Super Crunchers

Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart

By: Ian Ayres

Narrated by: James Lurie

Why would a casino try and stop you from losing? How can a mathematical formula find your future spouse? Would you know if a statistical analysis blackballed you from a job you wanted?

Today, number crunching affects your life in ways you might never imagine. In this lively and groundbreaking new book, economist Ian Ayres shows how today's best and brightest organizations are analyzing massive databases at lightening speed to provide greater insights into human behavior. They are the Super Crunchers. From internet sites like Google and Amazon that know your tastes better than you do, to a physician's diagnosis and your child's education, to boardrooms and government agencies, this new breed of decision makers are calling the shots. And they are delivering staggeringly accurate results. How can a football coach evaluate a player without ever seeing him play? Want to know whether the price of an airline ticket will go up or down before you buy? How can a formula outpredict wine experts in determining the best vintages? Super crunchers have the answers.

In this brave new world of equation versus expertise, Ayres shows us the benefits and risks, who loses and who wins, and how super crunching can be used to help, not manipulate us. Gone are the days of solely relying on intuition to make decisions. No businessperson, consumer, or student who wants to stay ahead of the curve should make another keystroke without reading Super Crunchers.

©2007 Ian Ayres (P)2007 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"In the past, one could get by on intuition and experience. Times have changed. Today, the name of the game is data. Ian Ayres shows us how and why in this groundbreaking book Super Crunchers. Not only is it fun to read, it just may change the way you think."—Steven D. Levitt, author of Freakonomics

"Data-mining and statistical analysis have suddenly become cool.... Dissecting marketing, politics, and even sports, stuff this complex and important shouldn't be this much fun to read."—Wired

"[Ayres's] thesis is provocative: Complex statistical models could be used to market products more intelligently, craft better movies, and solve health-care problems—if only we could get past our statistics phobia."—Portfolio

It's good not great

This gives couple of good insights but at very high level.
However Other better books are available

Statistics drove me to listen

The 4 out of 5 got me to listen and it was worth it. It gets a little over-the-top near the very end otherwise very interesting. The reported facts are many in the narration and most I didn't know about. I do wish I would have noticed this was an abridged version however the unabridged was only an hour longer so maybe I didn't miss much.

Quant in everyday life

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This book is only of interest if you enjoy learning about numbers and the role they play in our everyday life. Easy Read with no Math in it, just how math effects our lives.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

The change in advertising and medicine as a result of evidence and math.

Have you listened to any of James Lurie’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

zNone

Any additional comments?

This book is a good mix with "Thinking Fast and Slow" by D kahneman. They both address what we think and what the numbers probably are telling us. Sometimes they are not what we think.....

A must read

The world has changed. Data has opened a new door of perception. This book and Freakonomics are the must reads for anyone who wants to understand how the future will be understood.

good, but missing a lot of stuff

The whole approach of the book is descriptive, nothing teaching how to implement any of what he talks about. It's Cool to see what's happening on the field.

I think a chapter about big data, Map reduce and machine learning is missing. These are new and interesting fields that are very popular in todays crunching environment. would be cool if he would cite examples of tools so the reader can do his own crunching.


Well.. th Book is a good read if you're trying to know what it is, not how to do it. And the topics I cited above are things to research for after this book

Essential reading

It is too bad that this has somehow gotten categorized as a "business book". Certainly many of its anecdotes are business oriented, as indeed are many of the applications of supercrunching. But the profound effect that Internet-driven statistical and probability analysis has had on the lives of ordinary people are profound.

To his credit, the book is written for the lay reader. you don't have to be an expert in statistics, and the examples are from everyday life. I was expecting something pretty dry and in fact found his writing quite entertaining.

I felt there was only one omission. It seems pretty clear that business, medical, and other decision making will increasingly be driven by supercrunched statistics. So the author could have spent more time discussing the implications of this. For example, if your physician defaults to software which is generally accepted to make good diagnostic decisions, does this mean that he or she no longer has liability for malpractice? Should a bank loan officer be fired for ignoring an obvious reason for declining a mortgage which wasn't covered by the analytical software? The book could have offered more discussion of these second order consequences.

Data, data everywhere

Great overview of how technology is shaping our world and our understanding.

References to references that reference research

If you have read books that provide insightful information on how statistical data can open your eyes to a hidden reality then I would not recommend this book, inversely if you have never touched a book like freakonomics then this might be a good start, although I would recommend going for Steve's book. The author doesn't actually provide any research of his own, rather spends the entire book referencing others research, puts a narrative around it and puts it forward as a conclusion.