Episode 103: Chris Jones
Chris Jones is the author \u201cThe Eye Test: A Case for Human Creativity in the Age of Analytics.\u201d Jones describes the book as the distillation of everything he has learned from creative people over his journalism career. He says he\u2019s trying to make the case that analytics are useful, but they have their limitations.\n\n\u201cThe Eye Test\u201d digs into seven different areas where there are a lot of analytical inputs, but stories of those analytics coming up short. Those chapters include Entertainment, Sports, Weather, Politics, Crime, Money, and Medicine. \n\nThis is Jones\u2019s third book. His most recent book was \u201cToo Far from Home,\u201d which was retitled \u201cOut of Orbit\u201d in paperback. It first came out in 2007.\n\nJones has been on the podcast twice before. He was featured on Episode 17 in January of 2014. At the time, we talked about his Kenneth Feinberg profile that ran in Esquire, as well as his 50th anniversary story on the JFK assassination.\n\nIn April of 2020, when the pandemic was just getting started, Episode 82 included an interview with Jones focused on the different types of writing he had been doing since leaving Esquire, including screenwriting. \n\nJones was a longtime reporter for Esquire, where he won a National Magazine Award twice, including in 2009 for \u201cThe Things That Carried Him.\u201d He was a writer and producer on the Netflix series \u201cAway.\u201d He has written for The New York Times, ESPN: The Magazine, and many other publications.