Overcomplicated

Technology at the Limits of Comprehension

De: Samuel Arbesman

Narrado por: Sean Pratt

Why did the New York Stock Exchange suspend trading without warning on July 8, 2015? Why did certain Toyota vehicles accelerate uncontrollably against the will of their drivers? Why does the programming inside our airplanes occasionally surprise its creators?

After a thorough analysis by the top experts, the answers still elude us.

You don't understand the software running your car or your iPhone. But here's a secret: Neither do the geniuses at Apple or the PhDs at Toyota - not perfectly, anyway. No one - not lawyers, doctors, accountants, or policy makers - fully grasps the rules governing your tax return, your retirement account, or your hospital's medical machinery. The same technological advances that have simplified our lives have made the systems governing our lives incomprehensible, unpredictable, and overcomplicated.

In Overcomplicated, complexity scientist Samuel Arbesman offers a fresh, insightful field guide to living with complex technologies that defy human comprehension. As technology grows more complex, Arbesman argues, its behavior mimics the vagaries of the natural world more than it conforms to a mathematical model. If we are to survive and thrive in this new age, we must abandon our need for governing principles and rules and accept the chaos. By embracing and observing the freak accidents and flukes that disrupt our lives, we can gain valuable clues about how our algorithms really work. What's more, we will become better thinkers, scientists, and innovators as a result.

Lucid and energizing, this audiobook is a vital new analysis of the world heralded as "modern" for anyone who wants to live wisely.

©2016 Samuel Arbesman (P)2016 Gildan Media LLC

Not sure if I fully agree but worth listening

Would you listen to Overcomplicated again? Why?

Not the type of book you'd read again.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Overcomplicated?

The idea that we should approach complex technology with a similar approach to biology.

Which character – as performed by Sean Pratt – was your favorite?

not applicable

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

...no

Any additional comments?

I was going to give this 4 stars but after thinking about it some more I decided it deserved 5.

The book does not make any exaggerations. Although it was a quick read, it gets you thinking about how we're headed towards a world in which increasingly fewer people understand.

Thought provoking

Excellent book, fun to listen to and to dig deeper into field. Especially in the world of rapidly developing AI systems. However, the author raises more questions than provides answers. There is still no explanation to the mechanisms behind the occurrences. Simply calling them cludges or griblies is funny and cute of course, but doesn’t explain their nature. One of the statements is that live organism is complex and dead is complicated. But there is no clear dividing line between live and dead. As modules are introduced in one of the chapters, a dead organism can still be a system of live parts, organs and cells may be alive after the whole organism is dead. So is it already complicated or still complex? Can’t that division help in figuring the mechanisms and the nature of the systems we have created but which we don’t understand? And thus gain at least an illusion of some control.

Interesting concepts, but somewhat repetitive

This is an important book - it sheds light on how complicated many of our technologies have become, to the point where there is often no one who understands the entirety of a program, system, or device. And that is why parts of systems interact in unexpected ways (Toyota's unintended acceleration problems are one example he uses). But he doesn't just expose the problems of complexity, he also suggests strategies for dealing with complexity, and in so doing draws parallels to the complexity of living things. Very interesting, but sometimes I was eager for him to move on to the next idea.

Good for a less technical audience

As a consultant software developer and quality analyst, very little of this was new to me. I've been complaining for years that most systems I encounter are held together with spit and bailing wire. But this would be great for my dad and brother, who have a deep, awed reverence for technology and have very little understanding for the rickety complexity underneath the shiny exterior. I've also been bothered by the increasing specialization that I see all around me so it was nice to hear why generalism is useful and how to educate people to be better generalists.
The performance was ok, but the constant dramatic pauses were irritating.

Original perspective

A book that challenges my view of studying and developing complex, interconnected technological systems, through a somewhat original and refreshing erspective.