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John Allen Paulos

Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences (Vintage) Paperback – January 16, 1990

by John Allen Paulos (Author)

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Dozens of examples in innumeracy show us how it affects not only personal economics and travel plans, but explains mischosen mates, inappropriate drug-testing, and the allure of psuedo-science.

Print length

180 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Vintage
Publication date

January 16, 1990
Dimensions

5.25 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

0679726012
ISBN-13

978-0679726012
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This is the book that made "innumeracy" a household word, at least in some households. Paulos admits that "at least part of the motivation for any book is anger, and this book is no exception. I'm distressed by a society which depends so completely on mathematics and science and yet seems to indifferent to the innumeracy and scientific illiteracy of so many of its citizens."

But that is not all that drives him. The difference between our pretensions and reality is absurd and humorous, and the numerate can see this better than those who don't speak math. "I think there's something of the divine in these feelings of our absurdity, and they should be cherished, not avoided."

Paulos is not entirely successful at balancing anger and absurdity, but he tries. His diatribes against astrology, bad math education, Freud, and willful ignorance are leavened with jokes, mathematical or the sort (he claims) favored by the numerate.

It remains to be seen if Innumeracy will indeed be able, as Hofstadter hoped, to "help launch a revolution in math education that would do for innumeracy what Sabin and Salk did for polio"--but many of the improvements Paulos suggested have come to pass within 10 years. Only time will tell if the generation raised on these new principles is more resistant to innumeracy--and need only worry about being incomputable. --Mary Ellen Curtin

Review

He takes us a couple of steps closer to numeracy, and it is all in all an enlightening place to be. -- Christopher Lehman-Haupt, New York Times, 1989

Paulos makes numbers, probability, and statistics perform like so many trained seals for the reader's entertainment and enlightenment. -- Jon Van, Chicago Tribune, 1989

The innumerate will surely profit from this entertaining book. -- Morris Kline, New York Times Book Review, 1989

The world, as seen by Paulos, is less mysterious, yet somehow more elegant, less magical, yet more wonderful. So many apparently strange events do, in fact, become all the more magnificent in their not-so-fearful symmetry. -- Arthur Salm, San Diego Tribune, 1989

This admirable little book is only 135 pages long. You can read it in 2 hours. Chances are that they could be among the most enlightening and even profitable 120 minutes you ever spent. -- Henry Kisor, Cicago Sun-Times, 1989

This elegant survival manual is brief, witty, and full of practical applications. (Stefan Kanfer, Time Magazine, 1989)

REVIEW: Like carrying on a conversation with an engaging, articulate math whiz who easily shifts from the profound to the funny. -- Christopher Farrell, Business Week, 1989

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; First Printing edition (January 16, 1990)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 180 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679726012
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679726012
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,558,007 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6,910 in Probability & Statistics (Books)

Customer Reviews:
466 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		70%
4 star		18%
3 star		8%
2 star		1%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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gergelyk

Some good nuggets, but not a polished piece

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2013

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I bought this book after it was referenced in the very well-written The Panic Virus (Seth Mnookin), which I'd highly recommend. I was curious about a professional's take on math skills in the general population. There's plenty of good insight and information, but it's like the author couldn't make up his mind if he wanted to rant or educate. He covers a number of numerical fallacies and adds explanations, but often it feels like the explanation would come up short to anyone who really didn't understand the particular issue being covered. I'm quite good with math myself so it was easy for me to follow everything, but parts of the book came off more as a "we smart people get why that's so dumb". I think the book could be improved by either tightening it up and focusing on a more advanced reader group or by really fleshing out the explanations to try and really help readers who are not good at math and actually suffer from the innumeracy/ies he describes. He could probably have done both even, if he set up chapters with a high-level concept, issue and effects section, then an educational/explanation section that the advanced reader could easily skip over.

Lots of good, but could really use a revision or two.

38 people found this helpful

Helpful

Chris Eshleman

Valuable take on statistical literacy

Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2020

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We should expect our leaders — in business, in the public sector, in the household — to be driven by an interest in facts and data. In the process we should, as Paulos puts it, be able to at least “deal comfortably with the fundamental notions of number and chance.” This is basic mathematical literacy, and his book lays out a list of consequences from our failure to place enough importance, collectively, on understanding the general math that governs our world and our work and, as importantly, the statistics we use to describe it.
The value here is less in being about to perform complex or even intermediate calculations — although that certainly has its place in many professions. For most of us, it’s more about being able to contextualize numbers. This is critical in, to pick one professional sphere, public policy and administration. If a policy maker raises the prospect that 500 deaths over a holiday weekend represented a “carnage” that justifies new laws or regulations, a distressingly high number of us would not be positioned to identify his or her mistake via the “broad base fallacy” (where 500 deaths was on par with a typical holiday weekend where millions of people undertake countless activities, each of which carry a minor chance of death).
Paulos, a mathematician at Temple and author of a handful of accessible books along similar lines as Innumeracy, spreads himself a little thin across his illustrative examples. I suspect the narrative weave from one topic to the next would’ve been aided by the use of fewer examples that he returned again and again in varying contexts. (I exclude the example of coin flips, which he uses often and which is every statisticians’ go-to example.) But, broadly, Innumeracy hits its mark and I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend it. It’s a clear look at the value of scientific and mathematical literacy, something those who have invested effort to achieve know provides real world value. If we, as a society, could more easily carve through news stories based on flimsy statistics, we’d be better positioned to contextualize, discuss, and act on, our more pressing challenges. Paulos suggests media outlets themselves try employing “statistical ombudsmen” to help filter the real numbers from the bad before they get to work describing the world for viewers, listeners and readers, and I wholeheartedly agree.

2 people found this helpful

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NoVA guy

Innumeracy - the book

Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2017

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The author goes through a large number of real-world examples of applied mathematics, that I (a retired engineer) had thought were like breathing out, breathing in. When I shared a couple of them with my adolescent grand-children, I found some enthusiastic "aha!!" moments. Huh...

9 people found this helpful

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Always Shopping

Even a highschooler can like this book

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2012

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Innumeracy opens your mind and makes you question things you have heard on television and the news. John Allen Paulos, who is fantastically witty, explains complex and simple misconceptions in a manner that almost anyone can understand. Paulos writes takes you back into history with Julius Caesar and brings you back to the present with baseball figures and common mistakes in statistics. It opens your mind to just what exactly numbers can do and how they revolve around almost every aspect in our lives. Innumeracy makes you look at yourself and others around you and see how understanding numbers can help you improve in numerous ways. Paulos applies mathematics to almost every aspect in life. If you believe you are "not a math person," then this is the book for you. Using real life examples, Paulos makes you understand why math and numbers are so important. Innumeracy shows how celebrities, presidents, and major politicians use numbers in the wrong way. It is amazing what you will find out in this information-packed book. From statistics to probability to the multiplication principle, this book has it all and is written in such a way that makes even the most boring subject interesting to any reader. Witty and to-the-point, Paulos writes a book that could change the way people think for the better and most likely improve our society as a whole. If everyone read this book, it is amazing what the results would be. He takes the most relevant and sometimes controversial subjects and applies them to math while pointing out how some things are not correct at all. You will soon find yourself thinking twice about saying, "I am not a math person" or "Math just isn't my subject."

7 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Simeon Stylites

A Disappointed Hope

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 20, 2020

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My own failure to notice the subtitle of this book led me to hope that it might remedy my own innumeracy. Alas, it is a work that bewails the ubiquity of innumeracy in today’s world and laments some of the consequences of this phenomenon.
It has in no way alleviated my aversion to numbers. It has, however, taught me to be more critical of dubious statistical claims. For this I am grateful to the author.
He has managed to make an engaging read out of subject that many might otherwise regard as dull.

2 people found this helpful

John

Informative book, very easy to read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 28, 2020

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A really great book and you can certainly learn a lot. The reason for the 4 stars and my only issue is that there are chapters about the education system and how it can be improved, specifically when it comes mathematics. And while I agree with the points made by the author, I don't think it fits the tone of the rest of the book. It's like you have started reading a completely different book and you end up wondering how long until it goes back to the way it was (if at all).

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Read this book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 26, 2021

Verified Purchase

Fantastic for those who like mathematics and science/critical thinking
Essential for those who don’t

If you don’t Ever ask the question “what do you mean” or “where did you get that from?” Then this book will explain to you why these questions are important
Smaller than I’d have thought but a lot is packed into it
Also you don’t need to be a maths whizz to understand it but there are basic mathematical principles you should know to help you get through it - particularly the language of maths

One person found this helpful

Reg Roberts

Excellent!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 20, 2012

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Although my daily work involves interpretation of numbers and statistics, I haven't studied Maths in any formal way since 'O' Level in 1979 and I had no problem following the concepts and logic.

John Allen Paulos has the happy knack of taking one through a process to a potentially complex level in easy-to-understand and logical stages. The book really does make one realise that there's no reason why anyone should be able to say "I just don't get Maths". Unfortunately, the problem appears to stem from Primary school teachers who often lack confidence themselves in Maths and either fail to explain basic concepts or fail to engage and enthuse young children. By the time children have access to specialist Maths teachers at Secondary school, they are often confused and feel uncomfortable with mathematical concepts and, for many, there's no way back!

This book should be required reading for any educationalist or prospective / working teacher.

3 people found this helpful

Andrew Dalby

Why we still cannot cope with numbers

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 29, 2011

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Paulos wrote this book nearly twenty five years ago but the same problems he identified with how people see maths and with how people use numbers are as evident today as they were then. He presents a clear and elementary commentary about how we misuse numbers especially probability and statistics to get a misleading view of the world dominated by scare stories and exaggerated risk while we ignore the real risks. This is made worse by a media that tries to titillate rather than present facts and by an education system that fails to create a critical audience.

In the 25 years sadly little has changed but Paulos' book remains as relevant as ever and his solutions as powerful as ever. What we need is more people to read his book and put it into practice and so I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in sorting the facts from the hype.