What the Numbers Say: A Field Guide to Mastering Our Numerical World

Rating:
Summary: Infinitely Interesting! The Russian judge gives it a ...?
Review: Authors Niederman and Boyum articulate that we live today in a new Quantitative Information Age. Strange then, that they did not entitle their book, "Ten Habits of Highly Effective Quantitative Thinkers" (actually the title of Chapter Two) - this book would have sold twice as much.

Ahh! Twice as much as what? As Stephen Covey's books? As much as this book's actual sales? What's the base? Now that I've read this "Field Guide to Mastering Our Numerical World" (actually the subtitle,) I am trained to ask the pertinent questions about numerical comparisons. I have learned to simultaneously "only trust the numbers" and to "never trust the numbers" - habits #1 and #2.

In this entertaining tour of today's quantitative landscape, the authors expose our collective inability to cope with numerical reasoning. From humorous pot shots at "our favorite punching bag, the International Skating Union," whose farcical scoring systems are easily exposed, to a better method of comparing safety between small plane flying and automobile safety, to famous courtroom misuses of statistical data, Niederman and Boyum demonstrate a growing gap between our increasingly data dependent decisions and our nation's declining numerical literacy.

"What The Numbers Say" provides a layman's look at mathematical skills required by everyone. It is a book for non-mathematicians, liberal arts students, teachers of all subjects, political and educational leaders, and above all, parents. To anyone struggling with children struggling to master the multiplication table, and wondering what became of the rote memorization and textbooks from earlier days, the authors make sense of the new teaching techniques. Traditionally, it seems, mathematicians have been Euclideans, "deriving truths, in step-by-step fashion, from first principles or axioms." But, "good quantitative thinkers are Babylonians. They understand that quantities can be measured and expressed in many different ways, and that looking at something from multiple viewpoints enhances perspective and fosters creative thinking." Finally, we understand why our kids can't complete the 9-times Table, but are whizzes at stacking Lego blocks.

Niederman and Boyum embellish their hypotheses deriving wonderful examples of easy-to-comprehend quantitative situations involving baseball, weather forecasting, popular movies, roulette odds, consumer tips, home finance and stock market analysis, timed swimming contests, fair games, and more. Readers cannot fail to understand how simple some of the recipes (Pareto's Law, The Rule of 72, how to interpret Zagat's Restaurant Guides) are for understanding quantitative measurement. Mathematics, long misunderstood as "uncool" for its complicated formulae and notation, in fact, is often a beautiful and handy tool with which to find "the easy way out."

Though the authors uncover highly political ramifications of misunderstood data and twisted statistics (e.g., environmental debates), the book is apolitical save for the last chapter that cries out for educational reforms. Niederman and Boyum sum the book up neatly with suggestions for educators regarding curricula, calculators, and competitiveness. They propose ending the "math wars between Progressives and Traditionalists," and put forth solutions. The authors' main salvo: differentiate between mathematics and quantitative reasoning, and offer training on a separate track for each.

Put this on your 'to-read' list for the coming year. If only to find out how many combinations a 2 X 3 Lego brick can form.

Rating:
Summary: Infinitely Interesting! The Russian judge gives it a ...?
Review: Authors Niederman and Boyum articulate that we live today in a new Quantitative Information Age. Strange then, that they did not entitle their book, "Ten Habits of Highly Effective Quantitative Thinkers" (actually the title of Chapter Two) - this book would have sold twice as much.

Ahh! Twice as much as what? As Stephen Covey's books? As much as this book's actual sales? What's the base? Now that I've read this "Field Guide to Mastering Our Numerical World" (actually the subtitle,) I am trained to ask the pertinent questions about numerical comparisons. I have learned to simultaneously "only trust the numbers" and to "never trust the numbers" - habits #1 and #2.

In this entertaining tour of today's quantitative landscape, the authors expose our collective inability to cope with numerical reasoning. From humorous pot shots at "our favorite punching bag, the International Skating Union," whose farcical scoring systems are easily exposed, to a better method of comparing safety between small plane flying and automobile safety, to famous courtroom misuses of statistical data, Niederman and Boyum demonstrate a growing gap between our increasingly data dependent decisions and our nation's declining numerical literacy.

"What The Numbers Say" provides a layman's look at mathematical skills required by everyone. It is a book for non-mathematicians, liberal arts students, teachers of all subjects, political and educational leaders, and above all, parents. To anyone struggling with children struggling to master the multiplication table, and wondering what became of the rote memorization and textbooks from earlier days, the authors make sense of the new teaching techniques. Traditionally, it seems, mathematicians have been Euclideans, "deriving truths, in step-by-step fashion, from first principles or axioms." But, "good quantitative thinkers are Babylonians. They understand that quantities can be measured and expressed in many different ways, and that looking at something from multiple viewpoints enhances perspective and fosters creative thinking." Finally, we understand why our kids can't complete the 9-times Table, but are whizzes at stacking Lego blocks.

