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The Tyranny of Numbers : Why Counting Can't Make Us Happy
Never before have we attempted to measure as much as we do today. Why are we so obsessed with numbers? What can they really tell us?Too often we try to quantify what can’t actually be measured. We count people, but not individuals. We count exam results rather than intelligence, benefit claimants instead of poverty. The government has set itself 10,000 new targets. Politicians pack their speeches with skewed crime rates are either rising or falling depending on who is doing the counting.We are in a world in which everything designed only to be measured. If it can’t be measured it can be ignored.But the big problem is what numbers don’t tell you. They won’t interpret. They won’t inspire, and they won’t tell you precisely what causes what.In this passionately argued and thought-provoking book, David Boyle examines our obsession with numbers. He reminds us of the danger of taking numbers so seriously at the expense of what is non-measurable, intuition, creativity, imagination, happiness…Counting is a vital human skill. Yardsticks are a vital tool. As long as we remember how limiting they are if we cling to them too closely.Americans who claim to have been abducted by aliens = 3.7 millionAverage time spent by British people in traffic jams every year = 11 daysNumber of Americans shot by children under six between 1983 and 1993 = 138, 490
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 4, 2010
7 people are currently reading
96 people want to read
About the author
David Boyle
232 books54 followersDavid Courtney Boyle was a British author and journalist who wrote mainly about history and new ideas in economics, money, business, and culture. He lived in Steyning in West Sussex.
He conducted an independent review for the Treasury and the Cabinet Office on public demand for choice in public services which reported in 2013. Boyle was a co-founder and policy director of Radix, which he characterized in 2017 as a radical centrist think tank. He was also co-director of the mutual think tank New Weather Institute.
He conducted an independent review for the Treasury and the Cabinet Office on public demand for choice in public services which reported in 2013. Boyle was a co-founder and policy director of Radix, which he characterized in 2017 as a radical centrist think tank. He was also co-director of the mutual think tank New Weather Institute.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 14, 2017
The amount of time in an average lifetime in Britain spent looking for lost thing: 1 year.
The amount spent by Americans every year breaking into broken automatic car locks: $400 million.
The amount of times people have sex around the world every day: 120 million.
There we go, I thought the last one would get your attention! Anyhow, that did have a point because this book is all about our obsession with numbers, and how this obsession goes back several centuries. But it asks the fundamental questions: Why are we so obsessed with numbers? And what can they really tell us? David Boyle uses this book to explore the fact that we seem to attempt to measure what cannot be measured, we count people but we cannot count individuals, we count exam results rather than intelligence and everyone seem to be trying to come up with ways to measure happiness. If it can't be measured or counted then it can be ignored. This is a dangerous way of looking at the world because it means that we miss a large amount of what is right in front of our noses.
===Structure===
Before anyone asks, this is a factual book. Although the author can at point be rather sarcastic and sardonic about our obsession with numbers in life, the point of the book is clear, and that is to remind us all of how much time in life we spend number crunching and how much more than that life has to offer...if we give it a chance. The book is structured into 11 chapters, with every second chapter being a historical interlude into this obsession with counting which we now find ourselves in. This mix between present and past makes the book quite a trek, but it does make it more interesting if you are interested in the history of things, particularly as David Boyle has attempted to bring up interesting aspects of the past which support his argument and he uses it to show that this obsession with numbers is not a new thing.
David Boyle often splits his chapters into sections, which makes it far easier to read, particularly as Boyle does have a nasty habit of slipping into the dry language style which tends to be favoured by academics...and which drives the rest of the world insane. This is the one big downside of the book because it is very off putting for a lay person to read what seems at times to become a dry academic text book. What does however make the book quite interesting to read is that at the end of each chapter he includes two or three facts and figures which tend to be quite amusing (such as the ones given at the beginning of this review), although this does lead to a nasty tendency to skip to the end of each chapter so you can read the amusing statistics! Or maybe that’s just me being impatient.
