Books
My friend and former colleague, Kaiser Fung, has a book that came out in February, about the influence that numbers and statistics have in our day-to-day lives. It is a very entertaining read – who knew a stats professor could write for a mass audience? This is not a book about statistics – it is a book about why statistics matter, and what impact numbers have on business and on our lives (whether or not we are aware of this influence). It is full of great examples, and devoid of equations and arcane terminology.
Each chapter of the book is built around a pair of case studies meant to illustrate the importance and influence of a particular type of analysis or measurement. Some of the cases covered are:
- The spinach E. Coli scare and how misguided bureaucracies can be in dealing with crises
- What the thinking is behind how the lines work at Disney World (hint: waiting time is all in your head)
- How fear of false positive results almost completely negates drug testing in sports
- A practical look at the usefulness of polygraphs
- Standardized tests and eliminating test bias
This is not boring prattle about normal distributions and p-scores. It is much more interesting than that, and is more about why anyone should care about statistics. And, as it turns out, there are some very good benefits to knowing about this stuff, not the least of which is an increased resistance to being bamboozled by technical-sounding smoke and mirrors.
Buy one now!
Edward Tufte is an inspiration to me, and this is the book that made me a fan:
How your firm can turn analytics into a sustainable competitive advantage:
