The Age of Big Data

Name: The Age of Big Data
ISBN: 9787213052545

维克托·迈尔-舍恩伯格 / 肯尼思·库克耶 / Sheng Yangyan / Zhou TaoZhejiang People's Publishing House · ChinaDec 2021

3.9

Word count: 138K words
Chapters: 19
ISBN: 9787213052545

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Summary

Hailed as the finest book on big data yet published worldwide, this work is written by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, widely regarded as a prophet of the big data era and one of the internet researchers most highly esteemed by leading academic journals such as Science and Nature. Known as the first person of big data business application, he has taught at several renowned internet research institutions, including Harvard University, Oxford University, Yale University, and the National University of Singapore.

Editor's review

This book's value lies not in offering a once-and-for-all technical solution, but in helping readers complete a shift in how they observe the world. The author pulls big data away from the surface-level understanding of "data getting bigger," discusses the relationships between sample and whole, precision and messiness, causality and correlation, and reminds us that when data can cover more complete objects, decision logic, business models, and public governance will all change accordingly. The book's discussions of datafication, prediction, and the boundaries of privacy remain a foundational entry point for understanding the platform economy and algorithmic society. It is more of a popular-science conceptual reader, clearly written and dense with cases, suitable for focused reading during commutes or on weekends. Note that some cases and judgments bear the mark of their time; today's readers should weigh them against new technological developments rather than treating every conclusion as final.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Non-technical readers hoping to build data literacy and understand basic big-data concepts
Product, operations, and marketing professionals who need to explain data value to teams or clients
General readers interested in algorithmic society, privacy protection, and data ethics
Participants in university general-education courses or book clubs who need an accessible introductory book

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking systematic study of programming, statistical modeling, and hands-on data engineering
Senior data professionals who need the latest technical architectures and frontline engineering cases
Researchers expecting rigorous academic argumentation or a complete literature review

Reading tips

Start with the table of contents and each chapter's summary to grasp the main thread of "more, messier, better," then return to read the cases in detail.
After each chapter, restate the core ideas using a familiar industry scenario to test whether you truly understand them.
Mark passages on privacy, prediction, and data power, and revisit them alongside recent public debate after finishing.
Don't feel you must finish in one sitting; read it in three parts—mindset, value, risk—with brief notes.

About the publisher

Zhejiang People's Publishing House China · Founded in 1951

Zhejiang People's Publishing House is a comprehensive publisher known for its social science, history and foreign literature titles, covering philosophy, politics, law, economics, culture and history. Among the books in the library catalogue, its foreign literature list includes Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country and The Old Capital in well-known translations, as well as Wuthering Heights; its history list is represented by Dangnian Mingyue's Ming Dynasty series, and its politics list by Zhejiang New Discourse. Authors represented include Yasunari Kawabata, Ye Weiqu, Tang Yuemei, Dangnian Mingyue, Emily Brontë and René Wellek, with Wellek's Theory of Literature (newly revised edition) among its titles in literary theory. Beyond these areas, the press also publishes works on literary appreciation and social culture, giving it a profile that combines classic translations, popular history and academic works. As publicly available information is limited, other details are not covered here.

版权信息
推荐序一拥抱“大数据时代”
推荐序二实实在在大数据
译者序在路上·晃晃悠悠
引言一场生活、工作与思维的大变革
第一部分大数据时代的思维变革
01 更多不是随机样本，而是全体数据
02 更杂不是精确性，而是混杂性
03 更好不是因果关系，而是相关关系
第二部分大数据时代的商业变革
04 数据化一切皆可“量化”
05 价值 “取之不尽，用之不竭”的数据创新
06 角色定位数据、技术与思维的三足鼎立
第三部分大数据时代的管理变革
07 风险让数据主宰一切的隐忧
08 掌控责任与自由并举的信息管理
结语正在发生的未来
凡是过去，皆为序曲
参考文献

FAQ

Is this book suitable for someone with no data background at all?

