Customer Reviews

Conquering Statistics

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I give the book two stars only because, if you can get through it, it does a reasonable job of providing basic definitions of statistical terms. I was looking for a review of the subject and it does accomplish that.

I cannot recommend the book at all, however, for anyone trying to learn statistics, even at an elementary level. The author tries way too hard to be funny, presumably to make the subject less intimidating to the mathematically-challenged. Unfortunately, the humorous examples do nothing to enhance understanding, but instead just get in the way. The worst fault is that the stories go on for so long that the reader gets impatient to find anything of value relating to the subject matter.

Finally, I found the book to be condescending towards the reader by failing to include any formulas or diagrams. Again, this is presumably to avoid being indimidating to the general reader, but it ends up making things more confusing with long narrative descriptions of what should be fairly easy topics.

I agree entirely with the point made by the other reviewer - actually Weaver's "What Are the Odds?" is far worse. There are ten pages of jokes for every page of useful data.

I read this book not for enlightenment but for entertainment. It's a fun way to waste time.

I think the author spent the better part of his effort trying to channel Dave Barry into his writing. The effort failed and thus failed in the grander goal of educating the reader on the topic of statitics via the use of humor. Streamlining the jokes would reduce the book to a fraction of its size and maybe deliver some of the lessons from their imprisonment in a joke world. Ironically, additonal graphs and tables would have helped the reader in following the argument. If you are interested in a beginners guide to statistics, a more traditional text is preferable.