The Numbers Game

by Michael Dilnot Andrew Blastland

The Strunk & White of statistics team up to help the average person navigate the numbers in the news. Drawing on their hugely popular BBC Radio 4 show More or Less,/I>, journalist Michael Blastland and internationally known economist Andrew Dilnot delight, amuse, and convert American mathphobes by showing how our everyday experiences make sense of numbers. The radical premise of The Numbers Game is to show how much we already know, and give practical ways to use our knowledge to become cannier consumers of the media. In each concise chapter, the authors take on a different theme?such as size, chance, averages, targets, risk, measurement, and data?and present it as a memorable and entertaining story. If you?ve ever wondered what ?average? really means, whether the scare stories about cancer risk should convince you to change your behavior, or whether a story you read in the paper is biased (and how), you need this book. Blastland and Dilnot show how to survive and thrive on the torrent of numbers that pours through everyday life. It?s the essential guide to every cause you love or hate, and every issue you follow, in the language everyone uses.

ebook

First published December 26, 2008

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the topic was fascinating, the writing was so bad as to be almost unreadable. It felt like the authors (who are obviously numbers guys) were trying FAR too hard to be eloquent and verbose, and the editor should have been fired for allowing so many run-on sentences. The description calls the authors the Strunk and White of statistics. I'd recommend the authors and editor actually READ Strunk and White first.

[Ashwani Duggal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whys should we take all numbers quoted by journalists, politicians and even doctors with a pinch of salt.