January 12, 2013

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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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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