===Content===
David Boyle is making a specific point throughout his book, and that is that we live far too much by numbers and that we do this in several different ways. He is stating quite clearly that our obsession with numbers and the ability to count things means that we end up missing what should be important to us. He uses the famous figure of George Banks in Mary Poppins as an analogy of what many of us have become, as we cannot see past the ends of our noses. We all know the famous song lyrics:
'..A thousand ciphers neatly in a row.
While gazing at a graph that show the profits up,
their little cup of joy should overflow.'
.
However, he is also making the point that many of the calculations have been done for excellent humanitarian reasons, driven by radical reformers who are truly trying to make a difference to the lives of others. This excessive counting has been done for reasons counting has been done for reasons good and bad (for the bad side just look at the Nazis), but it has been a way of improving the world. Examples of this would be Edwin Chadwick, John Maynard Keynes or Jeremy Bentham. These are the types of people who David Boyle are used for the historical interludes, as these are the people who - for the best of reasons - brought the flood of numbers and calculations into the non-scientific parts of our lives. But without Edwin Chadwick we would not have had the public health reform that came about because of his research into the sanitary conditions in the poorer classes and many of David Boyle’s historical interludes go to show that although this way of thinking isn’t good when taken to the extremes that we have taken it, at points it is the only way forward.
First of all Boyle gives a short history of counting going all the way back to Pythagoras in the 6th century BC and St Augustine of Hippo, and even before that to when numbers were just marks notched into sticks, though these 'tally sticks' kept going until 1783. Zero itself as a number was 'invented' by a monk called Raoul de Laon and was banned in 1229 as it was counted as ungodly. Boyle then looks at Jeremy Bentham and his view of utilitarianism - 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number', and his views of pleasure and pain being able to be calculated by intensity, duration, certainty, rapidity, fecundity, purity and extensiveness. Boyle then goes on to explore how happiness is however illusive, because you can carry out Bentham's calculations of happiness with incredible accuracy, but the psyche will always slip away and go it's own way.
Economists have come to feel
What can't be measured, isn't real.
The truth is always an amount
Count numbers, only numbers count.
Boyle continues in this fashion, explaining how average is an impossibility because everyone is an individual and 'Mr. Average' was invented in a science lab. But one of the main points he makes is that numbers are still a vital tool for human progress; we can test new therapies, we can judge schools and hospitals only by numbers. Numbers and counting can give us a certain amount of control over an unpredictable world, and sometimes that sense of control is desperately needed. Our issue however is that we rely on them too much, and we make decisions based solely on them without considering what truly matters in our world.
===My Response===
Overall, this was a very interesting book to read. It brings up some very interesting points, and has an edge of cynicism which makes it far easier to read - without that it would be a book that you could only truly skim. However, as I mentioned earlier David Boyle does have a nasty habit of slipping into an academic, lecturing tone of voice which means that the book can get rather dry and difficult to read on occasions. This is particularly noticeable when he slips into the habit of relying far too much on facts, figures and numbers (rather ironic when you consider the point he is trying to make!). I will however say that although I did enjoy reading the book, this will not be for everyone. It has to be read slowly and in small sections, otherwise you're going to end up feeling like you're hitting your head against a brick wall. Other than that, my only main complaint would be that sometimes the book doesn't feel like you're going anywhere, and it does on occasions feel like you're reading the same thing again with different examples.
I would quite happily state that it is a good and unique read, but you may be more interested in borrowing a copy before buying one as otherwise you may find yourself disappointed. At the very least I’d advise you to flick through it in the bookshop so you know whether you’re interested.
===Conclusion===
It's an interesting concept for a book, and it is an interesting book, but it could have been done better and it may not be your cup of tea. It has to be said that this is not the easiest book in the world to read, and the academic tone that Boyle uses gets remarkably annoying on occasions. I don’t regret buying it, but is probably a book I will only read once.
I'll leave you with a short poem from the book:
I revealed to you a magic carpet that will whiz you through the air,
To health and wealth and happiness, if you'll just tell it where.
So, will you let it take you where you've never been before?
Or will you buy some drapes to match and use it on your floor?
===Boring stuff===
Title: The Tyranny of Numbers: Why Counting Can't Make Us Happy
Author: David Boyle
Publisher: Flamingo; (4 Oct 2010)
ISBN: 978-0006531999
Pages: 256
Price: From £2.80 on Amazon including postage at time of writing.
