laptak2003/AmazonDataScience huggingface dataset:
I am using this text in a University (American) Data Mining Certification Program.  This book is horrible for learning -- truly dreadful attempt by an obviously disinterested professor.  It does not help that a worthless SW program is used in the course, Weka, which is hardly recognized within the industry.  And for good reason: Weka (termed for some New Zealand bird??) is clunky: the user-interface is poorly designed, the program accepts minimal hyperparameters, and the graphic output is so ugly that you'll wish for ggplot -- or find yourself dumping your output into Excel.  The author is a professor at a New Zealand university, and seems friendly enough, although very flighty at time (visit his Youtube channel for instructions on how to use Weka -- but don't expect a thorough review, and be prepared to skip the first 15 seconds of him playing his horn instrument - dreadful).  I found an alternative Youtube channel of a Data Science Professor in the US who provided far superior Weka instructions.The Book: it has such poor structure that you'll want to throw it against a wall and start over: I did.  The author, for whatever reason determined to break the book into complexity, vs structuring it by method/model (ideal structure might be: Supervised methods in Section I, Unsupervised methods in Section II).  Chapter 3 introduces many DM methods/models (which is appropriate enough), but thereafter he continues with the same structure in the remainder of the text: never creating a section exclusively dedicated to Decision Trees or Regression Models, for example.  The result is that it is very difficult to gain in-depth knowledge of any on particular method.  You'll find yourself going back several chapters to re-learn methods, vs building upon your method knowledge one method at a time.  Perhaps this is done intentionally as Witten seems to enjoy being cryptic and unhelpful in his Youtube videos. It is clear that he and his co-author have not solicited editing reviews from other 'good' authors.The Writing: Imagine a very intelligent Computer Scientist (but very poor - obviously tenured - instructor) recording his own random, unstructured thoughts about a complex topic; to be used by his own University Students.  Get it? Witten's aim in NOT to instruct, but to befuddle and confound his Masters students.  Unless you find yourself at the University of .... Waikado (I think is the name), and in his program, you should really not even go here.  He constantly utilizes the "e.g." reference where unnecessary.  In several critical places in the text, Witten will title a chapter or section with a DM concept (Clustering, for example) but then never provide a sufficient definition of the concept: it's bewildering!  His co-author can be found online (at CS information sites) providing equally cryptic - and often snotty - answers to peoples' legitimate inquiries about how to use Weka.  The arrogance is certainly not warranted!You will spend so much time defining the concepts on your own - via Google searches - that the book becomes an afterthought in your goal of learning Data Mining.Skip this text -- find another if you wish to learn Data Mining.
This book seems to have all the content you need to become well informed about the field of data mining. The issue with this book is the authors are so verbose in their writing style. It takes forever to get into the important concepts and demonstrations. I also I'm not a big fan of limited hands-on/walk-through examples within the book using WEKA. Overall this textbook has good content and is useful but very difficult to read through due to the lengthy and unnecessary writing.
This is a great textbook for the subject, but this edition has some significant typos in it.  The book i received has significant errors in reference to chapters in the book.  For example, the opening to part two of the book references the later chapters all incorrectly.  The book seems to be legit as far as being genuine so i don't think i got a knock-off version.
The book is very comphrensive; it includes practical descriptions and examples for most methods, algorithms, etc. that are common in todayâ€™s world of machine learning.However, the language itâ€™s quite peculiar. The authors seem to use terminology that is very esotericâ€”and not what the majority of practitioners use. It can be very hard to follow.
A very good product!
Seller was great came in such good condition. Worth the price
This is one of the best, well written, instructive books on AI/data mining that I've ever read.  Using their WEKA tool while reading this book is without a doubt an outstanding way to make progress in data mining.
Piece of brick. Too much unnecessary detail.
Very good book for my master's thesis. Easy to understand and read.
First of all, I want to say that I am really enjoying reading this book. It is filled with interesting examples of models based on relatively simple equations. I really appreciate his emphasis on thinking about what the model is telling you and trying to interpret it correctly.Having said that, the book suffers from a somewhat imprecise use of language and sometimes undefined terms. For example, in the chapter on concavity and convexity, he introduces the Cobb--Douglas model, he says: "Output is concave in labor and capital and linear in scale." How can a model based on power-law terms be linear in scale? After some reflection, I think he means there is a constant multiplier in front of the power law terms. But even that is imprecise, because we don't know what that constant depends on and what it scales linearly with. Probably he is trying to avoid getting too far down in the weeds, but sometimes that attempt to gloss over details actually makes his explanation harder than necessary. I think the book could benefit from a thorough review by a technical reader. But these are just nitpicks, really, I'm glad I bought the book and have learned a lot from it.
