Book Review: The Fuzzy and the Techie

If you had majored in the Humanities or Social Sciences you were a fuzzy. If you had majored in Computer Science, you were a techie. This informal division quietly found its way into a default assumption that has misled the business world for decades – that it’s the techies who drive innovation. This book clearly articulates the importance of the liberal arts in our techno centric world.

But in this brilliantly contrarian book, Hartley reveals the counter-intuitive reality of business today; it’s actually the fuzzies not the techies who are playing the key roles in developing the most creative and successful business ideas. Author looks inside some of the world’s most dynamic new companies, reveals breakthrough fuzzy – techie collaborations and explores how such associations are at the centre of innovation in business, education and government and why the liberal arts are still relevant in our techie world.

The book’s early chapters explore how, underappreciated and largely unnoticed, “fuzzy” skills have already proven themselves to be complements to coding talent. Numerous examples, from Palantir’s national security insights to Stitch Fix’s wardrobe recommendations, make the point that combining human and algorithmic intelligences often leads to better results than a purely automated approach. Fuzzy insights provide the driving force for new businesses, whether it is social messaging application Slack or school/parent communication tool Remind. In later chapters, Hartley uses example after example to make the case that the liberal arts’ concerns for ethics, understanding of human motivations, and insights into social dynamics can find a productive home in the technology world.

Author also highlights the human skills needed to find the “novel patterns” in big data, shows How high-tech tools such as satellites have become much more accessible to breakthrough thinkers of all backgrounds, and offers case studies of and shout-outs to blended businesses such as StitchFix, which utilizes both algorithms and skilled stylists, and Talkspace, which provides access to lower-cost therapy via an online platform. He also dips into the idea of design ethics, such as those involved in programming self-driving cars or providing people with default choices that affect behavior.

When you look at many of the great creative minds of our times and humanity in general, brilliant people are good at many things. Da Vinci, known as a painter and sculptor among other things but also the earliest person to sketch the idea for the helicopter. Many brilliant scientists and mathematicians are also often great musicians or painters too.

This is a revelatory and original book of particular importance in India, where students are unduly pressurized to gain admission into institutes of technology in the hope that they will be at the forefront of change and innovation in the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world. Our greatest leaders are those who have depth of human understanding and empathy.