{"id":51,"date":"2017-12-20T08:41:51","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T08:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptorepublic.app\/?p=51"},"modified":"2017-12-20T08:41:51","modified_gmt":"2017-12-20T08:41:51","slug":"time-to-stand-up-for-dumb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptorepublic.app\/?p=51","title":{"rendered":"Time to Stand Up for Dumb"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][tm_heading tag=\u00bbh5″ custom_google_font=\u00bb\u00bb font_weight=\u00bb600″ text=\u00bbLet\u2019s start out with a smart device undershoot that seldom gets mentioned: e-books. E-book sales fell in 2015 and fell even more in 2017 as both paperback and hardback sales rose. Why? Readers can probably chime in, but print is still easier to read and navigate. \u00bb line_height=\u00bb1.4″][tm_spacer size=\u00bblg:25″][tm_heading tag=\u00bbdiv\u00bb custom_google_font=\u00bb\u00bb text=\u00bbYou recall what you read better in print than in e-book form. And personally, I despised that my reader determined the e-book format. I found that I remember what I read where visually, and having all of the social science books I read appear in the same format meant that if I read several books on related issues, I could not recall which one was where I had picked up a particular factoid.\u00bb][tm_spacer size=\u00bblg:63″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=\u00bb3\/12″][tm_image image=\u00bb875″][tm_spacer size=\u00bbsm:30″][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=\u00bb9\/12″][tm_heading tag=\u00bbh5″ custom_google_font=\u00bb\u00bb font_weight=\u00bb600″ text=\u00bbUse psychological pricing methods.\u00bb line_height=\u00bb1.4″][tm_spacer size=\u00bblg:23″][tm_heading tag=\u00bbdiv\u00bb custom_google_font=\u00bb\u00bb text=\u00bbNC readers had probably assumed the NSA had back doors to smart phones; this sort of thing makes that idea a smidge more official (the fact that the surveillance types can presumably obtain access isn\u2019t the same as being able to get at it in a legal-looking manner, like unlocking it with a search warrant).\u00bb][tm_spacer size=\u00bbxs:30;lg:35″][tm_heading tag=\u00bbdiv\u00bb custom_google_font=\u00bb\u00bb text=\u00bbThat sort of thing gave us Robby Mook confidently dismissing the pleas of operatives on the ground in Michigan and Wisconsin that the Clinton campaign was in trouble and she needed to spend more time and money in those states. We know how that movie ended.\u00bb][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][tm_spacer size=\u00bbxs:30;lg:52″][tm_heading tag=\u00bbdiv\u00bb custom_google_font=\u00bb\u00bb text=\u00bbBut it is another manifestation of the sort of top 10% preening that Thomas Frank called out in Listen, Liberal, the fetishization of new, data driven techniques even when they aren\u2019t necessarily well validated.\u00bb][tm_spacer size=\u00bbxs:30;lg:68″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner offset=\u00bbvc_col-md-6″][tm_heading tag=\u00bbh5″ custom_google_font=\u00bb\u00bb font_weight=\u00bb600″ text=\u00bbDemonstrate the differences\u00bb line_height=\u00bb1.4″][tm_spacer size=\u00bblg:23″][tm_heading tag=\u00bbdiv\u00bb custom_google_font=\u00bb\u00bb text=\u00bbSimilarly, the fetishization of big data has cooled a bit (but not enough for my taste) as more and more users recognize that they can easily turn out to be means for institutionalizing prejudice or simply bad decision rules thanks to less than stellar problem framing and choice of data sets. As Cathy O\u2019Neil, author of Weapons of Math Destruction, pointed out, \u201cAlgorithms are just opinions expressed in math.\u201d\u00bb][tm_spacer size=\u00bbsm:30;lg:68″][tm_heading tag=\u00bbh5″ custom_google_font=\u00bb\u00bb font_weight=\u00bb600″ text=\u00bbOffer a money-back guarantee\u00bb line_height=\u00bb1.4″][tm_spacer size=\u00bblg:23″][tm_heading tag=\u00bbdiv\u00bb custom_google_font=\u00bb\u00bb text=\u00bbFinally, and far from least important, using smart devices puts you at the mercy of providers who are very good at forcing obsolescence or overt price increases upon you\u00bb][tm_spacer size=\u00bbsm:30;lg:68″][tm_heading tag=\u00bbh5″ custom_google_font=\u00bb\u00bb font_weight=\u00bb600″ text=\u00bbTest your offer and price, and be creative.\u00bb line_height=\u00bb1.4″][tm_spacer size=\u00bblg:23″][tm_heading tag=\u00bbdiv\u00bb custom_google_font=\u00bb\u00bb text=\u00bbTo return to the main thread, yours truly is so resistant to the marketing push to get us all to surrender to being surveilled even more in the name of \u201csmartness\u201d that there are no doubt many smart thingies that have their fans and detractors. What dumb devices do you prefer and why?\u00bb][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner offset=\u00bbvc_col-md-6″][tm_spacer size=\u00bbsm:40″][tm_image full_wide=\u00bb1″ image=\u00bb876″][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s start out with a smart device undershoot that seldom gets mentioned: e-books. E-book sales fell in 2015 and fell even more in 2017 as both paperback and hardback sales rose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[26,28],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economics","tag-classic","tag-industry"],"views":220,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptorepublic.app\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptorepublic.app\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptorepublic.app\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptorepublic.app\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptorepublic.app\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cryptorepublic.app\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptorepublic.app\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptorepublic.app\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptorepublic.app\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptorepublic.app\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}