As a mathematician, I find this book very hard to read. The author has a knack for taking simple ideas and wording the explanation in a complex way. To be honest, at about 20% of the way into the book, I stopped reading since (1) I was not learning much and (2) was spending too much effort to understand the explanations.
It's a big encyclopedia of equations you'll find in systems-based disciplines: whether it's economics, statistics, or operations.What makes the author's approach different is that he qualitatively describes those equations in a very concise manner, using powerful examples that helps you "get it" within seconds.In other words, he makes complicated academic theory and equations accessible to the layperson.Well done. Highly recommended.
It is relevant to have a conceptual framework of thinking to use in problem solving.Different Models of thinking are beneficial in fine tuning your own Model of thinking.This  is why this dissertation on different Models of thinking is soooo useful in developing a diversified methodolgy  of thinking;this is where the Power of creative thinking resides!!
Well written, very crafted design in the structure, carefully balanced between math formulas, intuition insight, and practical applications. Very unique in its kind.
Having a background is economics will make this book more enjoyable. Took me back to undergrad. This book definitely has traces of being a textbook.
The  concepts discussed are fascinating. This is a very impressive work. Unfortunately most of it is beyond my level of useful comprehension
no specific comments
Thank you...what a thought provoking gem!
This book helps put personal concepts into words. Very helpful in visualizing/differentiating the numerous overlapping factors that we unconsciously incorporate into our working models.
I took the online course Model Thinking by this author at the coursera web site.  I passed the course and loved it. I did not buy this book (yet) but I skimmed through the online preview.  Book seems identical -- except in two critical aspects -- to the course:  It's most likely easier and faster to reach a level of proficiency in this material by listening watching the lectures of Dr Page present this in his course videos.  Also, the author developed quizzes which are not in the book it seems, and you will master the material better by solving all his quiz questions.  So, both easier and more mastery will happen if you take his course of the same name.  But if you can't take the course, the book is the next  best thing.  The book is also useful as a nice collection to read and reference, when you cannot watch his videos.Model Thinking is a great online course (and book) (one of the best online courses I've ever taken) at the level of college-bound senior high school students, through undergraduate college students, or anyone else who likes to be a tiny bit analytical. It's great stuff, and I wish I had had access to this material the summer before starting college.  Recommended!
Scott Page is a political scientist, but he's perhaps become best known as an advocate of social science models. This book is a great guide to models, why they're useful, and how that can help in your work. The models range from relatively simple game theoretic concepts and collective action problems to Markov chains and networks. Page manages to make all of this accessible to readers without dumbing the concepts down. This is one of those books that you might read through once, but will probably better serve you as a reference book you'll consult every once in a while if and when you encounter new problems. Recommended for anyone dealing with data professionally.[Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review]
The author provides the reader with a nice summary of useful models, yet the delivery of the material is a bit cluttered and lacks continuity. It is dreadful to read in one sitting, and lacks enough rigor to be particularly interesting from a technical perspective. I am unsure what the authorâ€™s intentions were when writing the book; it is a survey of certain models without developing a strong technical foundation and is not a light enough read to make the text enjoyable. I believe it could be a useful resource for those looking to expose themselves to new models, but the authorâ€™s delivery makes it a battle to put the time in to gain that exposure.
In this well-organized and well-edited book, Page clearly demonstrates why his course in Coursera is a hugely popular one.  Anyone who has to deal with (or would like a more formal approach for thinking about) strategy, policy, processes, or systems will significantly benefit from this book.  One could argue that the models presented are not new - and thats true; what is beneficial to the reader is the well-orchestrated progression of types of models and their assumptions, structure, limitations and examples.Page first makes a well-reasoned plea in favor of approaching any problem with a diverse set of models - each have various assumptions and may therefore implicitly capture (or discard) certain aspects of the system.  After motivating the reader with basics of distributions, Page covers an extensive range of models  ( a glimpse of the table of contents is sufficient for a potential reader to understand that various modeling techniques and learning mechanisms are covered).  Page uses a variety of examples drawn from various domains, though skewed to policy/social sciences.  The common theme is mostly "think strategically, in a tractable, explainable way'.  The earlier chapters discussing aspects of a model in itself is a useful discussion.  The book's organization largely follows his approach in his online course â€“ a â€œvisit to the zooâ€ - the order in which you visit the exhibits is not that crtitical  (nor is this is a book to be necessarily read linearly).While the editing of the book is excellent (no extraneous information, fillers), the book is essentially a text book or a reference source.  A student in engineering, political sciences, business/management and any practitioner in these fields will benefit from this book. Most of the content (if not all) is available for free in slightly different formats via his course.  However, the utility of having a well-produced book that one can leaf through and pick models to investigate is a huge bonus. There are some changes that makes the content more streamlined too.  One wishes there were more examples or challenges to the reader as a "homework'.  Nevertheless, this is a must-have book for any one interested in modeling strategic and operational decisions and informatics/machine learning students.(Review Based on an ARC via NetGalley)
I have been waiting for this book for 20 years.  Too often, leaders of businesses and nonprofits are unaware of the many ways of seeing the world, of using different lenses.  The book is not just about data and (clearly described, intuitive) math, it is about thinking logically and better understanding every aspect of the world.  It should go beside Lars Skyttner's book on Systems Theory and the books Turning Numbers into Knowledge and Data Science for Business on the thinking person's bookshelf.  It is never too late to exercise your brain!
