Adrift by Scott Galloway

ADRIFT by Scott Galloway attempts to describe America in 100 charts.  Booklist says, “This highly visual distillation of U.S. history will be appreciated by students.” I do think they will gain some insights, but the preview I saw was not especially eye-catching.  Everything is in black and white with shades of grey and fairly simple (mainly line or column chart) depiction of whatever data Galloway is discussing. Also, the analysis for each chart is two to three paragraphs at best although it often includes some attention-grabbing factoid. Somewhat more interesting are the chapter titles and synopsis of each: for example, when looking at the Rise of the Shareholder Class, Galloway asserts, “As the post-war boom began to fizzle out, the U.S. embraced shareholder capitalism and turned from community and institution towards rugged individualism.” Galloway does cite sources near each chart and in the notes (about twenty-five percent of the text) which could serve as a useful introduction to those research sources and offer students an additional opportunity to improve visual and information literacy skills. Another way to employ this text might be to ask students to find a related recent news article. Galloway echoes Robert Putnam when he points to the turning away from community based activities and Pew Research would have recent data, particularly about religion membership (summarized here by Axios). Galloway, Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business, previously authored The Four and has strong views about Big Tech. The charts nearer the end of ADRIFT address this sector and Galloway offers suggestions for action (e.g., reform Section 230; enact a one-time wealth tax) in his final chapter, “What We Must Do.”

Making Numbers Count

MAKING NUMBERS COUNT by Chip Heath and Karla Starr is all about “The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers.” Kirkus sums up this text as follows: “Astute advice for business people and educators.” The authors note that their book “is based on a simple observation: we lose information when we don’t translate numbers into instinctive human experience.” They offer over 30 possible translation techniques (e.g., use calendar time – like every day for almost 4 months instead of saying 112). Heath and Starr explain the value of visual comparisons – like a pack of cards instead of a 4 ounce portion or thinking of all the world’s water as filling a gallon container (saltwater from the oceans) and three ice cubes (fresh water) with humans only able to drink the few drops melting off the cubes. Memorable, right? Other sections of the book suggest using emotional numbers and translating to a human scale. The examples go on and on, including the New York Times effort to convey the loss of human life to Covid-19 by posting the names and a small fact about just 1000 people -- still filling over 5 pages. Our Library collection has included numerous other texts by the Heath brothers (e.g., Switch; Decisive; Made to Stick; and The Power of Moments) and we will be adding MAKING NUMBERS COUNT soon.