Uncovering the Truth Behind Darrell Huff's Classic Book, 'How to Lie with Statistics' by Irving Geisel

Daniel: Un libro interesante, pero sin mucho orden o seguimiento. Va contando anécdotas sobre cómo la información utiliza erróneamente la estadística y ello lleva a muchos malos entendidos

Mexico on Aug 31, 2023

CDianne: I am a scientist and I use this book to help people and students understand how we can be dupped with numbers. The book is straightforward, easy to understand and has absolutely CORRECT information. You do not have to be a scientist to use this book. Anyone who does presentations with numbers in it needs to be sure to understand the straightforward information so they can be protected against being tricked and ready for questions about how they have prepared their own charts!
Great info! This is a classic book!

United States on Aug 08, 2023

GBHmagic: Not long but full of information everyone shoukd read at least once. The book shows you how statistics can be used to manipulate data into just about anything.

United States on May 24, 2023

Isa: Using data to influence other is such a good way if you are beginner of the career, nobody will ever believe what you say so might as well use the data to gain credibility.

United States on May 23, 2023

S: Don't know why the educational system doesn't include books like this as a mandatory read for all students.

United States on Mar 26, 2023

old1: Much of the content of this book is not revolutionary but evolutionary, especially if you are an accountancy firm. The major thrust of this book is about agreed accountability, including everyone from the receptionist to the owners and their customers. It covers detailed methods with examples for his own company. It is more evolutionary partly because the basic theory is not new but in the context of an accountancy firm probable revolutionary.

The basic concept is that everyone, including customers, are accountable for their actions and therefore their impact on the success of the company. It highlights an important and fundamental problem associated with bottom-line focussed companies not acknowledging or realizing that not only are customers important to their profit but so are the workforce.

Thiss book addresses this in a well-structured way and is transparent in describing the journey of his company to a point where the profit has increased and staff are engaged with the company as stack holders. An excellent read and well worth giving as a gift, as the methods can be applied to other situation like parenting, relationships to name two.

United Kingdom on Aug 23, 2021

Bob Lewis: In 2016, all the best money was on Hillary Clinton to defeat Donald Trump in the U.S. Presidential election. Massive polls analyzed by highly-credentialed experts said so. The election went the other way. How could the analysts have gotten it so wrong? A potential answer is found in the pages of this short book written more than sixty years earlier by Darrell Huff and charmingly (if whimsically) illustrated by Irving Geis.

This book was recommended to me in passing by one of my professors when I was completing the capstone course for my BS in mathematics. Largely because of who suggested it, I expected a book about mathematical statistics. Instead, this is a book about understanding how statistical analysis can be abused (by journalists, politicians, advertisers, etc., etc.). It does not denigrate the practice of statistical analysis itself (though you will not learn even a single technique from statistical theory in its 144 pages), but rather serves as a lighthearted cautionary tale about how easy it is to become convinced that statistics carry all the weight of science even though statistical analysis is both science and art.

The reader already well-versed in...

United States on Jul 27, 2019

Terry Freedman: I first read this book at university, where I was studying statistics as part of my degree. However, it has been in the context of other subjects and, indeed, life in general that this book has proven most useful.

The odd-sounding title is easily explained by the author himself. He says he wrote the book much in the same spirit as a burglar might write an instruction manual on how to break into people’s houses — not so much to make it easier for burglars to do so, but so that home-owners can see where their vulnerabilities lie.

These days, the book seems to be even more relevant. Not only are research findings reported in the papers virtually every day, but in education in particular there are quite a few articles of faith that are based on shaky, and sometimes non-existent, foundations.

With chapters like “The well-chosen average”, “The little figures that are not there” and “The semi-attached figure”, the book makes you look at statistics in a different way.

For example, if you were to read a report that tells us that research has shown that 98% of students derive no benefit whatsoever from using technology, you may have a vague...

United Kingdom on May 04, 2016

Sphex: There is still much to lament in our ruling classes, but thank goodness we are no longer led by the likes of Lord Randolph, whose epiphany with regard to the decimal point is quoted above. However low your opinion of contemporary politicians, Gordon Brown is unlikely to mistake ".34 per cent" for "34 per cent" (although our financial ruling class would probably reward themselves handsomely for being out by only a factor of a hundred). Before we congratulate ourselves too readily for our mathematical sophistication, we should reflect upon the salutary fact that Darrell Huff's classic text is as necessary today as it was when it was first published over half a century ago. It is remarkable that, despite certain figures showing their age (we might be heading back to an average wage of £1,400 but we're not quite there yet), there is nothing dated about his style. A maths book on statistics from the fifties? If this seems as appetizing as a cold spam butty during a power cut, you're in for a surprise. That decade was not entirely in black and white.

If you spotted the fast one I pulled in the first paragraph, you're either one of "the crooks" who already know these tricks or...

United Kingdom on Dec 18, 2008

Marshall Lord: This excellent book is something very unusual.

First, it's about numbers but manages to be both extremely easy to read and very entertaining.

Secondly, although it is so accessible that a ten-year old of average intelligence should be able to understand everything in this book, the points it makes are so universal in application that even someone with much greater mathematical knowledge - and I write this as a graduate with two degrees in a discipline which requires statistical understanding - can find it full of useful reminders and even the odd valuable idea you might not have thought of or heard of.

The book is about how numbers can be manipulated, by accident or design, to trick people into making false conclusions, and how to spot when you are being fed misleading numbers. In this day and age the ability to spot bad statistics is extremely important to everyone and can literally be a life-saver.

I was very surprised indeed to see that a previous reviewer had described this book as "not for everyone." I could not disagree more strongly.

If every voter read this book, fewer bad politicians would be elected on the basis of dishonest campaign...

United Kingdom on Jul 27, 2006