First of all, I bought this book thinking it was about far more complex models. I even have a hard time thinking of the models covered in this book as models, but rather as formulas, and mostly short ones at that. I did a little research and sure enough they are. A lot of work went into this book and it covers a lot of territory. Page warns us that most, if not all, of the formulas, excuse me, models, look at their subjects at a surface level and require a good deal more complexity to be really helpful. Instead, he recommends multi-modeling to gain more perspective. In other words, one over- simplified model isnâ€™t as good as many over-simplified models. Iâ€™m not so sure. I think his most valuable advice is to use the modelling process as a step in the decision-making process, producing information that can inform a thoughtful decision making exercise. My experience is that this is true even with complex models. I know that game theory is very popular, but I found the discussion, not because of Page, to leave me wondering about their real value. I think the chapter on auctions could have been left out. The motivations of bidders, and sometimes those that hold auctions, is so complex that, in my opinion, it defies modelling.
the most important thing to know about this 'textbook-like' work is that it takes the 'many model/ensemble' approach very, very seriously and pushes readers hard to think through the fundamentals of how they want to get value from their data....that said, page does an excellent job of addressing/describing those fundamentals....speaking as someone whose exposure to 'model building' came from horribly taught 'econometrics' classes and computationally-intensive engineering classes, i think page's approach far better than what i see in most university econ/engineering curricula.....and, honestly, this would be a terrific text for aspiring MBAs/execMBAs with 'equation-free' educations.....
Great book for anyone to read. You might also consider taking the MOOC Modeling Thinking course -- the two go really well together!
The author quotes Einsteinâ€™s saying â€œthings should be made as simple as possible, but not simplerâ€. Perhaps one reason one shouldnâ€™t is that when you make something too simple it becomes more complicated-the threads that holding it together disintegrate and you are left with a bunch of pieces. Thatâ€™s how this book reads to me, like a collection of bullet points and examples without much narrative thrust to hold them together other than the author saying, in essence, these things belong together.My other gripe with the book is that I donâ€™t feel that stating that mental models exist is that radical. I think itâ€™s not something all of us already tacitly understand, but many fields even state that different models exist to glean different information, as in psychology where you employ different â€œperspectivesâ€.Instead of being a meaningful journey through model thinking, the book seems more a litany of examples and definitions. This is sad, because I think what the author set out to write could be wonderful. Maybe he just employed the wrong models.
At first I thought this was an odd, over the top skim that lacked real meat.  But as the author surveys more methods and starts to contrast them, the book turns into a sort of dictionary of models.  It can serve as an important reference to anyone who builds models, especially as a source of alternatives, ways to branch out and look at your data in a new way, to see the strengths and limitations of methods you may be using -- or intend to use -- as defaults.  The coverage is so broad, that even veterans may find new perspectives.
Overall itâ€™s an interesting book on how not to rely on a single model but multiple models during analysis. The book is a primer on data science providing multiple techniques to analyse your data.Some parts felt repetitive while others felt like the author stepped outside his expertise. For example his view on financial bailout. The author argued that allowing AIG and other big banks to fail would be catastrophic while allowing Lehman wouldnâ€™t. Has it occurred to him that Hank Paulson the architect behind the bailout was ex Goldman and was it coincidental that Merrill, Bear Stearns and Lehman, Goldman competitors would be allowed to fail? Also, regarding AIG profitable investment, isnâ€™t it odd that a supposedly government profitable investment also reported losses and hasnâ€™t met expectations ever since? My advice to the author is stick to what you do best, if you want to cover other subject, write another book.
Iâ€™ve been a huge fan of the author.  I watched several of his lecture series on Coursera and The Great Courses.  The man is a genius.  And this book opened my eyes to a whole new way of looking at the world.  A must read.
