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Andrew Kent
5.0 out of 5 stars A high-yield read, and a lot of important insights
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2017
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"Technically Wrong" is an important book written with a level of informed bluntness I usually equate with Kara Swisher and her crew. Wachter-Boettcher (whose name is naturally highlighted by the spell-check algorithm at work while I write this as misspelled, despite the required metadata to know this isn't true being just an inch above where I write) does a great job showing how biases and irresponsibility -- writ large and small -- have become baked into technology, and how the bros of Silicon Valley don't care.

Wachter-Boettcher helped me put my finger on exactly why the use of personas in technology and marketing initiatives has always struck me as flawed, describes in excruciating detail why Twitter is so awful, walks us through the numerous failings of Facebook, and reminds us that technologists need humanists for human-centered technology to work. Editors, historians, and user advocates should not be sidelined.

She also does a great job illustrating why diversity is so important to technology projects and Silicon Valley, and how the bro culture is utterly failing many real-world tests. Their arrogance is their ignorance.

What impressed me the most is that this is a relatively slim volume, yet I found myself wowed consistently. It is the opposite of those books that could have been magazine articles but were fluffed out to be books. This is a distillation of what could have been many books, and it's done expertly. A lot of value for the time spent. Kudos.
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WU.
5.0 out of 5 stars Important arguments from a novel perspective.
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2019
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This book gave me cause to inaugurate a brand-new shelf in my bookcase called: "toxic-tech".

It will share space with: "Amusing Ourselves to Death", "Four Arguments For The Elimination of Television", and "Trust Me, I'm Lying..", to name a few. As such, it is a perfect complement to Cathy O'Neil's "Weapons Of Math Destruction".

Whereas O'Neil's book spends slightly more time looking at the effects of codified bias in algorithms from a more data-centric view, "Technically Wrong" chooses to approach the problem from a mainly sociocultural perspective.

The problem with "toxic tech", Wachter-Boettcher argues, stems primarily from lack of diversity--racial and gender-wise--and a popular culture that celebrates the "Myth of Tech": idolized genius dropouts, one dimensional CEOs, coding wizards, hyper-competitive fitness bros, and the workaholic young ideal.

These forces combined create a powerful vortex of self-reinforcing monolithic sameness that spreads wildly across our cultural landscape, plucking weeds and flowers alike.

At the end of the day it's all just hot air, really, and the sooner we are able to see past the shiny interfaces, cutesy attempts to engage with our emotions, and socially-blind standards, the closer we'll be to understanding the true price we pay for these conveniences. Not always worth it.
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indi young
5.0 out of 5 stars Awareness of the mono-culture in tech [hopefully] leads to diverse solutions
Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2017
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Sara's example stories carry the message as brilliantly as a Malcolm Gladwell book, and the message in this case is nuanced and difficult to convey to readers who don't see the problem. The stories and their connections from one chapter to the next held my attention, and I hope they are powerful enough to hold the attention of a reader who starts out in the "you're being too sensitive" camp. I have had my share of encounters with people in tech who still believe ROI is the best and only measure of success for a product. Interestingly, there are folks in the industrial design field who are starting to talk about adding other measurements to ROI, such as sustainability and impact. It is this latter, impact, that Sara's book will bring to light for the tech field. So many players therein believe "good intent" always equals a positive impact. I am looking forward to a future where more tech leaders are aware of this fallacy. I look forward to leaders putting more emphasis on listening, understanding, and mapping opportunity based on deep knowledge different thinking styles.
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Michael J. Metts
5.0 out of 5 stars Critically Important for Our Field
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2017
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This book is what everyone in the tech industry needs to hear, even if they don't want to. Sara makes a great point that for a long time, tech companies have shielded themselves from scrutiny by making their work seem impossible to understand. But Sara helps us understand it, and she doesn't hold back in revealing all the ways tech is designed to facilitate abuse, racism, and the marginalizing of people who don't fit into its definition of "normal".

Sara brings some of the tech industries deepest, darkest issues to light, and she does it in a way that helps us see a way forward. It's not just about shedding light on these awful patterns, but about breaking them and holding the people who build these products accountable. It's about hope.

