Everyday Chaos - by David Weinberger (Hardcover)

About the Book

Modern science, the Internet, big data, and AI are each saying the same thing to us: the world is -- and always has been -- far more complex and unpredictable than we've allowed ourselves to see. As a result we're undergoing a sea change in our understanding of how things happen, and in our deepest strategies for predicting, preparing for, and managing our lives and our businesses. For example, machine learning allows us to make better predictions (think the weather, stock performance, online clicks) but we know less about why those predictions are right--and we need to get used to that. And in fact, over the past twenty years we've been unintentionally developing strategies that avoid anticipating what will happen so we don't have to depend on unreliable revenue forecasts, assumptions about customer needs, and hypotheses about how a product will be used. By embracing these strategies, we're flourishing by creating yet more possibilities and yet more unpredictability. In wide-ranging stories and characteristically all-encompassing syntheses, technology researcher, internet expert, and philosopher David Weinberger reveals the trends that hide in so many aspects of our lives--and shows us how they matter.--

Book Synopsis

Make. More. Future.

Artificial intelligence, big data, modern science, and the internet are all revealing a fundamental truth: The world is vastly more complex and unpredictable than we've allowed ourselves to see.

Now that technology is enabling us to take advantage of all the chaos it's revealing, our understanding of how things happen is changing--and with it our deepest strategies for predicting, preparing for, and managing our world. This affects everything, from how we approach our everyday lives to how we make moral decisions and how we run our businesses.

Take machine learning, which makes better predictions about weather, medical diagnoses, and product performance than we do--but often does so at the expense of our understanding of how it arrived at those predictions. While this can be dangerous, accepting it is also liberating, for it enables us to harness the complexity of an immense amount of data around us. We are also turning to strategies that avoid anticipating the future altogether, such as A/B testing, Minimum Viable Products, open platforms, and user-modifiable video games. We even take for granted that a simple hashtag can organize unplanned, leaderless movements such as #MeToo.

Through stories from history, business, and technology, philosopher and technologist David Weinberger finds the unifying truths lying below the surface of the tools we take for granted--and a future in which our best strategy often requires holding back from anticipating and instead creating as many possibilities as we can. The book's imperative for business and beyond is simple: Make. More. Future.

The result is a world no longer focused on limitations but optimized for possibilities.

Review Quotes

"Weinberger has given us a beautifully written set of mental maps to help keep us aligned with our own futures." -- KMWorld

Advance Praise for Everyday Chaos:

Seth Godin, author, This Is Marketing--
"My copy is filled with notes on the margins of every page. This is what books are for--a mind-blowing, game-changing, fun-to-read race into the future. Wow."

Reid Hoffman, cofounder, LinkedIn; Partner, Greylock--
"If you want to better understand the possibilities that machine learning and other forms of AI are creating--and harness the power of these breakthroughs--read this lively and illuminating book!"

Aneesh Chopra, former (and first) US Chief Technology Officer, Obama Administration--
"Weinberger's thought-provoking call to action is a must-read for business leaders pushing the envelope on innovation, for policy makers seeking to protect the public from undue harm, and for the rest of us who are keen to live better lives but mindful of any unintended consequences."

Robin Chase, cofounder and former CEO, Zipcar--
"David's writing is just so pleasing, and his ideas so interesting and useful, that I found myself reveling in his words, nudging my partner and saying, 'Let me read you this bit . . . '"

Joichi Ito, Director, MIT Media Lab--
"With classic Weinberger wit and brilliant insight, this book shatters the myth of predictability while delivering grounded, actionable advice for anyone trying to thrive in the everyday chaos that has become our world. A page-turner must-read for everyone."

About the Author

From the earliest days of the web, David Weinberger has been a pioneering thought leader about the internet's effect on our lives, on our businesses, and most of all on our ideas. He has contributed to areas ranging from marketing and libraries to politics and journalism as a strategic marketing VP and consultant, an internet adviser to presidential campaigns, an early social-networking entrepreneur, a writer-in-residence at Google, a senior researcher at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, a fellow at Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, a Franklin Fellow at the US State Department, and a philosophy professor. His writing has appeared in publications from Wired to Harvard Business Review, and his books include the bestselling The Cluetrain Manifesto.