The Book of Why

The Book of Why by Judea Pearl appeared on my radar due to a colleague’s recommendation, and it is a great book. It is informative, valuable, interesting, etc., but I just don’t know what to do with it. As an average software engineer, despite being enthusiastic about today’s AI capabilities, I see minimal usage of the knowledge I have gained in the foreseeable future.

The book is valuable for other professionals, such as data scientists, AI model builders, statisticians, epidemiologists, psychologists, geneticists, ecologists, and climate scientists. As the title suggests, it delves into the study of causality, comprehensively exploring cause-and-effect relationships.

I learned many expressions, such as confounder and deconfounder, the Bayesian network, the DO calculus, randomized control trials (RCT), Simpson’s paradox, and the Monty Hall paradox.

One of the book’s most enjoyable aspects is its use of relevant stories to illustrate key concepts. These stories, which cover a wide range of topics from war zone surgery to salary calculation, make the book entertaining and informative.

What I like the most

• Well-structured, informative, interesting
• The decorating stories are relevant and make the book enjoyable.
• It widened my overall knowledge.

What I didn’t like much:

• It is less relevant to AI than I expected