Not sure if the author or editor gets credit but here is a book that does everything right.  Introductions, conclusions, and appropriate illustrations.  This is not my field so cannot criticize the discussion of models but feels correct.  There are other books that have the reader in mind but tend to be self-help or investing genres.  Here is a serious topic treated in an organized, clear, and relatively succinct manner.  My vote for non-fiction book of the year.  My guess is that it wasn't harder, more expensive or more difficult than the 300 page hide and seek  tomes.  Congratulations to Scott Page and Hatchette Books.
Great teachers can explain complex concepts in a way that even dummies like me can understand.This is an important book for anyone who wishes to become a more lucid, independent thinker. All this talk of Fake News makes us feel like we have to take hold of one side or the other haphazardly. This book (and the accompanying course) is about taking time to think through problems from multiple angles.I really enjoyed Dr Pageâ€™s FREE COURSE on Coursera (Model Thinking). I decided to buy the book as a result. Despite taking the course, I found the book a bit challenging. The formulas are a bit intimidating.I am going back and watching the videos again as I read it.
I'm a data analyst and I found this book SO helpful. It's a good refresher for some basic logic and statistics, but it is also helping me to articulate more complex ideas and brainstorm models and data stories!
The book reviews about a hundred models, that analyze how rational beings should behave in various situations. A few of these models have some practical implications. Many formulas and the pictures are not readable in the Kindle version.
Don't expect to be able to instantly recall and implement the wide range of models on display here. A fascinating tour and good reference book.
Excellent book that has practical use.It covers many great topics and models for dealing with complex systems, such as convexity, game theory, network models, etc.Well worth a read and as a reference for future work.
An enjoyable read. My only complaint is that the axes on the graphs arenâ€™t properly labeled. The graphs are always fully explained in the text, but it would be much simpler to just be able to look at and interpret the graph without having to read further to know what it is trying to tell you.
If you are a fan of Nassim Nicholas Taleb, this book will help you apply his message in practical applications. This book is pretty academic, so be prepared to spend some time thinking and studying.
Great title, but not a readable book. Very disappointing
The book really should spend more in explaining loading data.dump for complete newbie like me.WARNING: pgadmin won't simply load dump file. Instead, you should do the following:In Win10 cmd line:cd /d d:\PostgreSQL\binpsql -U postgres -d sqlda -f D:\data.dump.txt
I recently entered into a new job where our database was immensely more complicated than any others I've worked with. This book really helped me generate the necessary queries I needed to be able to properly grab, display and analyze the relevant data. It also has very useful section on the types of statistical analysis you can use on the data that you capture, which has been a rich resource for me. I would recommended this book to anyone wanting to learn SQL for data analytics/data science, but also as a great reference to the more experienced user.
As a beginner to SQL, this book was surprisingly easy to comprehend. The authorâ€™s tone was almost jovial, which you donâ€™t find very often from data nerds. Canâ€™t wait for the SeQueL!
I needed to pick up SQL for my new job. Picked this book up because of its analytics focus. It did not disappoint. I learned how to write basic SQL and how to use more advanced features like window functions. Still making my way through the book, but I've already applied some stuff at work. Would recommend.
The book itself if very helpful BUT I strongly encourage the authors to take time to revise the Index when it is printed again.  The Index is near to useless.  We get reference books like this to learn the details of code and to look up questions as we are working with the code.  This involves referring to the Index.  It seems that creating the Index was rushed - perhaps the authors created it themselves instead of having someone who knew what they were doing create it?  In any case, you find something like the word "Select" and then 42 (!) pages or page combinations where this word appears.  Did that help?  Not at all, unless you want to look through 42 different page references.  As a matter of fact, the entire Index is only 4 pages total which should say something in itself.  Other than this, I think the book will be helpful BUT I need a decent Index to get the most use out of it.  I will essentially have to recreate it myself so that I can find key terms when needed.
I bought the book specifically because I was starting an SQL heavy job opportunity and had very little sql experience. The book is very well organized so you can use it as a reference or you can read through it cover-cover and get value both ways. Definitely a good text to have available because the writing isnâ€™t dense and the examples are practical, highly recommend.
Hello,I got this book about a week ago and it seems to be a good book to learn SQL. I've been following the instruction in the book to load the data.dump file from a command line but this is not working for me. I don't know if there is something I wasn't doing right but any information or tip on how to do this will be much appreciated. Thanks.
I needed to learn SQL as I currently use Looker at work, and having some knowledge of SQL helps in using that. I learned a lot about not only how the SQL language works, but also how to perform basic statistical analysis in SQL. Highly recommended!
