Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences First Edition

by John Allen Paulos (Author)

508 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0809058402

ISBN-10: 0809058405

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Why do even well-educated people understand so little about mathematics? And what are the costs of our innumeracy? John Allen Paulos, in his celebrated bestseller first published in 1988, argues that our inability to deal rationally with very large numbers and the probabilities associated with them results in misinformed governmental policies, confused personal decisions, and an increased susceptibility to pseudoscience of all kinds. Innumeracy lets us know what we're missing, and how we can do something about it.

Sprinkling his discussion of numbers and probabilities with quirky stories and anecdotes, Paulos ranges freely over many aspects of modern life, from contested elections to sports stats, from stock scams and newspaper psychics to diet and medical claims, sex discrimination, insurance, lotteries, and drug testing. Readers of Innumeracy will be rewarded with scores of astonishing facts, a fistful of powerful ideas, and, most important, a clearer, more quantitative way of looking at their world.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Our society would be unimaginably different if the average person truly understood the ideas in this marvelous and important book.” ―Douglas Hofstadter

“[An] elegant ... Survival Manual ... Brief, witty and full of practical applications.” ―Stefan Kanfer, Time

About the Author

John Allen Paulos, professor of mathematics at Temple University and the author of several other popular books on mathematics, is a regular contributor to national publications, including The New York Times and Newsweek. He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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Product information

Technical Details

Publisher

‎HOLT MCDOUGAL; First edition (August 18, 2001)

Language

‎English

Paperback

‎180 pages

ISBN-10

‎0809058405

ISBN-13

‎978-0809058402

Reading age

‎14 - 18 years

Item Weight

‎6.7 ounces

Dimensions

‎5.5 x 0.52 x 8.25 inches

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John Allen Paulos

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(My web page is johnallenpaulos.com and my twitter feed is @johnallenpaulos.)

John Allen Paulos is an extensively kudized author, popular public speaker, and former monthly columnist for ABCNews.com, the Scientific American, and the Guardian. Professor of math at Temple University in Philadelphia, he earned his Ph.D. in the subject from the University of Wisconsin.

His new book (November, 2015) is A Numerate Life - A Mathematician Explores the Vagaries of Life, His Own and Probably Yours. Other writings of his include Innumeracy (NY Times bestseller for 18 weeks), A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (on the Random House Modern Library's compilation of the 100 best nonfiction books of the century), Once Upon a Number (chosen as one of the best books of 1998), and A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market (a brief tenant on the BusinessWeek bestsellers list). He's also written scholarly papers on probability, logic, and the philosophy of science as well as scores of OpEds, book reviews, and articles in publications such as the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Nation, Discover, the American Scholar, and the London Review of Books and has an extensive web and media presence.

In 2003 he received the American Association for the Advancement of Science award for promoting public understanding of science, and in 2013 the Mathematics Communication Award from the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics.

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3 star		8%
2 star		1%
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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 6, 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.

39 people found this helpful

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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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Always Shopping

Even a highschooler can like this book

Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 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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NoVA guy

Innumeracy - the book

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 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...

10 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

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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

M. Fowle

Required reading

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 3, 2011

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Every politician and policy maker should read this book. Most of us are guilty of the sort of shortcomings in understanding mathematics that this book highlights in a very readable and entertaining fashion. Some of the references are a bit dated now - I think it came out in the 1970s - but the bulk of the material is still highly relevant. Interesting fact: one million seconds is about 12 days; one billion seconds is about 32 years. People simply do not appreciate the enormous difference between a million and a billion. Why? - because they are innumerate.

2 people found this helpful

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Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences First Edition

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