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Who's Counting?: Uniting Numbers and Narratives with Stories from Pop Culture, Puzzles, Politics, and More
For decades, New York Times best-selling author John Allen Paulos has enlightened readers by showing how to make sense of the numbers and probabilities behind real-world events, political calculations, and everyday personal decisions. Who’s Counting? features dozens of his insightful essays—original writings on contemporary issues like the COVID-19 pandemic, online conspiracy theories, “fake news,” and climate change, as well as a selection of enduring columns from his popular ABC News column of the same name. With an abiding respect for reason, a penchant for puzzles with societal implications, and a disarming sense of humor, Paulos does in this collection what he’s famous clarifies mathematical ideas for everyone and shows how they play a role in government, media, popular culture, and life. He argues that if we can’t critically interpret numbers and statistics, we lose one of our most basic and reliable guides to reality.
- GenresNonfiction
232 pages, Paperback
Published September 15, 2022
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100 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 22, 2022
My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Rowman and Littlefield for an advance copy of this book on math based essays.
Numbers might not lie, but the people presenting the numbers, stats and figures might be doing a little fibbing. Politicians, business figures, shills, cult and religious leaders and conspiracy theorists all like to use their own fuzzy math and research they spent a morning gathering to prove their points or validate their views. And with every generation learning a new form of math the populous lacks the skills to know or understand how the house can fix the odds. John Allen Paulous has been writing about this lack of understanding in numbers, and how to see the real truth hidden in the figures for almost 30 years starting with his book Innumeracy. Who's Counting: Uniting Numbers and Narratives with Stories from Pop Culture, Puzzles, Politics, and More is a collection of essays, discussing the importance of numbers, and how to understand and see how the truth can be hidden, or set free.
The essays are a mix of older works from his column on ABC.com, updated with new information or to make sense of our new "I did the research" age. The essays are short sometimes humourous and deal with a range of ideas, pop cultures and political life. Included are some previous essays but updated to take in discussions on COVID and the current political scene. There is an essay on the idea of political leaders answering a series of riddles and word problems, which I though was a good idea and funny. Some deal with probability, winning games even though every roll seems like a losing hand. Religion is discussed with a section on hidden messages in the Bible, and another chapter on the success rate of the Sleeping Prophet Edgar Cayce (spoiler not that good). And fun sports essays like one on the hitting streak of Joe DiMaggio discussing if the streak was real or not.
I know that a lot of people might say, like Barbie once did, that "Math is hard". However John Allen Paulos has a real gift for presenting and sharing his ideas, and his passions for both the truth and math. Math is not that hard, we only make it hard, and the truth is right there, we only don't want to see it, because of a threat to our worldview, our ability to make money or to fleece the rubes, which is all one in the same. Some essays on mathematics might not be for everyone, but even these essays make a reader want to know a little more, to think a little more and ask a little more of themselves. There are a lot of themes and ideas presented, and none of them are every boring or uninteresting, even if my comprehension was a little lacking.
I have read a few books by John Allen Paulos and even though I was an English major and math and number lines were always my enemy in school, I have always enjoyed what I have read. It is a shame what we have made of education since the author makes math sound fun and exciting in many ways. However education means asking questions, and that is something politicians don't want people to do. Thankfully we still have author that do. Recommended for people who enjoy numbers, and a better understanding of the world, that isn't a Tweet or the rantings of that weird uncle that is only seen on holidays.
Numbers might not lie, but the people presenting the numbers, stats and figures might be doing a little fibbing. Politicians, business figures, shills, cult and religious leaders and conspiracy theorists all like to use their own fuzzy math and research they spent a morning gathering to prove their points or validate their views. And with every generation learning a new form of math the populous lacks the skills to know or understand how the house can fix the odds. John Allen Paulous has been writing about this lack of understanding in numbers, and how to see the real truth hidden in the figures for almost 30 years starting with his book Innumeracy. Who's Counting: Uniting Numbers and Narratives with Stories from Pop Culture, Puzzles, Politics, and More is a collection of essays, discussing the importance of numbers, and how to understand and see how the truth can be hidden, or set free.