If you are looking for a book that will help you get up and running with the basics of SQL, or a seasoned professional who wants to gain a deeper understanding of how SQL can be harnessed to extract in-depth insights from large sets of data, I highly recommend this book. As a Data Scientist, I often do a lot of processing of data extraction from a SQL database. This book has helped me to streamline my workflow through allowing my to shift a bulk of the processing upstream with the aid of the concepts I learned in this engaging read on one of the most ubiquitous frameworks in the industry.
A nice book for learning SQL. Simple to follow along, and plenty of examples, making it easy to understand. The case study at the end was also a nice touch. Overall, a great purchase.
The authors were kind enough to put the entire text of this book online for free, but if you use it for a study group as we did, it is good to have a printed copy.  Also good to have a digital copy, as you can follow through the links by clicking on them.  You may want to do the data challenge in chapter 4, especially if you enjoy working with R code, but you don't need that to benefit.  The main idea is an "epicycle" of A. set expectations B. Collect data C. revise expectations that is applied at each level of data thinking, gathering, analysis, and communication.  Definitely read the Peng and Leek paper cited in the book, "What is the Question".
An easy to read (and understand) introduction introduce to the data analysis workflow. This should be required reading for learners and new practitioners alike. The only shortcoming of this book is the lack of a more thorough treatment, by way of a detailed example, of a fully worked data analysis project.
Excellent book for data science beginers. Covers the general process of the data analysis in a very clear way
Not as intuitive as it could be.
I just love this book.
Thomas Sowell's latest book is an excellent, short and concise summary of his life's work and is highly recommended for those who like to read economics to find out why people do things and the vast array of factors and variables involved in these doings. Best of all he writes simply and methodically like a consummate prosecutor presenting a case that even a layman jury will understand.Generally his two main points are, 1) that people are fond of coming up with all sorts of ideas to attribute the inequalities and differences within society to (genetics and discrimination being the most common), but that actual experiments to test and examine the empirical evidence are sadly lacking (with the results often unwelcome when occasionally done), and 2) that while American culture has been resilient and adaptive, and generally making social progress steadily if sometimes in fits and starts, the mid 1960's was the turning point (both in America and Western Europe) when civility (general manners and politeness) began a sharp decline.The reasons for this decline make up a lot of Sowell's other research and writings (which focus on the varieties of cultures around the world and the conflict of visions that results as they interact, especially the vision of the anointed do-gooders), but it's easy enough to summarize generally as a break down of the dominant traditional (civilized) cultural values - a dilution you could say by inferior values (immature, primitive, uneducated), and the unintended consequences of a society increasingly concerned with tolerance, inclusiveness and multiculturalism; with a greater sensitivity to honoring individual's feelings leading to a general acceptance of doing your own thing - without regard to its impact on others.It's all very simple yet sobering stuff!Having been raised in that sometimes harsh and conventional older moral standard I can see how these inferior values (and ideals of freedom) infected and affected my own life, opened up new horizons, but also brought their own challenges. I can also see how these challenges are even more intense for young people today as they're not even sure what those old foundations are... This is a great book to get an idea of what's been lost, and how and why it happened.
"Why are there such disparities?  In some cases, we can trace the reasons, but in other cases we cannot.  A more fundamental question, however, is: Why should anyone have ever expected equality in the first place? Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that not only every racial or ethnic group, but even every single individual in the entire world, has identical genetic potential.  If it is possible to be even more extreme, let us assume that we all behave like saints toward one another.  Would that produce equality of results? Of course not.  Real income consists of output and output depends on inputs.  These inputs are almost never equal-- or even close to being equal."Race, Culture and Equality by Thomas SowellOne of the biggest issues of our time across nearly every discipline and/or political/social issue is that of presupposing a cause based solely on statistical outcomes or polls. It turns out these presuppositions are massively unreliable and can result in agendas and policy decisions that hurt the very people who are trying to be helped. "Potential" and "opportunity" do not result in outcomes. They only provide the ABILITY for an outcome to be achieved not a guarantee of an outcome itself.I appreciate the books candor and the author's detachment from the emotion of these issues. You can see that he is genuinely interested in getting to the bottom of the disparities that plague our society. The evidence is sweeping and nearly universal across nature, history, countries, races, religions, and any other group you can define. To expect "equality" in outcome is to not expect any semblance of reality.To gain the most from this book you will need to approach it with humility. There is something to be learned from both sides of many of these issues. With that can come cooperation and true change that will genuinely help people. It far too easy to victimize people or create groups and labels without any regard to what is REALLY going on. What we ought to work to address is what is really going on behind the issues not just the superficial headline driven outcomes.
