Book
Naked statistics : stripping the dread from the data / Charles Wheelan.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780393071955 (hc.) :
- Physical Description: xviii, 282 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
- Edition: 1st ed.
- Publisher: New York : W.W. Norton, c2013.
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (p. [261]-267) and index. |
| Formatted Contents Note: | Where's the point? -- Descriptive statistics : Who was the best baseball player of all time? -- Deceptive description : "He's got a great personality!" and other true but grossly misleading statements -- Correlation : How does Netflix know what movies I like? -- Basic probability : Don't buy the extended warranty on your $99 printer -- The Monty Hall problem -- Problems with probability : How overconfident math geeks nearly destroyed the global financial system -- The importance of data : "Garbage in, garbage out" -- The central limit theorem : The Lebron James of statistics -- Inference : Why my statistics professor thought I might have cheated -- Polling : How we know that 64 percent of Americans support the death penalty (with a sampling error (plus or minus) 3 percent) -- Regression analysis : The miracle elixir -- Common regression mistakes : The mandatory warning label -- Program evaluation : Will going to Harvard change your life? -- Conclusion : Five questions that statistics can help answer -- Appendix : Statistical warfare. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Statistics. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Legislative Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legislative Library, Vaughan Street | QA 276 Whe (Text) | 36970000847964 | General Collection | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Book News : Book News Reviews
How does my credit card company use data on what I buy to predict if I am likely to miss a payment? Writing with a sense of humor for general readers and students who slept through their basic statistics course, Wheelan (Naked Economics) introduces statistical concepts with examples from everyday life, popular culture, and medical research on high interest topics such as the rise in autism. Coverage includes deceptive description, correlation, problems with probability, the importance of data, and common regression mistakes. Several chapters include appendices of step-by-step instructions for calculations. Wheelan teaches economics at Dartmouth College. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) - Choice Reviews : Choice Reviews 2013 June
Given the increasing role of statistics in various areas, many professionals find that they need to make effective decisions based on data. Clearly recognizing this need, Wheelan (Univ. of Chicago; journalist) has provided an intuitive presentation of statistical concepts without getting bogged down by extensive data lists or computation. The author begins by generally introducing each idea with an idealized situation to illustrate that statistical setting and its impact on effective interpretation, and then moves on to current real-world settings to legitimize his discussion. He also clearly discusses subtleties that can be encountered, showing how data users must be careful to avoid oversimplifying the implications of a given result. The presentation is nonthreatening, yet readers will find it a suitably thoughtful consideration of statistical ideas. Many will appreciate that Wheelan accomplishes this masterfully with a minimal number of formulas, generally relegated to footnotes. The conclusion is a capstone consideration of five disparate areas such as the recent increase in children with autism and the difficultly in assessing teacher effectiveness, which nicely pulls together his overall presentation. Valuable for nonexperts who need a firmer grasp of what statistics is all about. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates, general readers, and professionals/practitioners. General Readers; Lower-division Undergraduates; Upper-division Undergraduates; Professionals/Practitioners. N. W. Schillow formerly, Lehigh Carbon Community College Copyright 2013 American Library Association. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2012 November #1
How to analyze "the numbers behind the news [and appreciate] the extraordinary (and growing) power of data" in today's market-driven economy. Wheelan (Public Policy/Dartmouth Coll.; 10½ Things No Commencement Speaker Has Ever Said, 2012 etc.) extends the scope of his 2002 best-seller, Naked Economics, to encompass the statistical know-how necessary in making informed economic and other decisions. The author provides tools to help the nonmathematical reader develop an intuitive grasp of apparently arcane topics such as the "central limit theorem," which is used to estimate likely outcomes. Using forensic medicine as an analogy, he compares a statistician to a detective gathering information at the scene of a crime. Both are frequently involved in "building a circumstantial case based on imperfect data" and are dependent on sampling techniques. Wheelan uses a seemingly high-risk marketing campaign by Schlitz beer to illustrate the point. In 1981, the company spent $1.7 million to run a blind taste test between Schlitz and Michelob, involving 100 contestants. In fact, as Wheelan shows, it was a sure winner. While the likely outcome of a random sample would be a 50/50 split, any percentage could be framed to Schlitz's advantage. The key was in the sample. Contestants were selected on the basis of their previously expressed preference for Michelob, so that even if only 30 percent chose Schlitz, the claim that Michelob drinkers chose Schlitz was still valid. The author explains how the normal distribution works and emphasizes the importance of measuring both the mean and medium in a given study. Wheelan also explains the famous brain-teasing Monty Hall problem, which has stumped experts for years. A delightful, informative guide to an often-intimidating subject. Copyright Kirkus 2012 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2012 August #1
How does Netflix decide which movies you would like? How are schools that cheat on standardized tests caught out? What are batting averages, after all, but statistics, statistics, statistics. The author of the best-selling Naked Economics engagingly explains a subject that has most of us yawning or quivering in our boots.
[Page 56]. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2012 October #2
Wheelan (Naked Economics) offers a helping hand and a humorous perspective to everyone who's ever felt confused, lied to, or just plain lost when it comes to statistics, those handy data sets used to determine everything from batting averages and trends on Wall Street to the quality of a school and which door you should pick if you're playing Let's Make a Deal. The author shows how statistics like the mean and the median are used to summarize and find patterns in large collections of data, and in later chapters he consider how statistics are used to assess large-scale economic risk and to find important connections between different sets of data, like those that allow Netflix to offer reasonable movie recommendations. Throughout, Wheelan stresses how statistics "rarely a single âright'Â " answer; indeed, when deployed carelessly or deliberately misused, they can sometimes obscure the truth. Furthermore, the author reminds readers that while data can be used to help make better decisions, "even the most precise measurements or calculations should be checked against common sense." Wheelan's relatively mathless real world examples (he sequesters equations in appendixes) and wry styleâheavily seasoned with pop culture referencesâmake for a fun and illuminating read. Agent: Tina Bennett, William Morris Endeavor. (Jan. 7)
[Page ]. Copyright 2012 PWxyz LLC
