The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics

Written by:
Tim Harford
Narrated by:
Tim Harford

Unabridged Audiobook

Ratings
Book
4
Narrator
4
Release Date
February 2021
Duration
10 hours 24 minutes
Summary
From “one of the great (greatest?) contemporary popular writers on economics” (Tyler Cowen) comes a smart, lively, and encouraging rethinking of how to use statistics.

Today we think statistics are the enemy, numbers used to mislead and confuse us. That’s a mistake, Tim Harford says in The Data Detective. We shouldn’t be suspicious of statistics—we need to understand what they mean and how they can improve our lives: they are, at heart, human behavior seen through the prism of numbers and are often “the only way of grasping much of what is going on around us.” If we can toss aside our fears and learn to approach them clearly—understanding how our own preconceptions lead us astray—statistics can point to ways we can live better and work smarter.

As “perhaps the best popular economics writer in the world” (New Statesman), Tim Harford is an expert at taking complicated ideas and untangling them for millions of readers. In The Data Detective, he uses new research in science and psychology to set out ten strategies for using statistics to erase our biases and replace them with new ideas that use virtues like patience, curiosity, and good sense to better understand ourselves and the world. As a result, The Data Detective is a big-idea book about statistics and human behavior that is fresh, unexpected, and insightful.
Reviews
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Erick B.

The Data Detective was great! I have long been a statistic denier and listening to Tim Harford has helped me become a healthy skeptic. Listening to him read his book was a treat.

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Jorge R.

Love the book. Been listening Tim Hardford spectacular failures potcast for a couple of years. Some times I think over explain a point but I rather have an over explanation than the contrary. I'm recommending it to all my friends. Is not a partisan book just show us how to think for ourself. I think in this tribe world is just the kind of book that can bring us together.

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