Just what is it exactly? “The Numbers Game: The Commonsense Guide to Understanding Numbers in the News, in Politics, and inLife” is a title by Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot.
After having grown out of a popular game on the BBC, the NYT notes:
“Most of us, Mr. Blastland and Mr. Dilnot observe, expect numbers to do too much. We like their precision and want to believe that statistics can tell us all we need to know about the world. But precision comes at a price: before you can count something, you have to define what it is you’re counting, and often that’s not as simple as it sounds.”
The article also goes into a bit more specifics, such as unemployment statistics.
“Unemployment statistics, for example, conceal a host of decisions. How much can someone work and still be considered unemployed? How hard does a person have to be looking for a job? The Thatcher government changed the definition of “unemployed” either 23 or 27 times. (“There is some disagreement” about the precise number, the authors blandly write.),” the reviewer notes.
Published in Britain under an earlier title, the product description states:
“Drawing on their hugely popular BBC Radio 4 show More or Less,, journalist Michael Blastland and internationally known economist Andrew Dilnot delight, amuse, and convert American mathphobes by showing how our everyday experiences make sense of numbers.
The radical premise of The Numbers Game is to show how much we already know, and give practical ways to use our knowledge to become cannier consumers of the media. In each concise chapter, the authors take on a different theme—such as size, chance, averages, targets, risk, measurement, and data—and present it as a memorable and entertaining story.
If you’ve ever wondered what “average” really means, whether the scare stories about cancer risk should convince you to change your behavior, or whether a story you read in the paper is biased (and how), you need this book. Blastland and Dilnot show how to survive and thrive on the torrent of numbers that pours through everyday life. It’s the essential guide to every cause you love or hate, and every issue you follow, in the language everyone uses.”
Read the review here .
USA
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