The Eye Test, Chris Jones
The Eye Test, Chris Jones
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
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The Eye Test
A Case for Human Creativity in the Age of Analytics

Author: Chris Jones

Narrator: Chris Jones

Unabridged: 8 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Twelve

Published: 01/11/2022


Synopsis

In a world increasingly ruled by numbers and algorithms, award-winning journalist Chris Jones makes a compelling case for a more personal approach to analytical thinking​.THE EYE TEST is a necessary course correction, a call for a more balanced, personal approach to problem-solving. Award-winning journalist Chris Jones makes the case for the human element—for what smart, practiced, devoted people can bring to situations that have proved resistant to analytics. Jones shares what he’s learned from an army of extraordinary talents, including some of the best doctors, executives, athletes, meteorologists, magicians, designers, astrophysicists, and detectives in the world. There are lessons in their mastery.Of course, there is a place for numbers in decision-making. No baseball player should be judged by his jawline. But the analytics revolution sparked by Michael Lewis’s Moneyball now threatens to replace one kind of absurdity with another. We have developed a blind faith in the machine, the way a driver overly reliant on his GPS might be led off the edge of a cliff. Not all statistical analysis is sound. Algorithms aren’t infallible, and spreadsheets aren’t testaments. Trust in them too much, and they risk becoming instruments of destruction rather than understanding.Worse, data’s supremacy in our daily lives has led to a dangerous strain of anti-expertise: the belief that every problem is a math problem, and anyone given access to the right information will find the right answer. That taste doesn’t matter, experience doesn’t matter, creativity doesn’t matter. That we can’t believe our eyes, no matter how much they’ve seen. THE EYE TEST serves as a reminder that if beauty is less of a virtue in the age of analytics, a good eye still is. This book is a celebration of our greatest beholders—and an absorbing, inspiring guide for how you might become one, too.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Susan's Reviews on May 09, 2022

Can an algorithm accurately predict the success of a creative production? I found the various anecdotes about the movers and shakers in our creative industries very entertaining. Of course - in these modern times - there is an algorithm to predict the success of just about anything. Jones makes the ca......more

Goodreads review by Matt on February 11, 2022

I'm not sure if story-driven journalism was the best way to make the case described in the subtitle. Each chapter offers multiple examples of people who used their own trained eyes or their own intuitions to outdo the algorithms that might have otherwise held authority. But the compilation of storie......more

Goodreads review by Lisa on February 11, 2022

It was an interesting topic and had some interesting stories, but a bit scattered. The topics of which I have some knowledge showed a lack of depth. Makes me wonder about the topics with which I am less familiar.......more

Goodreads review by Tom on March 10, 2022

I now know what a book would look like if the Rain Man wrote it. This seemed to be a compilation of disparate stories that I could not tie a string to. I moved the score up to 3 stars due to the excellent footnotes.......more

Goodreads review by Zach on June 05, 2022

Right now, we seem to be living in a culture that trends towards the "by the numbers" approach. From medicine to Wall Street to Major League Baseball, the human element of decisions or transactions is often pushed aside for the statistical analysis. In "The Eye Test", author Chris Jones makes a case......more


Quotes

“If you’re worried that data are replacing human judgment instead of informing it, you’re going to love this book. If you’re confident that data from the past can always predict the future, you desperately need to read this book. With convincing arguments and delightful writing, Chris Jones makes the case for putting people back in the analytics equation.”—Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of THINK AGAIN and host of the TED podcast, "WorkLife"

"This is the rare book that will alter the way you perceive the world. It's a story, an argument, a manifesto even: a prayer for a more kind, more creative, more empathetic world. Chris Jones is writing about the human race paused at a fork in the road, and he puts us at that fork with our brothers and sisters. And so, finally, and perhaps most of all, THE EYE TEST serves as a map, out of this artificial mechanical wilderness and back to the flickering light of ourselves."—Wright Thompson, New York Times bestselling author of PAPPYLAND and THE COST OF THESE DREAMS

“Extremes are rarely a good thing—in politics, sports, or our culture. Chris Jones knows that, offering a nuanced argument that while analytics are all the rage, there isn’t any sort of mathematical equation to ensure success.”—Chris Cillizza, host of CNN's "The Point"

"THE EYE TEST is brilliant, fun, and incredibly insightful—a must-read for anyone who wants to rediscover the power and promise of human creativity and intuition in our algorithm-ruled age.”—Daniel Coyle, author of THE CULTURE CODE

“Chris Jones is a marvelous storyteller who brings the ‘heartbeat’ back into understanding the wonders of the world. THE EYE TEST is the perfect guide to what role our own expertise and intuition tells us about deciphering the numbers. Chris Jones has written a playfully profound book that well passes its own eye test. It’s a book that my sport could use in marrying math with feel, instinct with matrices, and creating a balance that encourages a blend with new and old alike—for me, the only way to process the day.”—Joe Maddon, manager, Los Angeles Angels

"THE EYE TEST is certainly not a blithely pro-analytics book, but nor is it an anti-analytics book. It's a compelling argument that better thinking—and a better, more thoughtful future—calls for wielding all of our cognitive tools. And since Chris Jones is one of the best storytellers at work, it's simply a pleasure to read."—David Epstein, New York Times bestselling author of THE SPORTS GENE and RANGE