Everybody should read How To Lie With Statistics (or a similar math-based critical thinking book). The inflation reports of 2022 have been near weaponized by people on all sides of the political spectrum, and just being able to think critically is essential. One lesson you can get from the book or elsewhere is how to … Continue reading How To Lie With Statistics (2022 Inflation Edition)
Tag: statistics
You’re Not Skillful Until You Know When You’re Lucky
Claude C Hopkins, the godfather of modern marketing whose 1923 book Scientific Advertising is still (shockingly?!) relevant, thought all advertisers should do some form of direct mail advertising first to learn how to fail. Not because they broadly needed to be humbled, but because they needed to be aware of the numbers game that was … Continue reading You’re Not Skillful Until You Know When You’re Lucky
Podcast Of The Week: John Green Reviews Adam Grant’s WorkLife
First - thank you to everyone who responded with podcast app suggestions. I’m going to start my experiment with Spotify since they’ve got some of my people exclusively and I’ve been reluctantly missing out for long enough (Brene, Esther - I’m back). I’ve already raved about John Green’s book, The Anthropocene Reviewed, but if you … Continue reading Podcast Of The Week: John Green Reviews Adam Grant’s WorkLife
Correlation Ain’t Causality
My dad talked at the TV watching games. “It doesn’t DO anything. You know they can’t hear you, right?” And now, and for years, I talk at games too. Teasing apart cause and effect is an important skill, or at least an important awareness we need in business and life. Just because two things happened … Continue reading Correlation Ain’t Causality
A Polish Village Who Hasn’t Seen A Male Born In 10 Years (And How We’re Easily Fooled By Randomness)
There’s an article making the rounds with the statistically intriguing topic of a Polish Village who hasn't seen a male born in nearly ten years. Take a moment to pause and ask yourself, what‘s strange about the presentation of this statistic? Our immediate instinct is to remember that the ratio of males to females is … Continue reading A Polish Village Who Hasn’t Seen A Male Born In 10 Years (And How We’re Easily Fooled By Randomness)