by vanissadrar | May 21, 2026 | Book Review
The Big Idea: Slot machines are engineered to create addiction—and those same techniques now power smartphones and social media. MIT anthropologist Natasha Dow Schüll spent fifteen years researching the gambling industry in Las Vegas, producing this fascinating and...
by vanissadrar | Mar 13, 2026 | Book Review
The Big Idea: Mathematical models claiming objectivity often encode bias, punish the poor, and threaten democracy—at massive scale. Former Wall Street data scientist Cathy O’Neil delivers a devastating critique of how mathematical models and algorithms, despite...
by vanissadrar | Feb 19, 2026 | Book Review
The Big Idea: Personalization algorithms trap users in bubbles of their own beliefs—often without awareness. Internet activist and political organizer Eli Pariser sounds an alarm about one of the internet’s most insidious features: personalization algorithms...
by vanissadrar | Feb 12, 2026 | Book Review
The Big Idea: Digital technologies create massive wealth, but distribution of that wealth remains deeply problematic. MIT researchers Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee present a compelling analysis of how digital technologies are transforming economics and society...
by vanissadrar | Feb 5, 2026 | Book Review
The Big Idea: Technology follows predictable patterns that can be understood and prepared for. Kevin Kelly, founding executive editor of Wired magazine, presents a fascinating and optimistic vision of the technological future in “The Inevitable.” Rather...