This is a brilliant Thomas Sowell book (from the quality Basic Books imprint), and the whole thing can be read through in a few hours.It has parts of several other books, and that's fine. So much of what he writes is so profound and of such high quality that it can just be rearranged to write new books.1.Â Knowledge And Decisions. Rehash of the types of decision making units there are.2.Â Cultures. Rehash of specific performance outcomes of different races of people across time and space.3.Â The Quest for Cosmic Justice. Settling past grievances is not an acceptable basis for public policy.4.Â Black Rednecks and White Liberals. Acculturated blacks from the North are not quite the same thing as the ones from the South--even though they are both coincidentally black.It is not quite accurate to say that this is ALL old wine in new bottles, because he does add several things.1. He is a VORACIOUS reader, and he updates the book with writings by the current generation of black intellectuals. He spends a couple of pages on John McWhorter's silly bookÂ Talking Back, Talking Black: Truths About America's Lingua Franca. He also talks a bit about William Julius Wilson.2. He develops this concept of discrimination, and he clarifies between Discrimination Ia/b and Discrimination II. The second is what you do because of racial animosity and the first (a) is going through each thing on a case by case basis. The first (b) is using traits as a rough proxy for something that you do want.3. He develops the concept of how employers will not locate their businesses near minority populations if the government is too aggressive in pressing anti-discrimination claims. (p. 75). He has noted that Japanese companies specifically do not locate their factories anywhere near too many black people. (And that would make sense to explain things that I have seen as a truck driver. They also locate their plants in rural Canada-- far away from city centers and in depressed areas.)4. There is discussion of the nature of disparities. One would assume that abilities would give a Gaussian distribution allocation of resources. But, in fact, they do not. (He notes that 200 PGA Tournaments were won by three men.)  Something like if 2/3 of all people had each type of 5 abilities (most people), then the chance of finding someone with all 5 abilities would be (2/3)^5=13.2% of people would have all 5. And then 87% would not.Verdict: Worth the time. Worth the money. Worth sharing with a friend.
A lot of reviewers use the term "must read."  I'll echo that term for this book but not necessarily for the general reader.  Instead, this should be required reading for all of our government representatives with the hope that they just might absorb a fraction of the common sense exhibited by Sowell.  The entirety of this book can be summed up by one line that appears on page 100 -- "There has never been a shortage of people eager to draw up blueprints for running other people's lives."  Thomas Sowell's approach to societal problems bears a striking resemblance to another great author -- Walter Williams.  Both authors are worth reading.
So important to the positive advancemt of our society... great read.
Easy to read, bristling with empirical evidence, and wound together with sound reason, Thomas Sowell's "Discrimination and Disparities" is a must-read for anyone interested in racism and racial disparities. Why do we see disparities among individuals, groups, and nations? Absent discrimination, should we expect similar outcomes or should we not? Sowell takes these questions head on, rejecting the popular idea that the mere presence of a disparity implies a causal factor of discrimination.Why are fouls called on blacks more often than on whites in the NBA? Is this discrimination? Or could it be that there are more blacks in the NBA than whites, or that blacks--being overrepresented among star players--get more playing time? Why are Asian Americans underrepresented in the NBA? Is this discrimination? Or could it be that Asian American youth are generally less interested in basketball than their African American peers.Sowell argues that many morally neutral factors such as geographic settings, demographic makeup, and cultural differences play significant causal roles in the rise and fall of individuals, groups, and nations. Meanwhile, these morally neutral factors are often ignored in preference to those that excite moral outrage, be they significant factors or not.
