Girl Decoded, Rana el Kaliouby
Girl Decoded, Rana el Kaliouby
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Girl Decoded
A Scientist's Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology

Author: Rana el Kaliouby, Carol Colman

Narrator: Rana el Kaliouby

Unabridged: 11 hr 43 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/21/2020

Synopsis

In a captivating memoir, an Egyptian American visionary and scientist provides an intimate view of her personal transformation as she follows her calling—to humanize our technology and how we connect with one another.

LONGLISTED FOR THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD • “A vivid coming-of-age story and a call to each of us to be more mindful and compassionate when we interact online.”—Arianna Huffington

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PARADE

Rana el Kaliouby is a rarity in both the tech world and her native Middle East: a Muslim woman in charge in a field that is still overwhelmingly white and male. Growing up in Egypt and Kuwait, el Kaliouby was raised by a strict father who valued tradition—yet also had high expectations for his daughters—and a mother who was one of the first female computer programmers in the Middle East. Even before el Kaliouby broke ground as a scientist, she broke the rules of what it meant to be an obedient daughter and, later, an obedient wife to pursue her own daring dream.

After earning her PhD at Cambridge, el Kaliouby, now the divorced mother of two, moved to America to pursue her mission to humanize technology before it dehumanizes us. The majority of our communication is conveyed through nonverbal cues: facial expressions, tone of voice, body language. But that communication is lost when we interact with others through our smartphones and devices. The result is an emotion-blind digital universe that impairs the very intelligence and capabilities—including empathy—that distinguish human beings from our machines.

To combat our fundamental loss of emotional intelligence online, she cofounded Affectiva, the pioneer in the new field of Emotion AI, allowing our technology to understand humans the way we understand one another. Girl Decoded chronicles el Kaliouby’s journey from being a “nice Egyptian girl” to becoming a woman, carving her own path as she revolutionizes technology. But decoding herself—learning to express and act on her own emotions—would prove to be the biggest challenge of all.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Eric on April 29, 2020

If I could have given Girl Decoded 6 stars, I would. This is my first ever book review and I felt compelled to share my thoughts about the book because it brought me so much joy. While my journey is not quite as exotic or exciting as Dr. Rana el Kaliouby’s, as a fellow technologist, entrepreneur, an......more

Goodreads review by Inderjit on August 30, 2020

Rana El Kaliouby is in many ways a trailblazer; not just in her role as a Muslim woman at the forefront of tech, but also as somebody who puts the emotional intelligence of technology at the forefront of everything she does and argues for the ability of tech to create grater equality, whether that b......more

Goodreads review by Jana on April 25, 2020

This book was such a pleasure to read. I finished reading this book in one sitting. From the moment I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. Indeed, I finished it so fast that I wish it were longer! Rana’s story is not only an incredible one, but one that is both relatable and inspirational, offering......more

Goodreads review by Adnan on June 16, 2020

I have not rated a book with 5 stars in a very long time. But, this one really deserved it being so relatable and insightful in so many aspects. I came across this book while watching a documentary about AI which featured Rana among its interviews. It is very inspiring to see someone growing up in E......more

Goodreads review by Silas on April 27, 2020

As good as I expected from the Rana I knew in Cambridge. Although her personal story has dark times which must have been difficult to write—don't expect to be entirely comfortable all the way through—the overall message is a very positive one, in which Rana has communicated for a non-technical audie......more

Quotes

“Rana el Kaliouby’s journey to overcome self-doubt and embrace her ambition will resonate with women everywhere. Girl Decoded is the kind of honest and inspiring story that will encourage other women to share their experiences and own their power.”—Tory Burch, founder and executive chairman of Tory Burch LLC

“Both a candid memoir and a confession, [Dr.] el Kaliouby’s intriguing book lays bare the emotional complexities of ‘a nice Egyptian girl’ while displaying the steely strength, perseverance and naked willpower that has propelled her to imagine a different type of future for both herself and humankind. As the girl decodes herself, she opens up new hope to address the emotional blindness and ‘empathy crisis’ that affects us all.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Girl Decoded is a rousing reminder that women can and should be able to succeed without sacrificing any part of their wholeness.”—Esquire

“Girl Decoded is an affecting memoir that highlights the tension between one woman’s upbringing and her aspirations. Such life stories, told well, have the power to uplift us all.”—Science

“As an entrepreneur and computer scientist, Rana el Kaliouby has done pioneering work to infuse technology with emotion and leverage technology to enrich our understanding of emotions. In this forthright, engaging memoir, she takes us behind the scenes of her work and through the key events that have shaped her life and worldview.”—Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take

“El Kaliouby’s dream was to enable computers to engage human emotions, but she needed to engage her own emotions to invent machines with emotions. Her remarkable life story is a captivating way to understand this new technological frontier: machines with emotional intelligence.”—Kevin Kelly, futurist, founding editor of Wired, and author of The Inevitable 

“Brilliant and inspiring—words that describe both Rana el Kaliouby and her extraordinary new book, which tells the story of her life and of the crucial role she played in the invention of artificial emotional intelligence . . . a poignant and deeply personal tale about love, loss, and coming of age on a new scientific frontier.”—Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard University and author of Stumbling on Happiness

“It is critical that we embrace a future in which technology enhances our most human qualities, specifically empathy, caring, and emotional intelligence.”—Peter Diamandis, founder and chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation and coauthor of The Future Is Faster Than You Think

“Emotional intelligence in AI is every bit as critical for machines as it is for humans. No one has done more to create that capability than Rana el Kaliouby. This book tells the remarkable story of her pioneering journey, breaking barriers all along the way. A must-read!”—Erik Brynjolfsson, professor at MIT Sloan School of Management and coauthor of The Second Machine Age and Machine, Platform, Crowd

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