The Data Detective and How to Make the World Add Up

“He’s a genius at telling stories that illuminate our world”

Malcolm Gladwell

The Sunday Times number One Business Bestseller

How to Make the World Add Up

Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers

Is Published in North America as

The Data Detective

Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics

Best Selling Author

Tim Harford

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.

FAQ
Tim Harford

Books

The Next Fifty

The Truth Detective

“Tim Harford is peerless at making sense of a complicated world and our place within it. This is a book that all children should read”

Matthew Syed

Fifty Things

How to Make the World Add Up

Tim Harford is our most likeable champion of reason and rigour… clear, clever and always highly readable.

The Times, Books of the Year

The Next Fifty

The Next Fifty Things

“Endlessly insightful and full of surprises – exactly what you would expect from Tim Harford.”

Bill Bryson

Fifty Things

Fifty Things

“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

Messy – How to be Creative and Resilient in a Tidy-minded World

Messy

“It’s a very very good book, full of wise counterintuitions and clever insights.”

Brian Eno

The Undercover Economist Strikes Back

The Undercover Economist Strikes Back

“Every Tim Harford book is cause for celebration. He makes the ‘dismal science’ seem like an awful lot of fun.”

Malcolm Gladwell

Adapt

Adapt

“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

Dear Undercover Economist

Dear Undercover Economist

“The very best letters from the ‘Dear Economist’ columns from 2003-2008 in one handy book-sized package.”

The Logic of Life

The Logic of Life

“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

The Undercover Economist

The Undercover Economist

“This book should be required reading for every elected official, business leader, and university student.”

Steven D. Levitt

Articles

Can gamers outplay rapacious capitalists?

Forty years ago, a kid from down the street told me about this cool new game, Tunnels & Trolls. Something about his explanation kept eluding my grasp. Was it a computer game, like Pac-Man or Chuckie Egg? A board game, like Risk or Monopoly? No. There was no...

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Foolproof by Sander van der Linden

Rukmani and her family were driving to a temple in Tamil Nadu, India, in May 2018, when they stopped to ask for directions from an elderly local lady. It seemed a safe enough thing to do. The family hadn’t realised that almost every local with access to WhatsApp had...

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Why Chatbots are bound to spout bullshit

Much has changed since 1986, when the Princeton philosopher Harry Frankfurt published an essay in an obscure journal, Raritan, titled “On Bullshit”. Yet the essay, later republished as a slim bestseller, remains unnervingly relevant. Frankfurt’s brilliant insight was...

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Talks about the Truth Detective

I'm giving some talks about my imminent book, The Truth Detective. Come along! Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford - 2pm on 1st April at the Oxford Literary Festival Oxford Maths Festival - 3pm on 14th May. Hay Festival - 26th May, 1pm. The Royal Institution - 23 September,...

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