By Adam Brownstein in Tokyo, Japan
Book of the Week: If/Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future by Jill Lepore
My very first job out of college was serving as a policy research plebe on small business for the U.S. government. Hopping around from Red States to Blue States (Birmingham on Tuesday and Buffalo on Thursday), I read through a lot of polling data on wildly exciting topics like tort reform and OSHA requirements. Later on, after graduate school, I moved into the wild world of tech. From Microsoft to buuteeq to Booking to Partnerize I have been followed on the ride by data scientists.
Jill Lepore’s masterful turn in If/Then is, in many ways, the spiritual through line of my career. It captures the true tales of a bunch of nebbishy Ad men in the late 1950’s (the laminate brigade behind Don Draper) who hatched Big Data. Professor Lepore is one of my favorite History writers. Love her topics and writing style.
Also . . .
Recovery of Japan’s inbound tourism likely muted without Chinese visitors (Japan Times)
Neural correlates of maintaining one’s political beliefs in the face of counterevidence (Nature)
The Marketplace Burn Multiple (CRAFT)
Predictive Protein Folding (Meta)
The Tokyo Yenta 