This review has previously been published on Dooyoo and has been slightly modified.
The amount spent by Americans every year breaking into broken automatic car locks: $400 million.
The amount of times people have sex around the world every day: 120 million.
There we go, I thought the last one would get your attention! Anyhow, that did have a point because this book is all about our obsession with numbers, and how this obsession goes back several centuries. But it asks the fundamental questions: Why are we so obsessed with numbers? And what can they really tell us? David Boyle uses this book to explore the fact that we seem to attempt to measure what cannot be measured, we count people but we cannot count individuals, we count exam results rather than intelligence and everyone seem to be trying to come up with ways to measure happiness. If it can't be measured or counted then it can be ignored. This is a dangerous way of looking at the world because it means that we miss a large amount of what is right in front of our noses.
===Structure===
Before anyone asks, this is a factual book. Although the author can at point be rather sarcastic and sardonic about our obsession with numbers in life, the point of the book is clear, and that is to remind us all of how much time in life we spend number crunching and how much more than that life has to offer...if we give it a chance. The book is structured into 11 chapters, with every second chapter being a historical interlude into this obsession with counting which we now find ourselves in. This mix between present and past makes the book quite a trek, but it does make it more interesting if you are interested in the history of things, particularly as David Boyle has attempted to bring up interesting aspects of the past which support his argument and he uses it to show that this obsession with numbers is not a new thing.
David Boyle often splits his chapters into sections, which makes it far easier to read, particularly as Boyle does have a nasty habit of slipping into the dry language style which tends to be favoured by academics...and which drives the rest of the world insane. This is the one big downside of the book because it is very off putting for a lay person to read what seems at times to become a dry academic text book. What does however make the book quite interesting to read is that at the end of each chapter he includes two or three facts and figures which tend to be quite amusing (such as the ones given at the beginning of this review), although this does lead to a nasty tendency to skip to the end of each chapter so you can read the amusing statistics! Or maybe that’s just me being impatient.
===Content===
David Boyle is making a specific point throughout his book, and that is that we live far too much by numbers and that we do this in several different ways. He is stating quite clearly that our obsession with numbers and the ability to count things means that we end up missing what should be important to us. He uses the famous figure of George Banks in Mary Poppins as an analogy of what many of us have become, as we cannot see past the ends of our noses. We all know the famous song lyrics:
'..A thousand ciphers neatly in a row.
While gazing at a graph that show the profits up,
their little cup of joy should overflow.'
.
However, he is also making the point that many of the calculations have been done for excellent humanitarian reasons, driven by radical reformers who are truly trying to make a difference to the lives of others. This excessive counting has been done for reasons counting has been done for reasons good and bad (for the bad side just look at the Nazis), but it has been a way of improving the world. Examples of this would be Edwin Chadwick, John Maynard Keynes or Jeremy Bentham. These are the types of people who David Boyle are used for the historical interludes, as these are the people who - for the best of reasons - brought the flood of numbers and calculations into the non-scientific parts of our lives. But without Edwin Chadwick we would not have had the public health reform that came about because of his research into the sanitary conditions in the poorer classes and many of David Boyle’s historical interludes go to show that although this way of thinking isn’t good when taken to the extremes that we have taken it, at points it is the only way forward.
First of all Boyle gives a short history of counting going all the way back to Pythagoras in the 6th century BC and St Augustine of Hippo, and even before that to when numbers were just marks notched into sticks, though these 'tally sticks' kept going until 1783. Zero itself as a number was 'invented' by a monk called Raoul de Laon and was banned in 1229 as it was counted as ungodly. Boyle then looks at Jeremy Bentham and his view of utilitarianism - 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number', and his views of pleasure and pain being able to be calculated by intensity, duration, certainty, rapidity, fecundity, purity and extensiveness. Boyle then goes on to explore how happiness is however illusive, because you can carry out Bentham's calculations of happiness with incredible accuracy, but the psyche will always slip away and go it's own way.
Economists have come to feel
What can't be measured, isn't real.
The truth is always an amount
Count numbers, only numbers count.
Boyle continues in this fashion, explaining how average is an impossibility because everyone is an individual and 'Mr. Average' was invented in a science lab. But one of the main points he makes is that numbers are still a vital tool for human progress; we can test new therapies, we can judge schools and hospitals only by numbers. Numbers and counting can give us a certain amount of control over an unpredictable world, and sometimes that sense of control is desperately needed. Our issue however is that we rely on them too much, and we make decisions based solely on them without considering what truly matters in our world.
===My Response===
Overall, this was a very interesting book to read. It brings up some very interesting points, and has an edge of cynicism which makes it far easier to read - without that it would be a book that you could only truly skim. However, as I mentioned earlier David Boyle does have a nasty habit of slipping into an academic, lecturing tone of voice which means that the book can get rather dry and difficult to read on occasions. This is particularly noticeable when he slips into the habit of relying far too much on facts, figures and numbers (rather ironic when you consider the point he is trying to make!). I will however say that although I did enjoy reading the book, this will not be for everyone. It has to be read slowly and in small sections, otherwise you're going to end up feeling like you're hitting your head against a brick wall. Other than that, my only main complaint would be that sometimes the book doesn't feel like you're going anywhere, and it does on occasions feel like you're reading the same thing again with different examples.
I would quite happily state that it is a good and unique read, but you may be more interested in borrowing a copy before buying one as otherwise you may find yourself disappointed. At the very least I’d advise you to flick through it in the bookshop so you know whether you’re interested.
===Conclusion===
It's an interesting concept for a book, and it is an interesting book, but it could have been done better and it may not be your cup of tea. It has to be said that this is not the easiest book in the world to read, and the academic tone that Boyle uses gets remarkably annoying on occasions. I don’t regret buying it, but is probably a book I will only read once.
I'll leave you with a short poem from the book:
I revealed to you a magic carpet that will whiz you through the air,
To health and wealth and happiness, if you'll just tell it where.
So, will you let it take you where you've never been before?
Or will you buy some drapes to match and use it on your floor?
===Boring stuff===
Title: The Tyranny of Numbers: Why Counting Can't Make Us Happy
Author: David Boyle
Publisher: Flamingo; (4 Oct 2010)
ISBN: 978-0006531999
Pages: 256
Price: From £2.80 on Amazon including postage at time of writing.
This review has previously been published on Dooyoo and has been slightly modified.
October 4, 2025
Despite only having been written twenty-five years ago this book is terribly out of date; not the fault of the author, just a reflection of how fast the world, and especially technology, changes. What is the fault if the author is the rather laboured way he puts across his argument, and his constant infusion of contemporary to him - and therefore ephemeral - political personalities and issues.
Having said that, the central message that the most important things in life can't be counted is obviously absolutely spot on - and I say that as an accountant myself - but isn't in any sense original. If you want a more pithy encapsulation of his argument try this one from Robert Kennedy, the original rather than the lunatic son, a quote which the author of the book seems unaware.
"Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile."
Having said that, the central message that the most important things in life can't be counted is obviously absolutely spot on - and I say that as an accountant myself - but isn't in any sense original. If you want a more pithy encapsulation of his argument try this one from Robert Kennedy, the original rather than the lunatic son, a quote which the author of the book seems unaware.
"Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile."
August 2, 2011
It surprises to recall times when every aspect of life and society wasn't monitored, recorded and extrapolated from. The move to statistics-based policy-making was remarkably recent, and at times, a hotly disputed one at that. The contention of the book, and supporting examples abound within it, is that behavioural and societal problems are extraordinarily complex and any attempt to dilute these problems to a single number can be wildly wrong and/or dangerous. Combine this with the observations that you seem to find more of whatever it is you're counting, and that sometimes what you're counting doesn't really matter, but how you feel about it does; and you may just question the fundaments modern society operates atop of. In the end, a book of interesting ideas and fascinating examples, that aren't especially well-conveyed (i.e. not a book you can't put down, but one that you feel you should be reading when you're not! :)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews