Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers
Tim is an economist, journalist and broadcaster. He is author of “The Next Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy”, “Messy”, and the million-selling “The Undercover Economist”. Tim is a senior columnist at the Financial Times, and the presenter of Radio 4’s “More or Less”, the iTunes-topping series “Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy”, and the new podcast “Cautionary Tales”. Tim has spoken at TED, PopTech and the Sydney Opera House. He is an associate member of Nuffield College, Oxford and an honorary fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. Tim was made an OBE for services to improving economic understanding in the New Year honours of 2019.
“Endlessly insightful and full of surprises – exactly what you would expect from Tim Harford.”
Bill Bryson
“Packed with fascinating detail… Harford has an engagingly wry style and his book is a superb introduction to some of the most vital products of human ingenuity.”
The Sunday Times
“It’s a very very good book, full of wise counterintuitions and clever insights.”
Brian Eno
“Every Tim Harford book is cause for celebration. He makes the ‘dismal science’ seem like an awful lot of fun.”
Malcolm Gladwell
“In a world that craves certainty, Harford makes a compelling case for why we can’t have it. A brilliant and oddly empowering book.”
Dave Gorman
“The very best letters from the ‘Dear Economist’ columns from 2003-2008 in one handy book-sized package.”
“As lively as it is smart, charming, penetrating, and wise. If you are at all interested in knowing much more than you do about how the world works, you couldn’t ask for a better guide than Harford.”
Stephen J. Dubner
“This book should be required reading for every elected official, business leader, and university student.”
Steven D. Levitt
There's a fine line to walk between writing a book that argues that our mental state is surprisingly powerful, and writing a book that argues that if you ask the universe for a gift, the universe will respond. But @D_A_Robson walks the line skilfully here with The...
Publication day approaches for the paperback of "The Data Detective" (1 Feb). As always, pre-orders of the paperback, positive reviews if you've read the hardback, spreading the word - all are so valuable and very gratefully received. The UK edition of the same book,...
I began last week’s column by declaring that life is full of difficult decisions. Many of us, faced with such dilemmas, resort to a list of pros and cons. Perhaps the most famous such list is that composed by Charles Darwin in July 1838, as he contemplated proposing...
Business School professor Christian Stadler names his "best ten business books of 2021". A good list, including "The Data Detective" (US/Can readers can pre-order the paperback, out 1 Feb). Michael Bungay Stanier's "How To Begin" is out tomorrow. Classic self-help,...
"It was a tune with wings, trampling things, tightened strings, boggarts and bogles and brags on their feet; the man in the oak, sickness and fever, that set in long, lasting sleep the whole great world with the sweetness of sound the bone did play." Where to start...
What’s kept you going during the pandemic? For some people, it’s been an exercise kick. For others, the day’s first glass of wine. For me, it’s been a game of “let’s pretend” with a conclave of imaginary wizards. It takes all sorts, but my survival mechanism has been...
My resolution this year is to read (and review) more books, so I thought I might start with a book that promises to help me form better habits: (@CDuhigg) Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit. The book, which is a Gladwell-influenced...
As David Epstein @DavidEpstein recently pointed out in his newsletter, Range Widely, the first of January is a great time to make resolutions. Behavioural economist Katy Milkman @Katy_Milkman, with Hengchen Dai and Jason Riis, discovered evidence for a "fresh start...
The self-help genre gets a bad press, and not without reason, but there are a few self-help books that I’ve read, enjoyed, and felt wiser as a result. The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. I found this wise, witty little book served as a touchstone throughout my...