Do you want to be able to think more clearly about the world?
Do you want to be able to evaluate the claims that swirl around you in the media and on social media?
Do you wish you knew what questions to ask to sift out the truth from the misinformation?
Are you a curious person, more interested in finding out about the world than in winning some argument on Twitter?
Would you like to come away from reading the news feeling calmer and better informed, rather than stressed and confused?
If the answer to some of those questions is yes, I have good news: it’s publication week for my new book The Data Detective.
This book is the culmination of everything I’ve learned trying to make sense of the numbers in the news and in life – presenting the BBC Radio program ‘More or Less’, writing my Financial Times column, and dealing with my own questions, stresses and mistakes as I go along.
In The Data Detective I offer ten simple rules – not commandments, more habits of mind that I’ve found useful. There is also a FREE bonus GOLDEN RULE. Eleven for the price of ten!
Another thing. The book is full of fun stories. How Florence Nightingale started a public health revolution with a pie chart. How the entire Dutch art world was fooled by their own wishful thinking. How a stripper and a congressman changed the face of US statistics. How the world’s two greatest economists tried, and failed, to see into the future.
Maybe this is why David Epstein mentions the book’s “magnetic storytelling”, Steve Levitt says it is “one of the most wonderful collections of stories that I have read in a long time” and Malcolm Gladwell says, “he’s a genius at telling stories that illuminate our world”.
Of course as a Brit it is embarrassing for me to mention that Maria Konnikova called it “entertaining” and “engrossing” and said the book “awakened my sense of wonder”. Or that the Wall Street Journal says it “expertly guides us through the many ways in which data can trick us”. Or that the Financial Times said it was “wise and useful – such a delight”.
But I’m trying to persuade you to buy a copy so I’m going to power through the awkwardness.
If you are reading this and thinking, “but Tim, I recently bought and enjoyed your book How To Make The World Add Up, and this book sounds so similarly excellent I could almost believe they are the same book”… well, THEY ARE THE SAME BOOK.
The Data Detective is the US & Canadian edition of How To Make The World Add Up. I know it is confusing. Sorry.
If you have read and enjoyed How To Make The World Add Up and have a friend in North America PLEASE TELL THEM about The Data Detective. Thank you.
I loved writing this book and I am proud of it. I was astonished when it became a Christmas number one, hitting the top of the Sunday Times business bestseller lists.
I’m also proud of the audiobook. All my previous audiobooks have been read by excellent actors but this time I wanted to do the job myself. It felt important. I’m glad I did.
You can order the book from Amazon, from Bookshop, from a number of other sources here, or of course from your local independent bookshop.
And please spread the word!