worthy for me.

Intriguing

Although I don't necessarily agree with all of the conclusions, it was fascinating to hear the stats gathered and analytical techniques used. Overall, a well-produced book that I would like to see in person so as to get a better grasp of the tables and charts (always difficult to reproduce in audio formats).

Fascinating

As an OKCupid user this got my attention,; I've always been fascinated with number science. It can be a lot to digest at points, so listen undistracted and stress free.

great content. reflective writer.

no lofty assertions on the nature of human kind. just a curious examination of the role of data today and in the coming years with some very interesting tidbits along the way.

Entertaining listen

Just a note that the tables being read out loud really isn't that bad. When the first table was read, I laughed and said "oh no" out loud. That was probably the longest and hardest table to follow though. Table I'm referencing here is women's/men's age vs. age of interest FYI.

I thought the listen would be full of tables but there aren't that many. Don't let the fact that there are tables read out loud stop you from listening. It did for me for a few months.