Michael

A bit dry in parts, but very good. Nice mix of non-fiction and horror to be sure!

The book spends more time talking about the point it's about to make than actually making that point, which gets really tiresome after the third time it does that.

The anecdotes all feel forced into the model of behavior the author's constructed, to the point that the book ends up feeling disingenuous. This could and probably should have been a short article or blog post instead of a full book.

It was a bit jarring reading this one so close on the heels of [b:Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment 55339408 Noise A Flaw in Human Judgment Daniel Kahneman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1617709587l/55339408.SY75.jpg 75457218], which while also warning against the issues with large-scale algorithms took a more optimistic view of them. Ultimately while this book introduced a few new examples I hadn't known before (in particular, I loved the discussion about News Week's college rankings), I felt it wasn't adding a lot to the discussion that I was looking for.

You know how sometimes you come up with a much better way of articulating a point in the shower days after you feel like you embarrassed yourself? Almost all the dialogue in this book was essentially the opposite of that.

The book and story continue to be great, but boy is the audiobook narrator rough to sit through.

Also, listening to the book in audio format really highlights how often George R. R. Martin uses the same writing tricks over and over again. Still a great story, plot, world, etc., but a bit of a disappointing read-through.