I never cease to be impressed by how effortlessly humanities academics are able to write hundreds of words while saying literally nothing at all. The entire essay could be replaced with "Google wants to measure things in Toronto." Would this be a bad thing? Quite possibly! But there needs to be an argument as to why, and Zuboff doesn't have one.
Broadly speaking, measuring things is good. The previous Canadian government tried to kill our long form census, and this was met with widespread public disapproval. How is the government supposed to draft evidence-based policy if they don't have any evidence? The current government brought it back, and we all spent an afternoon filling it out.
Obviously it's different when the body doing the measuring and optimizing is a private entity, and there are legitimate concerns about a misalignment of incentives. But instead of offering a single concrete example, the author leans on the tired CAPITALISM == BAD trope, content in the knowledge that there's enough unnuanced leftists out there that she can hit solid sales numbers without even trying.
I'm grateful for the article, because I was on the fence about reading her book. Toronto Life just saved me $35.
Broadly speaking, measuring things is good. The previous Canadian government tried to kill our long form census, and this was met with widespread public disapproval. How is the government supposed to draft evidence-based policy if they don't have any evidence? The current government brought it back, and we all spent an afternoon filling it out.
Obviously it's different when the body doing the measuring and optimizing is a private entity, and there are legitimate concerns about a misalignment of incentives. But instead of offering a single concrete example, the author leans on the tired CAPITALISM == BAD trope, content in the knowledge that there's enough unnuanced leftists out there that she can hit solid sales numbers without even trying.
I'm grateful for the article, because I was on the fence about reading her book. Toronto Life just saved me $35.