No shady dealings are at work in most economic disparities between people, nor especially between groups.Thomas Sowell explores the impact of prerequisites on probabilities: meeting only 4 out of 5 prerequisites generally means failure.  And, we canâ€™t always determine what the prerequisites are in the present time; it requires a look-back.  He gives a good example in golf, but examples abound in peak achievements across many fields.  Many people participate, but very few people win a PGA tournament.  He also points out that people (or societies) may turn away from a prerequisite, rejecting it for political or moral reasons, which can have consequences for generations to come.As humans, we have a flawed perception of probabilities.  This is the source of the desire of some people to â€fixâ€ perceived disparities.Sowell guides the reader through the statistical disparities that apply to birth order within the exact same family.  Birth order differences are large even among siblings with the same parents and the same home environment.  There is no statistical basis for comparing children raised in differing circumstances or whose parents have differing goals and priorities. Sowellâ€™s next example demonstrates the folly of complaining that different areas around the planet have developed different economies: compare the diversity of species in the Amazon rain forest to that of the British Isles.  Now do timber or iron or rain.  Environmental resources are not distributed equally around the planet, and people raised where an environmental prerequisite does not exist are not going to have the same outcomes.Another major theme of the book is that present political agendas distort our knowledge of the past.  One obvious example is the history of slavery and the history of its abolition in the West (221-222).  â€œSocial Justiceâ€ is a divisive tactic for reviving social dissensions and animosity.Sowell gives some examples of word substitutions that are used to mask reality:â€œChangeâ€ = change our betters likeâ€œDiversityâ€ = balkanizedâ€œthe Homelessâ€ = vagrantsâ€œPrivilegeâ€ = achievement (ex ante/ex post fallacies)â€œPublicâ€ = governmentâ€œSocial Justiceâ€ = using force to preempt personal choiceâ€œViolenceâ€ = social problems â€“ justifies lawlessness and social disorderâ€œYouthsâ€ = exultant thugsRead also: David Greenbergâ€™s book on Coolidge; Walter Williamsâ€™ â€œSouth Africaâ€™s War Against Capitalismâ€
Thomas Sowell is the foremost writer of our generation on issues related to discrimination. In this volume, he addresses the types of discrimination (the overwhelmingly "good" form and the occasional "bad" form). He focuses on the cost of discrimination - costs borne by business owners as well as those who are victims of Type 2 discrimination. He points out, as he has in previous works, that discrimination has always been most rampant in industries that don't compete in an open market (not-for-profits, regulated monopolies, and government employment) because those who discriminate face no economic consequences in those industries. By contrast, for-profit companies always fear costs if they actively practice arbitrary discrimination against classes of individuals.And he makes some important points about how society perpetuates discrimination. Example: Many people want to "protect" black men by making it illegal for employers to conduct criminal background checks or ask questions in the application process about convictions or jail time. Yet when these activities are applied to all applicants, the number of black men employed actually increases. Why? Information has a cost. When the cost of the information is prohibitive or gathering information is illegal, owners and hiring managers (rightly) apply group characteristics to individual applicants. In this case, a far higher percentage of young black men than young white men have been incarcerated. When employers can gather information on individual applicants, the group characteristics are no longer applied and applicants are evaluated as individuals.Sowell writes about how government officials perpetuated Jim Crow and apartheid policies because they faced no economic consequences for advancing discriminatory policies, while at the same time business owners were rampantly ignoring those laws because applying them would hurt the owners economically. In the decades leading up to the second civil rights movement in the 1960s, public and private transit companies in the South largely ignored seating segregation because it was costly. Only when politicians demanded that they follow the law did they actively engage in separate seating. And the famous Plessy v. Ferguson case, in which a (one-eighth) black man sat in a white train care in New Orleans? That suit was brought by the rail company, which didn't want to have separate cars for whites and blacks because it was costly to do so. Politicians, who didn't face those economic costs, enacted the policy.If you haven't read Sowell, you can't really understand the full scope of good and bad discrimination. Read his work, including this latest volume. You may not change your mind about the right policy prescriptions, but at least you'll understand the issues far more thoroughly.
Sowell does it again.  A fact based and detailed review of how discrimination is not always the product of what we might think.  Sowell destroys myths and popular theories with evidence, not sophism.
This is a book anyone should read, UNLESS, you've already read a lot of other Thomas Sowell. He does tend to repeat himself quite a bit. There is little new in this book, besides a very small section where he defines three different types of discrimination, at least one of them rational which is when the party has to come to a conclusion and where time is constrained. I would have given this 5 stars if it 85% of this book didn't seem like (good) things that I've seen him write about elsewhere! He is one of my favorite authors, and you can't really go wrong no matter which of his books you choose to read.
This is a great little book that uncovers numerous problems with government trying to fix 'social ills'. Sowell describes Discrimination Ia/1b versus Discrimination II, where Ia is the ideal type where choices are made based on individuals, Ib is the less than ideal where choices are made for individuals based on legitimate group actions, and II is the common derogatory use of the term where choices are made on irrational collectivist premises. He points out the importance of costs when different forms of discrimination are applied and provides several examples where government policies aimed to combat the bad type of discrimination actually contribute more harm than good.Another valuable aspect covered is the natural differences that occur between groups and the futility of trying to fix these from a third part perspective. He uses the advantages displayed by first born children as an example. He also ties all of this in to another critical point, which is the misleading nature of statistics and how they can lead to wildly different results based on the slight altercation of minor variables or leaving certain variables out. He concretizes the common belief that statistics can be used to justify whatever belief you want them to if they are properly 'massaged' prior to utilizing them. He uses this to demonstrate common fallacious arguments relating to race and low income neighborhoods.The underlying theme of the book is the error in giving government the power to try and fix these problems. He shows how there is far more to these problems than either people using discrimination (type II) or due to genes, which are the two pervasive perceived root causes.This is a short, erudite book that covers the surface of the problematic way liberals approach social issues. He leaves it up to the reader to determine the deeper psychological causes of these actions and only hints at the inevitable destructive outcomes of such tendencies. Well worth the read.
