staging.vivus.com Review:

Received your product yesterday and have been playing around with it since. Kick a$$ product, nice job. It’s really easy to use and I’m not too good with gadgets & computers. It would be awesome if it had a zoom feature ☺

Well I must admit, I saw the author and heard the author as she made the rounds of her book promotion on CNN, NPR, etc. I was intrigued and purchased the book. I'd have to say it left me disappointed. It has some thought provoking exploration on how mathematical models impact our daily lives and the implications of these systems when given a great amount influence with little understanding of how they work. While interesting, the book is quite shallow in exploring anything beyond the speculative drawbacks of such systems and the underlying flaws. The author does not really examine substantive facts about the performance of each system, she just highlights headliner flaws and speculates on the long term consequences without offering any real solutions. In summary I fell for the sales pitch the author delivered, considering her credentials I assumed it would be an in-depth analysis of these algorithms. Instead it seemed incredibly simplified, perhaps to reach all intellectual levels, but it was quite disappointing, especially considering the price of the book. It seems reminiscent of a movie trailer that basically gives you enough of the plot of the movie that you have no need to go see it.