HOW TO MAKE THE WORLD ADD UP

2021 paperback edition sub-titled 'Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers.' Stephen Fry said 'We are supremely lucky to have the fabulously readable, lucid, witty and authoritative Tim Harford to remind us why facts, reason, numbers, clarity and truth matter, how beautiful they are and how crucial to our understanding of the natural world and human society.' If you aren't in love with stats before reading this book, you will be by this powerful and persuasive book by the well-respected economist from the Financial Times. This book was the winner of the Sunday Times Book of the Year 2020. Harford takes us deep into the world of disinformation and obfuscation, bad research and misplaced motivation to find those priceless jewels of data and analysis that make communicating with numbers so rewarding. We see statistics in the newspapers and social media and hear them in everyday conversation, and yet we doubt them more than ever. But numbers in the right hands have the power to change the world for the better. Good statistics are not a trick, although they are a kind of magic. Harford's characters range from the art forger who conned the Nazis to the stripper who fell in love with the most powerful congressman in Washington, to the famous data detectives such as John Maynard Keynes, Daniel Kahneman and Florence Nightingale. He reveals how we can evaluate the claims that surround us with confidence, curiosity and a healthy level of scepticism. Using ten simple rules for understanding numbers, plus one golden rule, this extraordinarily insightful book shows how if we keep our wits about us, thinking carefully about the way numbers are sourced and presented, we can look around us and see with crystal clarity how the world adds up. 340pp, paperback.