vikingvisuals's reviews
62 reviews

Sehr lustiges, durchdachtes und unterhaltsames Buch.

This book is a well written and entertaining dive into the background of algorithms and their uses in various areas of life: from crime and justice to art and "autonomous" driving.

It's a good overview and provides some interesting viewpoints, is likely however of somewhat less interest to people more familiar with the field.

I would have perhaps enjoyed a little bit more meat on the bones of the "being human in the age of algorithms". This concept came up only very subtly during the book and was summer up in a few pages at the conclusion, but I would have liked to see some more human aspects and the place of algorithms in our lives.

That is however a very small qualm. Hannah Fry is as entertaining in her book as she is in her videos, really looking forward to any future contributions to the minds of people like me with huge interest in these fields but little technical knowledge to truly absorb some of the fascinating information.

This is a book I would wish to make mandatory reading for everyone. The lessons taught in it are extremely important and are backed by various studies across multiple fields.

One of my favorite aspects of the book is how extremely well versed the author is, not only in his own field but also in many others.

He clearly does a great job avoiding some of the tunnel visioned mistakes he mentions towards the beginning of the book: namely that scientists and researchers in a particular field tend to interpret everything through the lens of their area of expertise. He looks in great detail at the necessary neuroscience to explain behavior, but also looks into various other areas of biological sciences. Furthermore he is not shy to delve into and introduce relevant aspects of anthropology, psychology, and even philosophy. For every idea he introduces, he also considers the relevant criticisms.

All of this makes for a very rich experience and helps drive home the valuable aspects of the book.

Aside from the various lessons of the book I enjoyed the structure and repetition of ideas from previous chapters when and where relevant later on. Not to be underestimated is the wonderful humor he manages to bring even in more dry topics. Gives me the feeling of being back in University with some of my most treasured professors, adding in humor helps a lot in keeping interest.

I can only recommend this book and hope to read it again in the future to keep the ideas as fresh in my mind as possible.

The book was interesting and some of the concepts certainly are wonderful and in some cases the examples he used were very fitting. However the more I read the book the more I felt like it was simply drawing out these concepts rather than truly delving into their effectiveness.

In the end it felt like the book could have been much shorter or better yet the concepts more quickly explained but with more time dedicated to the actual research. Lots of times so much time would be spent expressing an anecdote while a specific study would just be mentioned in one paragraph. Although all studies can certainly be read individually, I am the type of person that learns a lot more about effective strategies when these are backed up and explained through relevant research. This was touched upon and has made me interested in potentially delving further, and I can say that some strategies we're good to be refreshed as I take on my own projects, but I still can't help but feel like there was something missing in the book.

A fascinating and entertaining read focusing on the Viking presence in and influence on England. I really enjoyed the style of Williams' writing. He manages to bring a lot of life into the subject and allows for a more enjoyable, less strictly academic read.

I sometimes found the interludes of purely poetic fancy to distract from the subject and sometimes new chapters felt like jump cuts, but all in all a truly wonderful and informative read, especially with just criticisms of the existing primary sources.

Ein wirklich wichtiges und bewegendes Buch, das ich jedem nur empfehlen kann.

I had a sort of love hate relationship with this book while reading it. On the one hand the advice is good for people like myself that grew up without money and know little about finance, on the other hand his writing style and fratboy like jokes and quips really made it hard for me to enjoy.

I find a lot of what he mentioned could have been boiled down and left in a few paragraphs rather than continuing on for many pages before essentially just repeating the same advice without truly going deeper.

Something I did enjoy though was his more casual demeanor to finances and saving. Not focusing on saving every penny, cutting back on everything, and looking constantly at spreadsheets, but instead having a plan with a simple to follow formula and automated processes to do all the heavy lifting.

Some of the advice I read I hope to use to help my parents through their debt. There is definitely value here, even if the style and commentary was often very off-putting.

Listening to Blaze Foley's music for the first time spellbound me. I developed a close connection instantly with the songs and the man behind them, as well as a sadness when learning of his mortal fate.

Reading this from the very person who got to spend some of the most intimate times with him and retell his legacy as well as her own legend has only deepened the love and connection to the music. I found myself experiencing Depty Dawg as if he was still alive and tortured by heartache once the reality of his fate struck me again.

Beautifully written, truly poetic.