Sensemaking: What Makes Human Intelligence Essential in the Age of the Algorithm - Softcover

Christian Madsbjerg

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0349142254 ISBN 13: 9780349142258

Publisher: Abacus, 2019

Synopsis

A FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE MONTH (APRIL 2017)

Humans have become subservient to algorithms. Every day brings a new Moneyball fix - a maths whiz who will crack open an industry with clean fact-based analysis rather than human intuition and experience. As a result, we have stopped thinking. Machines do it for us.

Christian Madsbjerg argues that our fixation with data often masks stunning deficiencies, and the risks for humankind are enormous. Blind devotion to number crunching imperils our businesses, our educations, our governments, and our life savings. Too many companies have lost touch with the humanity of their customers, while marginalising workers with arts-based skills.

Contrary to popular thinking, Madsbjerg shows how many of today's biggest success stories stem not from 'quant' thinking but from deep, nuanced engagement with culture, language, and history. He calls his method sensemaking.

In this landmark book, Madsbjerg lays out five principles for how business leaders, entrepreneurs, and individuals can use it to solve their thorniest problems. He profiles companies using sensemaking to connect with new customers, and takes readers inside the work process of sensemaking 'connoisseurs' like investor George Soros, architect Bjarke Ingels, and others.

Both practical and philosophical, Sensemaking is a powerful rejoinder to corporate groupthink and an indispensable resource for leaders and innovators who want to stand out from the pack.

About this title

About the Author

Christian Madsbjerg is a founder of ReD Associates, a strategy consulting company based in the human sciences and employing anthropologists, sociologists, art historians, and philosophers. Madsbjerg studied philosophy and political science in Copenhagen and London. He lives in New York City.

From the Back Cover

Based on his work at companies like Ford, Christian Madsbjerg's Sensemaking is a provocative stand against the tyranny of big data and scientism, an impassioned defense of an arts and humanities-based education, and a blueprint for how companies and leaders can use human intelligence to solve problems.

Edition details

• Publisher: Abacus
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0349142254
• ISBN 13: 9780349142258
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240