"Pulse: The New Science of Harnessing Internet Buzz to Track Threats and Opportunities" by Douglas Hubbard (Book Review of the Week-ish)

I am a huge fan of Douglas Hubbard’s “How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business” (you can tell by my review and by the many copies I’ve given as gifts over the last few years). Hubbard offers a series of “measurement maxims” that apply in most of the time, including:

1. Your problem isn’t as unique as you think.
2. You have more data than you think you do.
3. You need less data than you think.
4. More new data is available to you than you think it is.

And, in his new book, “Pulse: The New Science of Harnessing Internet Buzz to Track Threats and Opportunities,” Hubbard aims to prove exactly how much real-time, highly public data exists in the world to help you answer all manner of business and societal questions. Less a primer than his earlier book (and not really a cookbook), Hubbard offers thought-provoking examples of how you can use the variety of data available from Google. Facebook, Alexa and others to answer questions and solve problems both great and small.

As “Pulse: The New Science of Harnessing Internet Buzz to Track Threats and Opportunities” demonstrates, more data exists in the world than you might think to answer questions you may not have thought of yet. And you probably don’t need even a fraction of the data that’s out there to solve real-world challenges.

Take a peek at “Pulse”. I can’t say you’ll put it to work as readily as “How to Measure Anything.” But, you will see how to put data to work and how you can put your finger on the pulse of the world, too.

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