A thought-provoking, if sometimes overreaching, argument for policing new technology.
A debut policy book calls for the regulation of digital technology.
Right at the start of her detailed work, Schmidt lays her cards on the table so readers will know whether or not they fundamentally agree with the pages that follow. When it comes to the vast subject of digital technology and its effects on young people, the author contends that society cannot afford to leave all meaningful regulation in the hands of the tech creators and purveyors. “Placing the responsibility on individual designers to fix these problems through ‘ethics’ is insufficient as a single response, particularly when capitalism is the paradigm they function in,” she writes. “Beyond these individuals, reducing the harms of digital technology is simply too big a challenge for the private sector to address on its own.” Schmidt takes some time to detail the history of governments intervening in order to regulate new technologies—everything from railroads, toys, and appliances to, more pointedly, radio and television. The author then elaborates on key concepts like “pain points” (the specific ways new technology is causing individuals distress, which can often be addressed by redesigning it) and “harms,” which can’t be quickly solved and call for intervention. Readers of such earlier books as Jean Twenge’s 2017 iGen will be familiar with the alarms that Schmidt raises in these pages, worries about tech-augmented problems like “wrongful imprisonments, spread of conspiracy theories, broken familial relationships, addiction to dopamine, the fraying of democracy, and widespread discrimination along racial and gender lines.” The author’s prose is passionate and refreshingly direct—she’s always compassionate and evaluative (and the text is well illustrated by Broadbent and expertly designed). But some readers will be alarmed by the Orwellian undertones to Schmidt’s call for the top-down regulation of what many would consider individual freedom of expression.
A thought-provoking, if sometimes overreaching, argument for policing new technology.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1933820156
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Two Waves Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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