In Everybody Lies, Stephens-Davidowitz uses big data to dispel the many lies people tell their friends, family, and often themselves. The book reads more like a fun magazine article than a boring data book, filled with interesting tidbits on everything from sex to politics to prejudice, plus lots of others. While some of the findings seem logical, there were plenty that went against common sense and really surprised me.
I found the first half of the book to be most compelling. The author includes plenty of examples to show what he is trying to get at, and each of the examples is down-right fascinating. With the second half of the book, starting from "Zooming In", it slows down a bit. While it still contains some interesting parts, it reads like the meaty part of the book is done and the author is trying to tie everything together and fill out a whole book's worth of content. And the conclusion is a downright slog in how the author dragged it out hoping for some final insights, but really just included a bunch of bland paragraphs.
If you want the gist of this book while still being efficient, read everything up to "Zooming in", and you'll get the most insightful and fun parts of this book. The rest is mostly filler.
Readaroo Rating: 3 stars
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