Unlock the Secrets of Statistics: 10 Simple Strategies to Analyze Data Like a Pro

Jacqui: This is a great book for everyone living in this day of social media and the “everywhere A.I.” data sources.

Australia on Jan 06, 2023

William J. Ballantyne: I liked the premise, which is that while statistics are often used to mislead, this doesn’t mean that they are always to be mistrusted. I don’t think the author went nearly deep enough into when and how to accept data-driven arguments. The topic is important though, and readers should follow up with the more substantive book Thinking Fast and Slow in case they haven’t already read it.

Canada on Sep 26, 2022

AndersK: It is a great book. But it is also sold as ”How to make the world add up”. I read two sentences before I realised that I already read the book…

Sweden on Nov 27, 2021

Everybody: Even though I have no background in Economics, Tim manages to engage and even make econ fun for everyone. Very helpful book when you want to determine the lies and truths in stats you see everyday.

Canada on Sep 04, 2021

V. Vanderbent: You are going to say I am being overly critical in my rating and review, and that I am biased myself. To his credit, Harford admits that he has friends on the left and leaves out his friends on the right. How am I supposed to interpret this in the context of his analysis of the climate change debate? Yet in a book about responsible use of statistics, how is the interpretation of data not supposed to be objective if one wants to gain maximum credibility?

Harford appears to do with "climate change" what most other "data detectives" do - leaving out the elephant in the room. Somehow, the author seems to want the reader to believe that his thoughtful, unbiased perspective on climate change data is correct and therefore the rest of the book too on all the other topics.

Harford thoughtfully addresses the issue of bias and how there is a certain type of bias that is extremely hard to overcome. Unfortunately, it seems he falls prey to it himself. What is this elephant that I am referring to? Population size. As scientists appear to have concluded beyond a reasonable doubt, climate change today is dwarfed by climate change events in the past even when there wasn't a single...

United States on May 16, 2021

Murray A. Sondergard: I find it interesting that the last few pages of this book summarize the key challenges to presenting data and facts. To be successful, you must be interesting and inspire curiosity in the reader to learn more. An excellent point, but it seems to condemn books like these to being compendiums of interesting stories about the subject at hand (Malcom Gladwell is a master of the form, and it comes as no surprise to see Gladwell’s praise for Harford’s work) rather than a detailed analysis of the subject.

Canada on Feb 21, 2021

Andrea P.: I enjoyed this book from beginning to end, and I learned so much. I'm neither a statistician nor an economist. I'm a policy person who's curious about how big ideas play out in the real world. This book seems to have been targeted right at me.

The Data Detective helps people think through the information they're attempting to process. The point is to get to the truth regardless of the information source. Chapter by chapter, Tim Harford explains the importance of things like recognizing that you bring your own emotions to data consumption, shifting your view of information, being curious about the backstory of data, demanding transparency even from big data sources and understanding what's missing from data. There are other "rules," too. They're all just as practical as the ones I listed, and they all require a certain amount of self-awareness if you want them to help you swim in the world's flood of information.

"Rule 3: Avoid Premature Enumeration" was the chapter that spoke to me the loudest. It describes how and why agreeing on definitions is important. I'll admit I cringed over and over again as I realized how many times I'd inadvertently repeated incorrect...

United States on Feb 16, 2021