The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics

4.4 | 791 ratings

Price: 15.75

Last update: 12-09-2024

About this item

From “one of the great (greatest?) contemporary popular writers on economics” (Tyler Cowen) comes a smart, lively, and encouraging rethinking of how to use statistics.

Today we think statistics are the enemy, numbers used to mislead and confuse us. That’s a mistake, Tim Harford says in The Data Detective. We shouldn’t be suspicious of statistics - we need to understand what they mean and how they can improve our lives: they are, at heart, human behavior seen through the prism of numbers and are often “the only way of grasping much of what is going on around us”. If we can toss aside our fears and learn to approach them clearly - understanding how our own preconceptions lead us astray - statistics can point to ways we can live better and work smarter.

As “perhaps the best popular economics writer in the world” (New Statesman), Tim Harford is an expert at taking complicated ideas and untangling them for millions of readers. In The Data Detective, he uses new research in science and psychology to set out ten strategies for using statistics to erase our biases and replace them with new ideas that use virtues like patience, curiosity, and good sense to better understand ourselves and the world. As a result, The Data Detective is a big-idea book about statistics and human behavior that is fresh, unexpected, and insightful.

Abby H.

Fantastic tool for brave educators (but best for university or adult students)

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2024

In an engaging way, Harford provides context and clarity for a wide swath of biases commonly present in rhetoric, and he comes across as modest, humorous and understanding of our species-wide potential for interpretive error. I most enjoyed Rule 6 on Who's Missing and learning about a whole new side to Florence Nightingale that will likely spawn a side project.

It's not for those with easily-ruffled feathers, but what's even more astonishing is how often being more educated can lead us to more strongly remaining entrenched in our positions! The last two chapters are hugely important; as a somewhat indiscriminate reader whose hunger for the unfamiliar has led me out of the US and across the world, Harford's description of the "knowledge gap" and the Golden Rule--Be curious--articulated a phenomenon that I had never been able to put into words until now. It also gave me hope for the future; according to Harford, openness to growth and accuracy in research and reporting depends not (as much) on one's political affiliation as on the individual's curiosity and desire to know more. In his opinion, it's that simple. I wholeheartedly hope he's right.

As a career educator, I adored this book so much that I am building a curriculum around it! So far, I've just completed the dialectical journal, but I see great potential here. It wouldn't be appropriate for most high school classrooms in the US given the political climate and the "hot topics" discussed, but university professors and teachers of adults should take a look at this text. There is also a version for younger learners called The Truth Detective, but I haven't been able to get my hands on it yet as I live outside the US right now.

The only drawbacks were the length of some of the anecdotes used to flesh out his points; however, I don't know that he could have built his claims as strongly if they had been shortened much. Suffice to say that having the Kindle edition is handy so that you can tap on people's names and get a quick reminder of who they are if you lose track of individuals in a story.

Overall, a fantastic, important book with huge potential for changing the world into a more measured, correctly-drawn place. Despite the one drawback, it's an easy five stars.

Mike watkins Jr.

Practical principles presented through engaging story telling.

Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2021

An interesting book that presents 10 rules on how to make sense of statistics.

1. 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.

2. We should look for ways to combine the "bird's eye" statistical perspective with the worm's eye view from personal experience.

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

I can go on but you get the point. The book provides 10 simple yet helpful rules for better understanding statistics. I love how each chapter featured an example that at first glance appeared to be inapplicable, but Tim Harford would show you how said example demonstrates the particular statistical rule. Every kind of example you can think of, and every type of story you can think of, is featured in this book. Usually, that's a turn-off for me but Tim did a great job of somehow connecting that seemingly off-topic example to the specific rule/takeaway of the chapter. I was able to learn so much from this book through Tim's storytelling.

The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is that there were some chapters where the interesting story or interesting example wasn't there or like...where the author would just turn into your typical kinda boring statistics teacher. This is ironic because Tim emphasizes that the only way to change someone's mind is to get them curious, and the only way to get them curious is to make what you're presenting entertaining or attractive. Well, let's just say that in my opinion there were certain chapters where I felt like Tim kinda slacked on applying his own advice. Chapters where someone involved in statistics would love them, but an outsider like myself would find them dull and uninteresting. These portions of the book were few and far in between though so yeah this book was still a great book to read.

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