Affluenza

If you ever begin to feel complacent in life and need a reason to feel guilty, just pick up Affluenza by John De Graaf*. It's not just a book, as it was a PBS documentary before the first edition was printed. I picked up the second edition guilt-free, since somebody gave it to my wife and I to read. We're just trying to make the authors proud. We may even see if we can share the wealth.

The book is not that guilt inducing, unless you have some serious problems. If you have those problems, you probably aren't likely to pick up the book. Even if that's the case, I think it's worth reading. The authors do a decent job of getting their message of decreasing consumption and unnecessary purchases without being overly preachy. The text was easy to follow, making the book easy to digest. Their facts seemed to be in order, though I do question their use of some of their data. It's not one thing in particular, but I perceive with books like this, it's easy to cherry-pick data to support the author's already established conclusions. While I don't have a specific instance, the tone of the book did fit that bill. It's not unusual, since this is not an academic book. It is worth noting. I think that the general conclusions and ideas in the book are reasonable and worth considering.

I liked that the book spent time referencing two other books I own, Culture Jam by Kalle Lasn and Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. Both books center around living simply or at least by minimizing the unnecessary distractions of stuff. Both are worth reading as well, though I would chose Your Money or Your Life first as it's the first personal finance book I've read that actually focuses on making real changes to spending habits. Affluenza pulls from these books effectively and provides a fair endorsement of them.

The one thing that bothered me about the book was their little survey to show how bad your affluenza was. And no, I did not score poorly. I landed in the second group of only being mildly infected. While the authors admit the survey was not scientific by any means, it was a little dorky. Some of the items included on the list didn't work for me, like whether you eat meat once a day, or if you've ever experienced road rage, or do you ignore the mpg of your car. Then there was the scoring system. You were scored out of 100, but there were 50 questions and each question counted as two point. Why not just make the scale 50 or score some questions as more if you aren't going to use the 50-point scale.

On the whole, the book is a good read, but I think that it might be worth it to find the documentary it's based on as well. I have not seen it, but a portion of it is shown below.

* The book as three authors: John De Graaf, David Wann, and Thomas H. Naylor. For space and sanity I will refer to De Graaf as the only author.

The Num3rati (Audiobook)

Stephen Bakers' book entitled The Num3rati is fascinating on many levels, and downright frightening on some others. I honestly don't know if I should be excited or petrified of the future. Baker has done to the world of data mining what Malcolm Gladwell did to blinking. The Num3rati, didn't sell near the number of books, I happened on it by accident. It's an interesting book for sure and it's worth the time invested to reap its contents (whether by reading or by listening). It falls into the same genre of Blink, Outliers, Freakonomics, and The Undercover Economist as it looks at some interesting facets of life in search of the hidden messages.

As I stated above, Baker takes on the task of data mining. In statistical terms, data mining is a bad thing. It's where people have a data-set an look for correlations, any correlation they can find. An example would be linking driving habits to the Zodiac.* In the case of The Num3rati, data mining refers to the collection of data by companies and governments to better understand a given population. The data is collected with a purpose and to answer specific questions, but the process is similar to mining for ore in the actual process of data collection.

Data collection is a key enterprise in the American business culture. We should all be familiar with the saying that "knowledge is power".** Companies expend Billions in better understanding their target populations. It's well worth it, especially when the data allows the company to more easily target their audience. Rather than use the shotgun approach on national TV (very expensive), they can use a sniper approach on specific shows and channels frequented by their targets.*** The ultimate goal is to get sellers and buyers together.

The data collection spans other areas as well. Baker spends a chapter dealing with internet dating, primarily Chemistry.com, which was started by love guru and Purdue professor Helen Fisher. To test out the validity of the algorithm, Baker and his wife set up profiles, just to see if they would get matched up with each other. After a few days, nothing happened. Baker then realized he'd set a parameter that excluded his wife's age group. With that correction, happily they showed up on each other's prospective lists.

