I can’t exactly remember what triggered me to buy this book but it is one of several books I bought on the topic I recently purchased. And it is a good complement after re-reading Foundation as it starts by explaining why the social atoms approach, which is how Seldon is supposed to have built psychohistory, is bullshit.

Overall it gives a great coverage of the limitation of modelling society through maths, statistics and models. The author goes through different modelling approaches and various examples for each to get each his arguments across. Also, in the same way The art of statistics was built around UK examples, this one mostly focuses on research by French research organisations, which is a GREAT change compared with US-centric books which reuse the same 5 example over and over (looking at you Revolutionary Mathematics).

Yet, to be frank, I had to fight a lot to finish reading the book, mostly due to the style. I can feel how each section was planned, articulated and built. I can see the scaffolding around the words. And for a good reason: I work in the same way. And I hate my way of writing.

Final word: if the topic interest you and need a good deep dive of the limitation of modeling beyond the spherical cow, go for it.