Niederman and Boyum embellish their hypotheses deriving wonderful examples of easy-to-comprehend quantitative situations involving baseball, weather forecasting, popular movies, roulette odds, consumer tips, home finance and stock market analysis, timed swimming contests, fair games, and more. Readers cannot fail to understand how simple some of the recipes (Pareto's Law, The Rule of 72, how to interpret Zagat's Restaurant Guides) are for understanding quantitative measurement. Mathematics, long misunderstood as "uncool" for its complicated formulae and notation, in fact, is often a beautiful and handy tool with which to find "the easy way out."

Though the authors uncover highly political ramifications of misunderstood data and twisted statistics (e.g., environmental debates), the book is apolitical save for the last chapter that cries out for educational reforms. Niederman and Boyum sum the book up neatly with suggestions for educators regarding curricula, calculators, and competitiveness. They propose ending the "math wars between Progressives and Traditionalists," and put forth solutions. The authors' main salvo: differentiate between mathematics and quantitative reasoning, and offer training on a separate track for each.

Put this on your 'to-read' list for the coming year. If only to find out how many combinations a 2 X 3 Lego brick can form.

Rating:
Summary: and the audience is...
Review: This book offers examples of quantitative reasoning, including the topics of compound growth and statistics. Their perspective is that without the ability to work with numbers, people can easily be misled. One of the examples is a statistic used by defense attorney Alan Dershowitz to mislead the jurors in the infamous Simpson trial.

As I was reading the book, I wondered who the audience ought to be. Although the tone is breezy and the examples are presented without the use of algebra or higher mathematics, I am not sure how a math-phobic person would react. My experience with math phobes is that they would feel threatened by the book and be resistant to picking it up.

A better audience for the book might be math educators. As a teacher, I found numerous examples in the book that will be helpful. Moreover, the last chapter, in which they discuss ways to reform math education, is a gem.

What the authors are saying is that people need good basic intuition about numbers in order to understand a world that is increasingly dominated by numerical data. The traditional math curriculum tries to prepare a student to study Newtonian physics. Instead, I think that the authors would argue that the curriculum ought to be aimed at enabling a student to understand stock market ratios and statistical research.

One random note is that the authors attribute the phrase "independence from irrelevant alternatives" to John Nash. I may be wrong, but I believe that it was Kenneth Arrow who brought that concept to the fore.

By filling the book with interesting examples that illustrate the type of quantitative reasoning that they consider important, the authors make a compelling case for the math education reform that they advocate. However, if their primary audience is math educators, that fact is obscured on the book jacket, which makes the intended audience unclear.

Rating:
Summary: a surprisingly fun read
Review: This book, by a friend and former colleague, is a wonderful introduction to the ways that numbers are used, and misused, in our work and everyday lives.

If you are uneasy with quantitative reasoning, you will never read the business page, or your medical chart in quite the same way after reading this book. If you fancy yourself more sophisticated, you will still learn a lot, and you will swoon with joy at the emphatic debunking of much humbug: predictable flaws of Olympic judging, hidden messages in the Bible, and so on. the chapter on measures is my favorite. I never understood the difference between an acre and a hectare.

I have assigned Chapters 2 and 3 to my masters' level students in policy analysis. I think this is a nice addition to the bookshelf of any manager, investment manager, or reader of the sports page.

Rating:
Summary: A surprisingly fun read
Review: This book, co-written by a friend and former colleague, is a surprisingly fun read.

For all the wisecracks about Olympic judging and the Lakers, this book presents a sophisticated roadmap to the use and misuse of numbers in work and everyday life. You won't listen to the business report--or your doctor's advice--in quite the same way after a careful read. If you are already numerate, you will laugh at the careful but emphatic debunking of frustrating humbug that goes uncorrected on the local news, the sports report, and more serious venues.

I especially like Chapter 2, "The 10 habits of highly effective quantitative thinkers." Investors who read their chapter "For good measure," might still have gotten ripped off in the Enron scandal. At least they would have understood what happened. I will use both chapters in my Masters'-level courses in policy analysis.

All in all, this is a valuable addition to the bookshelf of any policy analyst or private-sector consultant.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and painless
Review: Various topics are discussed, such as percentages, units and measurements, probability, statistics, etc., with a strong emphasis on rounding numbers to perform quick calculations in one's head in order to get ball park estimates of the desired results. It is also emphasized that producing results to n decimal places is rarely necessary in day to day calculating. Although this book is clear and well-written, it may, nevertheless, instill fear into the minds of those people who are uncomfortable with numbers. I therefore agree with a prior reviewer that the book may be aimed at the educators; the book's last chapter would seem to support this.