What do you think?
Rate this book
Calling Bullshit: The Art of Scepticism in a Data-Driven World
Brought to you by Penguin.
We think we know bullshit when we hear it, but do we? A spotter's guide to bullshit in the wild from two brilliantly contrarian scientists.
The world is awash in bullshit and we're drowning in it.
Politicians are unconstrained by facts. Science is conducted by press release. Start-up culture elevates hype to high art. These days, calling bullshit is a noble act.
Based on a popular course at the University of Washington, Calling Bullshit gives us the tools to see through the obfuscations, deliberate and careless, that dominate every realm of our lives.
In this lively guide, biologist Carl Bergstrom and statistician Jevin West show that calling bullshit is crucial to a properly functioning social group, whether it be a circle of friends, a community of researchers, or the citizens of a nation.
Through six rules of thumb, they help us recognise bullshit whenever and wherever we encounter it - even within ourselves - and explain it to a crystal-loving aunt or casually racist grandfather.
Calling Bullshit is a modern handbook to the art of scepticism.
PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
We think we know bullshit when we hear it, but do we? A spotter's guide to bullshit in the wild from two brilliantly contrarian scientists.
The world is awash in bullshit and we're drowning in it.
Politicians are unconstrained by facts. Science is conducted by press release. Start-up culture elevates hype to high art. These days, calling bullshit is a noble act.
Based on a popular course at the University of Washington, Calling Bullshit gives us the tools to see through the obfuscations, deliberate and careless, that dominate every realm of our lives.
In this lively guide, biologist Carl Bergstrom and statistician Jevin West show that calling bullshit is crucial to a properly functioning social group, whether it be a circle of friends, a community of researchers, or the citizens of a nation.
Through six rules of thumb, they help us recognise bullshit whenever and wherever we encounter it - even within ourselves - and explain it to a crystal-loving aunt or casually racist grandfather.
Calling Bullshit is a modern handbook to the art of scepticism.
PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Audible Audio
Published August 4, 2020
16 people are currently reading
82 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 2, 2025
I really wanted to like this book. Instead, I skipped over multiple pages and found the same topics revisited and reexamined over and over again. Even when new topics were introduced, it was so excessively explained and unnecessarily verbose the point gets lost within the first paragraph.
Why? There was so much potential here. Two highly educated authors instead offer a level of investigation such that nobody in a quantitative field or background would find anything they didn’t already know. Or anything past a first level of undergraduate study to be honest.
I’ve read wonderful books that call into question the quality and power of data. Think anything by Malcolm Gladwell. I did not finish this book, but I hope at least that the audience for this book that isn’t from a statistical field found use in it.
Why? There was so much potential here. Two highly educated authors instead offer a level of investigation such that nobody in a quantitative field or background would find anything they didn’t already know. Or anything past a first level of undergraduate study to be honest.
I’ve read wonderful books that call into question the quality and power of data. Think anything by Malcolm Gladwell. I did not finish this book, but I hope at least that the audience for this book that isn’t from a statistical field found use in it.
December 12, 2024
Spotting bullshit is a private activity. Calling bullshit is a public one. However, if you had taken at least one course of mathematics or economics at university - you can easily skip this book. Nothing new for anyone who has any kind numbers or technical background. Basically it is similar to books about good nutrition habits written for Americans with suggestions like: you should not eat something that you can't understand what it was cooked from.
March 23, 2024
Too much examples without generalization of truly calling bullshxt.
July 7, 2025
I will definitely use this book as a reading for a critical thinking course in the future.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews