Matt Crawford speaks with Data Scientist and author Justin Evans about his book, The Little Book of Data: Understanding the Powerful Analytics that Fuel AI, Make or Break Careers, and Could Just End Up Saving the World. 

Data is not about number crunching. It’s about ideas. And when used properly (read: ethically), it is the problem solver of our time.

Yet many savvy people seem to be in data denial: they don’t think they need to understand data, or it’s too complicated, or worse, using it is somehow unethical. Yet as data and AI (just an accelerated way to put data to work) move to the center of professional and civic life, every professional and citizen needs to harness this power.

In The Little Book of Data, each chapter illustrates one of the core principles of solving problems with data by featuring an expert who has solved a big problem with data—from the entrepreneur creating a “loneliness score” to the epidemiologist trying to save lives by finding disease “hotspots.”

The stories are told in a fast-moving, vivid, sometimes comic style, and cover a wide frame of reference from adtech to climate tech, the bubonic plague, tiny submarines, genomics, railroads, bond ratings, and meat grading. (That’s right. Meat.)

Along the way Evans injects lessons from his own career journey and offers practical thought-starters for readers to apply to their own organizations.

By reading The Little Book of Data, you will achieve the fluency to apply your data superpowers to your own mission and challenges—and you will have fun along the way.

You will be, in other words, a data person.