The Art of Statistical Thinking: Detect Misinformation, Understand the World Deeper, and Make Better Decisions.

by Albert Rutherford, Jae H. Kim PhD

Not knowing statistics can lead to a loss of money, time, and accurate information. What am I looking at? What do these numbers mean? Why? These are frequent thoughts of those who don’t know much about statistics. “I’m not a number’s person” is not a good excuse to avoid learning the basics of this essential skill. Are you a person who earns money? Do you shop at the supermarket? Do you vote? Do you read the news? I’m sure you do. Learn to make decisions like world leaders do. Do you like to make uninformed, often poor decisions? Are you okay with being manipulated by skewed charts and diagrams? How about being lied to about the effectiveness of a product? I’m sure you don’t. Statistics can help you make exponentially better calls on what to buy, who to listen to, and what to believe. This book offers a detailed, illustrated breakdown of the fundamentals of statistics. Develop and use formal logical thinking abilities to understand the message behind numbers and charts in science, politics, and economy. Sharpen your critical and analytic thinking skills. Know what to look for when analyzing data. Information gets skewed – often unintentionally – because of the mainstream ways of doing statistics that didn’t catch up to big data. Stop staying in the dark. This book shines the light on the most common statistical methods - and their most frequent misuse. This step-by-step guide not only helps you detect what goes wrong in statistics but also educates you on how to utilize invaluable information statistics gets right to your benefit. - How to Use Descriptive and Inferential Statistics to Understand the World. - Be Wary of Misleading Charts . - Make Better Decisions Using Probability. - Understand P-Values in Research . - Understand Potential Bias in Studies. Albert Rutherford is the internationally bestselling author of several books on systems thinking, game theory, and mathematical thinking. Jae H. Kim is a freelance writer in econometrics, statistics, and data analysis. Since obtaining his PhD in econometrics in 1997, he has been a professor in major Australian universities until 2022. He has published more than 70 academic articles and book chapters in econometrics, empirical finance, economics, and applied statistics, which have attracted nearly 5000 citations to date. Learn basic statistics and spend your money wisely. Statistics, as a learning tool, can be used or misused. Some will actively lie and mislead with statistics. More often, however, well-meaning people – even professionals - unintentionally report incorrect statistical conclusions. Knowing what errors and mistakes to look for will help you to be in a better position to evaluate the information you have been given.

Genres: Economics, Mathematics, Nonfiction

209 pages, Paperback

Published October 14, 2022

Reviews

[Seth Loudermilk · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who wanted a gentle introduction to statistics, this book both did that and provided a critique of modern statistical thinking and assumptions. In turn, this book offers an alternative to said thinking.

[LeoQuiroa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't take me wrong it is a good book but the title is misleading, I thought this book will explain a statistical think methodology or a way to apply statistical thinking in my day to day. But, it is more a statistical review pocket reference plus examples of null hypothesis, bias sampling, correlation not causation, level of significance among others controversial topics. In summary, it is a good book with curated content but not to develop the art of statistical thinking.

[Michael Mcfarren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spot on

After years of studying statistics I’ve not had as clear, concise review as presented here. I will be rereading this book and using it as a reference to improve my statistical prowess.

[Ram T · Rating 2 out of 5]

16. A book on a subject you know nothing about.

The title mislead me on this one. While I did take a couple of statistics courses in undergraduate and graduate school, they didn’t dive into actually using the statistics to influence my decision making and how to think as a statistician, which is what I was hoping this book would do for me. It turns out it really just is a pocket guide for statistics terms and examples. Maybe I misunderstood that using statistical analysis in my day to day really means.

[Marcus Goncalves · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author tried to convey how statistics is misused consistently People are hacking the p value, their sample is biased, their results are not reproducible. But the author does not really offer a good coverage of stat analysis, mostly the math part.

[Herman Seip · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title is the best part. Picked up some useful stuff. Did not keep me up at night. The world definitely need books like this, and more people that understand statistics.