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Numbers Rule Your World: The Hidden Influence of Probabilities and Statistics on Everything You Do
 
 
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Numbers Rule Your World: The Hidden Influence of Probabilities and Statistics on Everything You Do [Hardcover]

Kaiser Fung (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)

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Book Description

0071626530 978-0071626538 January 25, 2010 1

WHAT ARE THE ODDS YOU'LL WIN THE LOTTERY?

How long will your kids wait in line at Disney World?

Who decides that “standardized tests” are fair?

Why do highway engineers build slow-moving ramps?

What does it mean, statistically, to be an “Average Joe”?

NUMBERS RULE YOUR WORLD
In the popular tradition of eye-opening bestsellers like Freakonomics, The Tipping Point, and Super Crunchers, this fascinating book from renowned statistician and blogger Kaiser Fung takes you inside the hidden world of facts and figures that affect you every day, in every way.

These are the statistics that rule your life, your job, your commute, your vacation, your food, your health, your money, and your success. This is how engineers calculate your quality of living, how corporations determine your needs, and how politicians estimate your opinions. These are the numbers you never think about-even though they play a crucial role in every single aspect of your life.

What you learn may surprise you, amuse you, or even enrage you. But there's one thing you won't be able to deny: Numbers Rule Your World…

"An easy read with a big benefit."
—Fareed Zakaria, CNN

"For those who have anxiety about how organization data-mining is impacting their world, Kaiser Fung pulls back the curtain to reveal the good and the bad of predictive analytics."
—Ian Ayres,Yale professor and author of Super Crunchers: Why Thinking By Numbers is the New Way to Be Smart

"A book that engages us with stories that a journalist would write, the compelling stories behind the stories as illuminated by the numbers, and the dynamics that the numbers reveal."
—John Sall, Executive Vice President, SAS Institute

"Little did I suspect, when I picked up Kaiser Fung's book, that I would become so entranced by it - an illuminating and accessible exploration of the power of statistical analysis for those of us who have no prior training in a field that he explores so ably."
—Peter Clarke, author of Keynes: The Rise, Fall, and Return of the 20th Century's Most Influential Economist

"A tremendous book. . . . If you want to understand how to use statistics, how to think with numbers and yet to do this without getting lost in equations, if you've been looking for the book to unlock the door to logical thinking about problems, well, you will be pleased to know that you are holding that book in your hands."
—Daniel Finkelstein, Executive Editor, The Times of London

"I thoroughly enjoyed this accessible book and enthusiastically recommend it to anyone looking to understand and appreciate the role of statistics and data analysis in solving problems and in creating a better world."
—Michael Sherman, Texas A&M University, American Statistician


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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kaiser Fung is a statistician with more than a decade of experience in applying statistical methods to unlocking the relationship between advertising and customer behaviors. His blog, "Junk Charts," pioneered the genre of critically examining data and graphics in the mass media. Since 2005, "Junk Charts" has received rave reviews from Science magazine, the Guardian, Yahoo!, and Stanford University Libraries. He is an adjunct professor at New York University where he teaches practical statistics to professionals, and holds statistics, business, and engineering degrees from Cambridge, Harvard, and Princeton Universities. Fung is also a fellow of the Royal Statistics Society.


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 224 pages
  • Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (January 25, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0071626530
  • ISBN-13: 978-0071626538
  • Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,797 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kaiser Fung is a professional statistician with over a decade of experience applying statistical methods to marketing and advertising businesses. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, in addition to degrees from Princeton and Cambridge Universities. He is a statistician for Sirius XM Radio. His acclaimed blog, Junk Charts (http://junkcharts.typepad.com), pioneered the critical examination of data and graphics in the mass media. He is also an adjunct professor at New York University teaching practical statistics.

 

Customer Reviews

29 Reviews
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 (19)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (29 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Statistical Thinking Through Practical Stories, February 24, 2010
This review is from: Numbers Rule Your World: The Hidden Influence of Probabilities and Statistics on Everything You Do (Hardcover)
This book shows how statistical thinking works and how it's benefiting our lives. It's an easy-read book without a lot of jargon or, surprisingly, numbers. I found the book to be engaging - through the use of stories - and helpful in understanding something that otherwise could be quite dull.

"Statistical thinking is distinct from everyday thinking. It is a skill that is learned. ... many applied scientists routinely use statistical thinking on the job," the author says. Statistical thinking is also often counter-intuitive. And this was my biggest take-away from this interesting book.

Using the premise that we can learn statistical thinking and that we can apply it in everyday situations, Fung provides 10 stories to teach 5 big principles of statistical thinking:

1. Variability over Averages: Statistical average isn't the key, deviation from the average is.
2. Correlation over Cause and Effect: Cause and effect might provide rational explanation, but unexplained correlation is also useful and quicker to find.
3. Group differences over Group averages: Differences within groups are hidden by averaging groups together.
4. Errors are both positive and negative: Minimizing mistakes creates mistakes of a different kind.
5. The Impossible really is Impossible: Don't believe what is too rare to be true.

The stories are applications of these principles in things we're all interested in. Like, the shortest waiting time at Disneyland, finding the source of a deadly E. coli outbreak, financial credit scores, highway traffic meters, steroid testing in Major League Baseball, SAT test writers, lie-detector tests, uncovering a lottery scam, and the safety record of airlines.

If you liked Gladwell's The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, you'll most likely appreciate this book too.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Statistics for everybody, February 16, 2010
By 
C. Chiu (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Numbers Rule Your World: The Hidden Influence of Probabilities and Statistics on Everything You Do (Hardcover)
I hesitated first but finally bought my first book on statistics from Amazon. My perception that books on statistics must be boring and bewildering had evaporated soon after I started reading this little gem. It is surprisingly easy to read and understand. The author Kaiser Fung utilizes daily events and news stories to explicate the principles of statistical thinking in simple sentences that are both entertaining and enlightening. This book reveals the hidden relationship between numbers and people, and the fact that statistics influences all aspects of human activities - including politics, business, healthcare, education and entertainment. I highly recommend this book. Every library should have it.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars highly recommended, February 16, 2010
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Numbers Rule Your World: The Hidden Influence of Probabilities and Statistics on Everything You Do (Hardcover)
If you enjoyed Freakonomics (the first one, not the second...), you will love this book. While this book's title implies it's about statistics, I find it to be much more than that (to my pleasant surprise, I must say!). Similar to Freakonomics, what I liked most about this book is the ease of read and the stories that were told.

What I liked most about this book:
- It is very nicely written and is a relatively quick read. The chapters are organized into stories and reads like a prose.
- It is applicable to daily life, and I've learnt quite a lot from it. The topics are very relevant - I get to read about how to shorten my wait time at disney world, how fair (or not) SAT is, how my credit scores are measured, how steriods tests are ineffective, etc.
- It goes into enough depth that gives me an understanding of some of the technical methodologies. I have taken introductory statistics a long time ago but have never gotten a chance to use it. I must say it is much more interesting in practice!

I highly recommend this book. It's well-written, engaging and brilliant.
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