The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns Audiobook

" Once it gets past some overly long history of the political science in the field dating back to the early parts of the last century, it gets pretty interesting. The discussion of the randomized experiments does a nice job conveying goals and ideas in layman's terms. What's interesting though is so much of the book focuses on tricks used to get people to vote, almost none of which involve a specific candidate. That raises the question of how much does the candidate even matter? Or put another way, how much of a worse candidate does one need to be compared to another to have the turnout things not make a difference in making them competitive? Or is it just that those tricks help bolster already well regarded candidates? "

" Great insights into the transformation of political campaigns from guru opinion contests to experimental models driven by empirical rigor. The narrative is clunky however because the author chooses to focus on disparate episodes that make up this transformation. It would have been interesting to approach the story with the kind of seamless information presentation found in the algorithmic strategies he describes. A very exciting story though for people like me who work in communications strategy and are interested in big data. "

" Popular explication of the science of political science, from the early 20th century academic attempts to quantify voter turnout and the efficacy of machine organization to the running arms race between the two major parties to adopt and adapt evolving technologies--direct mail, polling, zip codes, out of state phone banks, data mining, databases and mapping (to the point that ads can be bought on specific bus routes to be seen by a targeted population) and their effect on field work, not to mention the social science research on what makes people vote (the double edge sword of offending them by sending a letter--on plain paper, no shiny--telling them about their neighbors' voting habits with the implied threat that the neighbors know about your attendance at the polls). Unfortunately, this ends just after the 2008 election and thus is not inclusive of the social media blitz employed in the most recent campaigns. "

" This book turned out to be as much a collection of biographies as an explanation of research and practices that lead to winning campaigns. And I'm not that interested in the lives of the various political scientists and politicians. "

" Not as innovative or cutting edge as it wants to be, but a good look at how to get more value for money in campaigning. "

" I really enjoyed this as a history of the birth of the field of political science. It laid a pretty good foundation for understanding how the phenomenon of the 2008 Obama presidential campaign came to be. It described that campaign at a pretty high level, with a lot of interesting anecdotes. However, the narrative was messy in places. Some tidbits were annoyingly repeated. People were inelegantly re-introduced into the story. It was overly, unnecessarily expository in places. That aside, it has piqued my interest in the field of political science and pointed me towards people and organizations to study further. "

" In terms of content and detail, the Moneyball for politics is an apt comparison. But in terms of the snappy repartee, not as enjoyable to read. Well researched, well reported, thorough - essential primer as we head in to the home stretch of 2012. A far better primer for understanding what's happening in elections than one might get from any talking head. "

" Very informative into the inner workings of campaigns. "

" Experiments, big data, data mining, and campaigns: a perfect book for a geek like me. Nicely told story about the real world of campaigning bumping into the academic world of social science. "

" Terrific read giving both a historical and behind the scenes look at the role of data in campaign decision making. "

" This is a great history of the science behind campaigning. From relatively unsophisticated direct mail methods to the use of algorithms, campaigning has become increasingly targeted. Niche marketing is important in getting out the vote as the Obama victories attest. "

" Phenomenal. If you work in politics, or are at all interested in how modern campaigns work, you should read this book. "

" It was interesting. I wish it were a little more social science/psychology and a little less political science, though. "

" To a self professed data geek, political campaigner and former reporter, this book was absolutely fascinating. If you've ever been interested in not only campaign techniques but the psychology behind voter behaviour, this book is for you. A must read for political staffers. "

" Pretty interesting, although it talked about so many different people for so little time it was very hard to keep track. After a while I mostly ignored the people and just focused on the science/progress. "