How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News (and Knowing When to Trust Them)
by
Tom Chivers
published by
W&N
(2021)
Every day, most of us will read or watch something in the news that is based on statistics in some way. Sometimes it'll be obvious - 'X people develop cancer every year' - and sometimes less obvious - 'How smartphones destroyed a generation'. Statistics are an immensely powerful tool for understanding the world, but in the wrong hands they can be dangerous.
Introducing you to the common mistakes that journalists make and the tricks they sometimes deploy, HOW TO READ NUMBERS is a vital guide that will help you understand when and how to trust the numbers in the news - and, just as importantly, when not to.
Other books by Tom Chivers
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The AI Does Not Hate You: Superintelligence, Rationality and the Race to Save the World
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The Rationalist's Guide to the Galaxy: Superintelligent AI and the Geeks Who Are Trying to Save Humanity's Future
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Everything Is Predictable: How Bayes' Remarkable Theorem Explains the World