The essays are a mix of older works from his column on ABC.com, updated with new information or to make sense of our new "I did the research" age. The essays are short sometimes humourous and deal with a range of ideas, pop cultures and political life. Included are some previous essays but updated to take in discussions on COVID and the current political scene. There is an essay on the idea of political leaders answering a series of riddles and word problems, which I though was a good idea and funny. Some deal with probability, winning games even though every roll seems like a losing hand. Religion is discussed with a section on hidden messages in the Bible, and another chapter on the success rate of the Sleeping Prophet Edgar Cayce (spoiler not that good). And fun sports essays like one on the hitting streak of Joe DiMaggio discussing if the streak was real or not.
I know that a lot of people might say, like Barbie once did, that "Math is hard". However John Allen Paulos has a real gift for presenting and sharing his ideas, and his passions for both the truth and math. Math is not that hard, we only make it hard, and the truth is right there, we only don't want to see it, because of a threat to our worldview, our ability to make money or to fleece the rubes, which is all one in the same. Some essays on mathematics might not be for everyone, but even these essays make a reader want to know a little more, to think a little more and ask a little more of themselves. There are a lot of themes and ideas presented, and none of them are every boring or uninteresting, even if my comprehension was a little lacking.
I have read a few books by John Allen Paulos and even though I was an English major and math and number lines were always my enemy in school, I have always enjoyed what I have read. It is a shame what we have made of education since the author makes math sound fun and exciting in many ways. However education means asking questions, and that is something politicians don't want people to do. Thankfully we still have author that do. Recommended for people who enjoy numbers, and a better understanding of the world, that isn't a Tweet or the rantings of that weird uncle that is only seen on holidays.
October 25, 2022
No le doy cinco estrellas porque el libro recicla material escrito con anterioridad, y recoge muchas de las ideas que ya expresa en otros escritos, pero siempre es un placer para mí leer a Paulos. Su perspicacia, su claridad de exposición y su sutil sentido del humor prometen siempre una lectura placentera e instructiva.
September 23, 2022
As someone who has struggled to understand math and has a hard time with some of those concepts, I thought this book was a fairly easy book to read and the concepts were presented in a way that made them make more sense then they used to! I would like to explore this author's other work too, especially if they are presented in the same manner that this one was.
October 7, 2022
Nicely done. This includes a number of engaging essays. Paulos writes well and clearly, and this is a pretty engaging read. Recommended.
Thanks very much for the free review copy for review!!
Thanks very much for the free review copy for review!!
November 29, 2022
Innumeracy, by John Allen Paulos, was first published in 1988. In it the author brilliantly highlighted many of the sorry truths those of us who teach math and science know – not only can’t most people do algebra or geometry, they can’t estimate size, they don’t understand simple probability and statistics, and they believe in things that make no sense.
Thirty-five years later, the world is considerably more sophisticated. We have the internet and social media, we’ve suffered through a pandemic and a President whose only connection to truth is the first three letters of the word. In Who’s Counting, Paulos investigates topics which – like Innumeracy – connect with the age in which we live. Mathematics is the lens through which Paulos discusses topics relating to science, education, politics and religion. Just as the era in which we live is more sophisticated than the era in which Innumeracy was written, the topics and the mathematics involved are also more sophisticated.
This book is more fascinating, at least to me, than Innumeracy precisely because of this sophistication. But there is a sad Catch-22 here. Wonderful though this book is, I think the mathematics is something that will make portions of this book inaccessible for some of the audience that read and enjoyed Innumeracy precisely because many of the points Paulos so skillfully made in Innumeracy have been exacerbated by social media, the internet, and the pandemic.
Thirty-five years later, the world is considerably more sophisticated. We have the internet and social media, we’ve suffered through a pandemic and a President whose only connection to truth is the first three letters of the word. In Who’s Counting, Paulos investigates topics which – like Innumeracy – connect with the age in which we live. Mathematics is the lens through which Paulos discusses topics relating to science, education, politics and religion. Just as the era in which we live is more sophisticated than the era in which Innumeracy was written, the topics and the mathematics involved are also more sophisticated.
This book is more fascinating, at least to me, than Innumeracy precisely because of this sophistication. But there is a sad Catch-22 here. Wonderful though this book is, I think the mathematics is something that will make portions of this book inaccessible for some of the audience that read and enjoyed Innumeracy precisely because many of the points Paulos so skillfully made in Innumeracy have been exacerbated by social media, the internet, and the pandemic.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews