Steven JohnsonVerified account

@stevenbjohnson

My new book, Enemy Of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power And History's First Global Manhunt. New podcast: Fighting Coronavirus.

Brooklyn NY & Marin County CA
Joined March 2007

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  1. Pinned Tweet
    Apr 24

    Library Journal on my new book Enemy Of All Mankind: “Johnson weaves a tapestry of treasure, tribunals, emperors, atrocities, and a pirate’s life at sea. Consummate popular history: fast-paced, intelligent, and entertaining.” Links for pre-ordering here:

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  2. Retweeted

    Multiple new experiments in data gathering and analysis have sprung up during the pandemic, experiments that might save thousands of lives before the crisis is over. And they may well prevent future pandemics from developing in the first place.

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  3. My old friend has a new YA novel out and, no surprise, it’s getting great reviews...

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  4. Retweeted

    We tend to think of meaningful health progress in terms of tangible things: vaccines, antibiotics, fMRI scanners. But sometimes the most important breakthroughs are new ways of counting, new ways of seeing patterns. My new essay:

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  5. We tend to think of meaningful health progress in terms of tangible things: vaccines, antibiotics, fMRI scanners. But sometimes the most important breakthroughs are new ways of counting, new ways of seeing patterns. My new essay:

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  6. Jun 13
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  7. Jun 13

    The trouble with most public health data is that it gets collected too late in the infection timeline. That's why so much of the innovation now is focused on getting data *before* people go to the doctor or the hospital. More here in my new essay:

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  8. Retweeted
    Jun 11

    "Then, as now, the first line of defense was data."

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  9. Retweeted
    Jun 11

    New from me in : "Vital Statistics," an essay about the early pioneers who first used data to fight epidemics, and their modern descendants in the battle against COVID-19

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  10. Retweeted
    Jun 11

    "By early Feb, the Open Data Working Group had assembled detailed records for 10k cases. Today ... It may well be the single most accurate portrait of the virus’s spread." - writing for the on the power of epi data.

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  11. Retweeted
    Jun 11

    I think Ghost Map remains one of my favorite non-fiction books ever. Read it if you haven't!

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  12. Jun 11

    He's only mentioned in passing in this new piece, but of course the other great pioneer of data visualization and disease prevention was John Snow, hero of my book The Ghost Map -- famous for his map of the 1854 Soho cholera outbreak.

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  13. Jun 11

    Also this wacky but beautiful chart tracking temperature and mortality rates from the late 1840s

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  14. Jun 11

    I love some of these old data visualizations included in the online version of the piece, like this "life table" triptych created by William Farr, one of the first attempts to prove that newly industrialized cities were killing people, particularly young children

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  15. Jun 11

    New from me in : "Vital Statistics," an essay about the early pioneers who first used data to fight epidemics, and their modern descendants in the battle against COVID-19

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  16. Retweeted
    Jun 10

    One problem all the civilazation-building games have (civ, starcraft, factorio...) is they have a fixed tech tree, and so you always know what research will result in. What would a game look like where research has a speculative nature, and you don’t know what will come of it?

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  17. Retweeted
    Jun 8

    A remarkable historic moment. Ten of the last generation’s most senior and respected generals and admirals and 4 former secretaries of defense have in the last week said the president is unfit and a danger. ⁩ gathered their statements.

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  18. Retweeted

    "Statues aren't about remembering history. They are about memorialisation." in our debate on statues in 2018 with Here he speaks specifically about Edward Colston. Watch the full discussion:

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  19. Retweeted
    Jun 7
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  20. Retweeted
    Jun 6

    i think maybe we should not have opened the buildings which are expressly for people who are bad at risk assessment first

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  21. Retweeted

    11 new books recommended by critics and editors at The New York Times

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