The fact that I am 30 and until recently had never heard of Thomas Sowell is yet another testament to how broken the education system is. There is a twitter account out there that only tweets quotes from Sowell, and every one of them is worth writing down and reflecting on. In a world that doesnâ€™t put truth first, the facts and discourse offered in this book is both refreshing and needed.  You can bet my children will be ardent readers of Thomas Sowell.
I just don't understand it..The guy is a solid  researcher and an asset to the Black community....Iv'e purchased second hand copies of his hardbacks , in many cases they look like they were NEVER read... even coming from public libraries.Unfortunately I think his message and research is NOT wanted, because it Undercuts MANY of the left-wing liberal views  that pervade the thinking of our world.
Juxtaposing â€œEvictedâ€ by Desmond with â€œDiscrimination and Disparitiesâ€ by SowellThis reviewer recently read: â€œEvicted: â€¦â€ by Desmond and followed by reading â€œDiscrimination and Disparitiesâ€ by Sowell. Both are insightful to read about problems of discrimination and suggested methods of solution. Desmondâ€™s well done collection of facts and anecdotes of the poor leads to an epilogue with suggestion of how government intervention could improve if not solve the problems of poverty. Sowell, in contrast, notwithstanding some minor errata or oversimplification argues strongly (with insightful examples) for less heavy-handed government intervention and more individual self-organizing and incremental improvements that overtime provide long term solutions of lasting value. Both books are worth reading to understand the problems and the possible solutions for society.
This is an amazing book. In it, the author makes it clear that disparities are part of life - not necessarily due to one's race (genetic determinism) or racism (the more common explanation today).The most important chapter - or at least the one that will hit home - is Chapter 6, "Social Visions and Human Consequences." While the concept of explaining disparities by claiming discrimination seems harmless on paper, the results it has on a given community are devastating, and the author cites examples to pass his point across, something that makes the chapter an all the more disturbing - but very important - read.As much as the writer focuses mostly on America and Britain (and the West in general), most of the insights apply here in Africa.Highly recommended.
A fascinating look at factors of discrimination and the reality of disparities. Thomas Sowell is one of the most undervalued intellectuals of our time and is a massive inspiration to common sense and clarity of complex issues. Politics is simply war without direct violent action- it is still violent but far more indirect and deceptive. Issues such as discrimination and disparities are realities in some sense, but true weapons of this war on a more fundamental sense. Where would politicians be if they did not have discrimination and disparities to throw at the masses and claim self-righteous virtue? Sowell brings in the facts and figures that shows a truth many do not wish to acknowledge or accept. If you are on a hard political side, this book will never be read or purchased so nothing can be said that would persuade or convince its merits. If you are on the other end, it will simply affirm beliefs that are generally already held. If you are in the middle (which is most of us) it gives a great deal of insights and is essentially a launch pad to get up and validate and verify some basic truths. You may not agree with things Sowell claims, but you can check them for yourself; and if you are intellectually honest admit that many of the things taught to us is public school and university are suspect at best and criminally dishonest at worst. But hey... its just politics.......
As a college student, I was required to write an essay in my english class about racism and classism. The class only only provided data and articles that talk about the loverty rates by race, and I used this book to gather data that sheds light on the bigger picture.If anything I hope the students who have to peer review my essay decide to read this book!
Incredible in so many ways:  this book is so beyond "politically correct," it's almost as if it didn't know that concept exists!  The result is an eye-opening, mind-opening, thought provoking treatise that with beautifully lucid, succinct prose and an abundance of data-driven support, demolishes the sentiment-based, subjective philosophies that have informed so much policy making over the last 50 years to such significant detriment, however well-intentioned.  Indeed, this book could be subtitled, "The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions."Rarely have I come across a more persuasive endorsement for the power and potential of the individual, regardless of his or her "circumstances," to be master of one's destiny.  That the author has dedicated his time, trouble, and talent to get this book published is a serious gift to anyone who will read this vitally important work.
Once again Sowell has brought clarity to a contentious issue. Defining and categorizing the various types of discrimination is an absolute requirement if one professes to start an intellectually honest discussion. But as we know, that isn't why people bring up discrimination. They discuss discrimination and the resulting disparities only to receive transfer payments or for political advantage. Pity. This is a beautiful piece of objectivity and logic. The conclusions in any discussion of this topic will never lead to improving race relations if the race pimps get their way.