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Tickbox

By: David Boyle
Narrated by: Akbar Kurtha
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Summary

The word 'tickbox' emerged recently as a cynical angle on official or corporate incompetence. They had 'ticked the box' - people said - but failed to act. It is increasingly used to describe this gap between official spin and reality.

Yet, says David Boyle in this powerful expose of tickbox culture, that is just the tip of a vast tickbox iceberg. The only people who remain blind to this gap are those rich or powerful enough to run the world, and behind Tickbox lies an insidious philosophy of automation and the misuse of data that weighs heavily on every one of us. It makes our public services less effective - and makes them soar in costs - it lies behind so many stark injustices and disasters, from Grenfell Tower to the deportation of the Windrush generation. Yet the system carries on and grows in power and strengths - vacuuming up the resources of the NHS, pursuing pointless targets or badgering us to reveal how much we had enjoyed our visit to their bank counter - because those who run the world remain committed to it.

It is time we escaped the tentacles of Tickbox. Boyle suggests a series of ways out - starting with recognising the danger and calling it out for what it is - a massive failure, corroding our lives and our ability, as human beings, to act on the world.

©2019 David Boyle (P)2019 Hachette Audio UK
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essential reading for all humans

fifteen words are required for me to submit the review i already wrote in the headline

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Great Book on Automated Decisionmaking

UK government and industry is enthralled to data and procedural decision making. Everything seems to be arranged around status-quo procedural objectivity, which includes forms and lists and targets and performance indicators. These all are a Faustian bargain whereby the need to manage complexity has entailed that we abdicate our responsibilities and delegate it all into automated decision making. This is emblematic in the predefined options we get on surveys or 'feedback', where the vested interests are not interested in our opinions or our values, but rather in fitting us to theirs. It's dehumanising and the banality of evil and I admire the author for delineating it so well. That said, my expectations were low and were pleasantly exceeded.

Data are after all just observations.

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