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How to Make the World Add Up (Hardcover)

by Tim Harford (Author)

Original price was: ₹1,500.00.Current price is: ₹399.00.

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How to Make the World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers (2020) by Tim Harford is a book about how to interpret the myriad of statistics that now abound in the news. Harford has written for the Financial Times and hosts the excellent BBC Podcast on statistics in current Affairs, “More or Less”. So if you’re a ‘loyal listener’ you have a fair idea of what’s coming.

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How to Make the World Add Up (Hardcover) by Tim Harford
How to Make the World Add Up (Hardcover)
1,500.00 Original price was: ₹1,500.00.399.00Current price is: ₹399.00.

How to Make the World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers (2020) by Tim Harford is a book about how to interpret the myriad of statistics that now abound in the news. Harford has written for the Financial Times and hosts the excellent BBC Podcast on statistics in current Affairs, “More or Less”. So if you’re a ‘loyal listener’ you have a fair idea of what’s coming.

The rules are:

First, we should learn to stop and notice our emotional reaction to a claim, rather than accepting or rejecting it because of how it makes us feel.

Second, we should look for ways to combine the ‘bird’s eye’ statistical perspective with the ‘worm’s eye’ view from personal experience.

Third, we should look at the labels on the data we’re being given, and ask if we understand what’s really being described.

Fourth, we should look for comparisons and context, putting any claim into perspective.

Fifth, we should look behind the statistics at where they came from – and what other data might have vanished into obscurity.

Sixth, we should ask who is missing from the data we’re being shown, and whether our conclusions might differ if they were included.

Seventh, we should ask tough questions about algorithms and the big datasets that drive them, recognising that without intelligent openness they cannot be trusted.

Eighth, we should pay more attention to the bedrock of official statistics – and the sometimes heroic statisticians who protect it.

Ninth, we should look under the surface of any beautiful graph or chart.

And tenth, we should keep an open mind, asking how we might be mistaken, and whether the facts have changed.

These rules are all well though through and each chapter has a narrative and a good number of interesting tales. Harford writes really well and knows his subject intimately which tends to result in a good book.

Nicely the book also returns to ‘How to Lie with Statistics’ and Harford describes that statistics when used at their best are the absolute opposite, they enable us to better understand the world if we careful and curious with their use.

How to Make the World Add Up is another excellent book from an accomplished author. It’s definitely worth a read for anyone interested in how to read and comprehend statistics.

Additional information

Weight 548 g
Dimensions 15.8 × 24.0 × 2.8 cm
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ISBN

9781408712245

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