Collecting data also comes with some very positive uses. The number-crunchers are finding ways to help people with medical problems. Patients with severe medical conditions can be "watched" by their doctors via electronic equipment that monitors their rhythms and patters of behavior. When the patter is broken unexpectedly, then doctors know that something may be amiss and can intervene immediately. It may be where a patient gets up to pee around a certain time each night.

The Num3rati covers many areas of life and showcases good and bad uses of the collected data. The book is certainly not ground-breaking by any stretch of the imagination, however the information is useful and puts many things into perspective when considering the technology of the day. I found the book worthwhile to read, though not necessarily to own. What is contained in the book will be out of date and it doesn't make a mark the way that Freakonomics did, at least not enough for a follow-up called Super-Num3rati. I definitely recommend it, because is is informative, but save the few bucks and pick it up at the library if you can.

* These are items that have no relationship (aside from the fact that Astrology is crap), but people have made claims that there is a real relationship due to identified correlations. Because the data was not collected for that express purpose and people were merely looking for correlations, it's no surprise they found one. The issue is that when you just mine data for correlations, you're bound to find something, but when the data was not collected in a way as to answer a specific question, the correlations have little meaning.

** Knowledge is not power, though knowledge put to use comes somewhat closer to that reality. All the knowledge in the world does little for you, even if you know about David Letterman's affairs.

*** Targets are a very good description after listening to this book. While Baker doesn't use the term himself, the description of the aims is quite clear. It might not be all bad, but it's certainly isn't all good.

The Sky Is Not the Limit

Neil De Grasse Tyson is the face of Astrophysics in America. He's also the author of several books about astronomy and the director on the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. On top of all that, he hosts Nova Science Now. The Sky Is Not the Limit is a memoir where Tyson chronicles his burgeoning interest in all thing astronomy as a kid to his rise to to a very prestigious position at the Hayden Planetarium.

For the most part, the book is pretty interesting and well written. Tyson certainly has a talent for writing and communicating scientific ideas to the lay person. The book is not heavy on science, but the science that is included is easily understood. Most of the book focuses on Tyson's experiences falling in love with science, Astronomy in particular.

The subtitle for the book is: Adventures of and Urban Astrophysicist. It's certainly an applicable title, as Tyson has lived pretty much his entire life in New York City. From that subtitle, I had wrongly assumed that he'd grown up in a poorer neighborhood. Shame on me for the assumption. As it turns out, Tyson grew up in a relatively well off family, not that he was swimming in cash. It was this upbringing that provided him with landmark experiences such as attending an Astronomy camp in New Mexico and joining an Astronomy Cruise while in high school. Tyson even relates some of his experiences with racial prejudice and the assumptions that a black student couldn't pursue Astrophysics.

As I mentioned, the book is interesting and enjoyable, although the first half of chapter one wasn't that exciting. I almost regretted picking out the book and even considered putting it down. It wasn't so much that it was horribly written, but more that the target audience appeared to be for the junior high age. While I still feel the book is appropriate for that age group, I found it to be reasonable for any age group. In fact, I would recommend this book to anybody, even if you're not interested in Astronomy. I think the book is inspiring and can encourage younger folks to pursue their interests and get passionate about something. I think it can even inspire older adults to renew forgotten interests (I still regret not taking that Astronomy class in college).

The coolest story comes from Tyson's experience applying for college. He'd applied to and been accepted to Cornell and Harvard. At that time, Carl Sagan was teaching at Cornell and invited Tyson to come for a campus visit. Sagan even offered to let Tyson stay at his house, in the event he had trouble getting home after the visit. That left and impression on Tyson and though he ultimately chose Harvard, he's endeavored to follow the example that Sagan provided in being personable with fans and students of Astronomy.

The long and short, it's a worthy read. It's the kind of book I'll encourage my kids to read when they hit junior high and they are trying to figure out what they are interested in.