As someone working in tech, I plan on sharing this book with my co-workers, talking about it with my superiors, and referring to it in job interviews. I'm grateful to Sara for providing such a powerful way to facilitate these important conversations.
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bru
3.0 out of 5 stars Not really what I was looking for...hoping for more data
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2021
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I went from reading "Invisible Women" to reading this book. I'm very interested in the topic of gender bias in scientific research, algorithms, etc and while Invisible Women took me weeks to read because of the detail of arguments (its a great book with lots of data, had to give myself time to digest it all), this book felt lacking somehow. I felt like I had heard all of these arguments before and that it wasn't backed up with lots of data, and included a lot of the authors own observations on the topic. If you're into that you will like this book. Just wished it had more data (proof) to go along with her arguments.
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Alexandra
5.0 out of 5 stars I am delighted I was
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 7, 2018
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I was encourgaged to read this book by a colleague who posted a recommendation on Linked-In. I am delighted I was. It is an eye opener. Well done to the author Sara Wachter-Boettecher for bring brave enough to write it - and face the tirade of criticism she is likely to face from the giants of the tech industry she is challenging. The use of data that most of us willingly or necessarily submit to the multitude of applications that we use to live our lives that guide and drive our actions and behaviours, make recommendations that we may adopt, that serve up fake news and news trends, that determine what prices we pay for products etc.. are all predicated on the assumptions: (1) The past data used to profile us and make recommendations is accurate, (2) that the alogoriths crunching to produce output are fair/correct allow for diverse views and opinions, (3) that machine learning is 'for the greater good' learning (4) that making predictions about the future based on historical data - are all sound assumptions. None of them are! Leading at times to very damaging and harmful consequences. The author in her book methodically illustrates this. The examples are all US based, and more global examples could have been included, but then the book would have been much longer, and given the technology industry theme - a US setting is fitting. The author has a point to make and she makes it well. Not sure I will be using facebook again for advertising!
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Dino
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, eye-opening and thought-provoking read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 9, 2019
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This is a really thought-provoking book. It reveals the ways in which existing cultural biases and assumptions are built into tech, how this happens and the impact it has. It's very well written too so you can read it quite quickly.

I read the book after it was recommended to me at a tech conference. Since I read it, I've leant my copy to various colleagues and have been raving about it ever since.

I'd highly recommend it to anyone who works in tech or is interested in how technology affects our lives.
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Marc Roberts
5.0 out of 5 stars We must do better
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 29, 2019
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Excellently written, and a must read for anyone in tech.

More worrying than the many stories that shock, surprise, and upset are the ones that don't.

The stories that you recognise as being uncomfortably familiar serve as a much needed reminder that we must try harder, do better and be better.

We may have come a long way (??), but we still have a long way to go.
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Ricky Onsman
5.0 out of 5 stars A Book For Our Times
Reviewed in Australia on October 13, 2017
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Not only is this a must-read for anyone working in web tech, but it's actually a brilliant lay guide to how and why web designers and developers get stuff so very wrong.

Like when algorithms think a black couple would like their photos tagged as "gorilla" - jaw-dropping stuff. But there's nothing really technical in the book - and that's partly the point. It isn't about the technology itself, it's about how we configure it so badly.

All the issues, examples and solutions in this book are very accessible to all readers. Highly recommended.
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Anna Niocenn
5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable
Reviewed in France on May 24, 2018
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Lecture indispensable si vous travaillez dans le numérique et les nouvelles technologies... ou êtes simple utilisatrice/teur. Non traduit en français mais très accessible en anglais, commençant par des remarques basiques sur ce qu'on connaît des medias sociaux pour aller crescendo sur le danger des biais algorithmiques sachant qu'ils régissent déjà nos vies et notamment celles des plus faibles récipiendaires d'aides et allocations diverses. Vous ne voulez pas vous occuper de nouvelles technologies, Mesdames ? Sachez qu'elles, elles s'occupent déjà de vous.
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