- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Plume; Reprint edition (May 31 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0452297184
- ISBN-13: 978-0452297180
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 14.1 x 1.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 281 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #436,186 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"In Linked, Barabasi showed us how complex networks unfold in space. In Bursts, he shows us how they unfold in time. Your life may look random to you, but everything from your visits to a web page to your visits to the doctor are predictable, and happen in bursts."
-Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody
"Barabasi is one of the few people in the world who understand the deep structure of empirical reality."
-Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan
"Barabßsi brings a physicist's penetrating eye to a sweeping range of human activities, from migration to web browsing, from wars to billionaires, from illnesses to letter writing, from the Department of Homeland Security to the Conclave of Cardinals. Barabßsi shows how a pattern of bursts appears in what has long seemed a random mess. These bursts are both mathematically predictable and beautiful. What a joy it is to read him. You feel like you have emerged to see a new vista that, while it had always been there, you had just never seen."
-Nicholas A. Christakis, M.D., Ph.D., coauthor of Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives
"Bursts is a rich, rewarding read that illuminates a cutting-edge topic: the patterns of human mobility in an era of total surveillance. The narrative structure of Barabßsi's provocative book mimics the very pattern of bursts, as abrupt jumps through the lives of a post-modern sculptor, a medieval Hungarian revolutionist, and Albert Einstein eventually converge on a single theme: that our unthinking behaviors are governed by a deeper meaning that can only be deciphered through the brave lens of mathematics."
-Ogi Ogas, Ph.D., and Sai Gaddam, Ph.D., Boston University
"Barbasi, a distinguished scientist of complex networks, bravely tests his innovative theories on some historic events, including a sixteenth-century Crusade that went terribly wrong. Whether or not the concept of "burstiness" is the key to unlocking human behavior, it is nonetheless a fascinating new way to think about some very old questions."
-Thomas F. Madden, Ph.D., Professor of Medieval History, Saint Louis University, author of The New Concise History of the Crusades
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
-Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody
"Barabasi is one of the few people in the world who understand the deep structure of empirical reality."
-Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan
"Barabßsi brings a physicist's penetrating eye to a sweeping range of human activities, from migration to web browsing, from wars to billionaires, from illnesses to letter writing, from the Department of Homeland Security to the Conclave of Cardinals. Barabßsi shows how a pattern of bursts appears in what has long seemed a random mess. These bursts are both mathematically predictable and beautiful. What a joy it is to read him. You feel like you have emerged to see a new vista that, while it had always been there, you had just never seen."
-Nicholas A. Christakis, M.D., Ph.D., coauthor of Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives
"Bursts is a rich, rewarding read that illuminates a cutting-edge topic: the patterns of human mobility in an era of total surveillance. The narrative structure of Barabßsi's provocative book mimics the very pattern of bursts, as abrupt jumps through the lives of a post-modern sculptor, a medieval Hungarian revolutionist, and Albert Einstein eventually converge on a single theme: that our unthinking behaviors are governed by a deeper meaning that can only be deciphered through the brave lens of mathematics."
-Ogi Ogas, Ph.D., and Sai Gaddam, Ph.D., Boston University
"Barbasi, a distinguished scientist of complex networks, bravely tests his innovative theories on some historic events, including a sixteenth-century Crusade that went terribly wrong. Whether or not the concept of "burstiness" is the key to unlocking human behavior, it is nonetheless a fascinating new way to think about some very old questions."
-Thomas F. Madden, Ph.D., Professor of Medieval History, Saint Louis University, author of The New Concise History of the Crusades
Book Description
The bestselling author of Linked returns with a ground breaking new theory that will enthrall fans of The Tipping Point
Can we scientifically predict our future? It's a mystery that has nagged scientists for perhaps thousand of years. Now Albert-László Barabási-the award-winning author of the sleeper hit Linked- explains how the digital age has yielded a massive, previously unavailable data set that proves the daily pattern of human activity isn't random, it's "bursty." We work and fight and play in short flourishes of activity followed by next to nothing.
Compellingly illustrated with the account of a bloody medieval crusade in sixteenth-century Transylvania and the modern tale of a contemporary artist hunted by the FBI, Bursts reveals that we are far more predictable than we like to think.
Can we scientifically predict our future? It's a mystery that has nagged scientists for perhaps thousand of years. Now Albert-László Barabási-the award-winning author of the sleeper hit Linked- explains how the digital age has yielded a massive, previously unavailable data set that proves the daily pattern of human activity isn't random, it's "bursty." We work and fight and play in short flourishes of activity followed by next to nothing.
Compellingly illustrated with the account of a bloody medieval crusade in sixteenth-century Transylvania and the modern tale of a contemporary artist hunted by the FBI, Bursts reveals that we are far more predictable than we like to think.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Whimsy overdone,
By
This review is from: Bursts: The Hidden Pattern Behind Everything We Do (Hardcover)
If you have already read Barabasi's previous book, 'Linked', you will probably be disappointed by 'Bursts'. If you have not read 'Linked', get it instead. 'Bursts' is about randomness in the time domain: we may send 24 emails a day on average, but that does not mean that we send one per hour. As with 'Linked', Barabasi's point is that classical models such as the Poisson distribution do not work, and that power laws provide a better fit in many cases.Unfortunately, the rambling style that worked nicely in 'Linked' is overdone in 'Bursts'. It rambles so much that the nuggets of actual information pass almost unnoticed, buried in a detailed history of crusades and peasant uprisings in 16th century Transylvania (no vampires, though), and other anecdotes. If you enjoy whimsy, give it a try; if you want to discover 'the hidden pattern behind everything we do', look elsewhere.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Waste of time and money,
This review is from: Bursts: The Hidden Pattern Behind Everything We Do (Hardcover)
I did not like this book. The title is very misleading. The word Bursts is used a few times throughout the book but is not fully explored or explained. A better title would be "Peasant uprising in the 1500's".If you feel you want to read this book wait for it in the library, don't waste your money on buying it.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting,
By
This review is from: Bursts: The Hidden Pattern Behind Everything We Do (Hardcover)
The ideas put forth in this book are great.However, the English translation mirrors the Hungarian and it sounds very archaic and feels very foreign. Not fun to read due to style. Reads like a university seminar. The author is a great mind though. Still worth a read.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Health, Mind & Body > Psychology & Counseling > Social Psychology & Interactions
- Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Mathematics > Chaos & Systems
- Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Physics > System Theory
- Books > Science > Behavioural Sciences
- Books > Science > Physics > Acoustics & Sound
- Books > Science > Physics > Chaos & Systems
- Books > Science > Physics > System Theory
- Books > Science > Technology > Futurology
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
