Quick Reads: “Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread From the Data” By Charles Wheelan


book cover

Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread From the Data

By Charles Wheelan

W.W. NORTON & COMPANY

A couple of years ago, Google’s chief economist predicted, “The sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians.” (Hello, Nate Silver!) If you aren’t quite ready to spend your life running regressions, Naked Statistics provides a taste of the hot data action. With a dollop of corny jokes and just a dash of math, Charles Wheelan (a Dartmouth prof) offers a conversational introduction to the concepts you need to understand everything from why “rich nerds” should have seen the 2008 Wall Street collapse coming to the best strategy for winning a car on Let’s Make a Deal. If your interest in statistics is above average, this book is worth sampling.

 

This review originally appeared in our January/February issue of Mother Jones.


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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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