Yes. The book is mainly about concepts and cases, with a low barrier in mathematics and programming. Basic reading patience is enough to grasp the core arguments; if you encounter statistical terms, you can skip the details for now and focus on the way of thinking the author is trying to convey.

Are the book's views outdated today?

The book's macro judgments remain illuminating, but specific cases and the technological environment have changed. Treat "all data, messiness, correlation" as a thinking framework rather than a complete description of the current state of technology, and weigh them against recent materials as you read.

Can I use it directly for work decisions after reading?

It offers a decision-making perspective but cannot replace specific data analysis and business validation. A more practical approach is to pick a work scenario, use the book's framework to examine data coverage, sources of bias, and the explanatory limits of correlations, then form your own judgment.

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About the author

维克托·迈尔-舍恩伯格 Author

Viktor Mayer-Schönberger is the author of the works held in this catalog, with three Chinese editions available: Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think, Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age, and a three-volume collection titled Read These Three Books to Truly Understand Big Data!. Public information about him is limited, and his nationality, dates of birth and death, and educational background are not clearly established here. Judging from the subject matter of these works, his writing centers on big data and the digital society, discussing the collection, storage, selection, and deletion of data, as well as the impact of datafication on business, finance, and social culture. The books sit at the intersection of computing, finance, and social and cultural writing. His style tends to combine conceptual explanation with case-based discussion, aimed at non-technical readers and focused on extracting key ideas. Through the circulation of these works, he has had a notable influence on Chinese-language readers' understanding of big data issues.

肯尼思·库克耶 Author

Kenneth Cukier is an author whose works have been translated into Chinese, though publicly available personal information about him in our database is very limited. Two Chinese-language works can currently be confirmed: the three-volume collection Reading These Three Books to Truly Understand Big Data! and Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think. Both centre on the theme of big data. Judging from these works, he writes for general readers, seeking to explain the concepts, applications and implications of big data in an accessible way, which is why the books are classified under computer science and finance. Details of his biography, nationality and academic background cannot be reliably presented on the basis of the material available, and more public information would be needed for a dependable account. As things stand, his name reaches Chinese readers mainly through the works mentioned above.

Sheng Yangyan Author · Chinese

Sheng Yangyan received her master's degree from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in 2014 and currently serves as general manager of Chengdu Shulian Culture Communication Co., Ltd. She is mainly engaged in translating IT-related books. Public information about her is limited, and few details of her life have been disclosed, but her 13 published works offer a rough outline of her main interests. She has long worked on topics in finance, management and artificial intelligence, and her translations span big data, the science of thought and the history of innovation. Among them, her translations of Big Data, How to Create a Mind and Where Good Ideas Come From have been relatively influential, helping Chinese readers understand the data revolution, cognitive science and the generation of creative ideas. Her translations emphasize accurate conveyance of concepts and fluent, readable narration, balancing expertise with accessibility, and are well suited to popular science and business reading for general audiences.

Zhou Tao Author · China · 1946–2023

Zhou Tao (1946–2023) was a prominent contemporary Chinese poet and essayist. His ancestral home was Shanxi, he was born in Beijing, and he moved to Xinjiang in 1955. He served as director of the creative office of the Xinjiang Military Region and as a first-class writer, and was honorary chairman of the Xinjiang Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Xinjiang Writers Association. A leading figure of the New Frontier Poetry movement, he wrote mainly poetry and essays. His poetry collections Shenshan and Yemaqun, and essay collections Xishi zhi Niao, Youmu Changcheng and Wuli Huangyuan, draw on the landscapes and frontier life of Xinjiang, with broad vision, concise language and a blend of lyricism and reflection. He won the essay award of the first Lu Xun Literature Prize in 1996 and died in Urumqi in November 2023. The library also holds several of his works on medicine, finance and data, though public information on this side of his work is limited.