Books about Statistics

The sequel to "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information", the author goes into a more analytical study of various techniques used for representing information. The book discusses how color, layering, and separation should be used. It emphasizes the value of using small multiples of images to display variations in data. A very useful book for user interface designers as it explains how you can display more information in less space using different methods.

Tags: statistics

Taleb introduces the problem of how people, especially those in the trading profession, fail to understand how much their results are governed by random events, especially those events with surprisingly large consequences. He shows how past experience and history cannot be a predictor of such events, yet people keep trying to analyze and make sense of past results. The concepts in the book are really powerful, but Taleb's personal anger against people who don't understand his concepts undermines the book. It is unfortunate to see him revel in the misfortunes of traders who lost big during a market collapse, his excuse being that such traders were arrogant and full of hubris.

As with "The Black Swan", the book exposes too much of Taleb's insecurities and complexes. It would have been a much better book had he just stuck to explaining the principles involved and not treating the reader to his personal problems. Maybe he should just write another book of philosophy explaining why he is so angry at people who don't share his convictions and ideas.

Tags: finance statistics

Even though it was written a long time ago and contains unfamiliar examples from its time, this book does not feel outdated. It explains the various ways how statistics (text and graphical displays) can be manipulated to present a different meaning of the reality. The author also explains how careful persons can spot such errors and avoid making wrong decisions based on the distorted information.

Tags: statistics

The author expands upon a very important idea, which is that many human events are determined by events that are unpredictable and fall outside normal human expectations. He explains how the standard bell curve is insufficient to explain such anomalies. The book is very interesting, but unfortunately the author has a tendency to get very personal about his critics. For some reason, he assumes that his insight is supposed to be self-evident and anyone who does not understand it is a fool and infuriates him. There are better ways to address criticisms of one's theory than ranting and name-calling. If not for that, the book deserves a 5.

Tags: statistics finance

In this book, Tufte explores how graphs are used to display quantitative information. He analyzes how data can be misinterpreted willfully and accidentally though bad graphical representations. He also suggests various means to emphasize the informational component of graphical data while removing as much of non-data graphical elements.

Tags: statistics

"The Numerati" is a fascinating look into the analysis of mountains of data collected from online activity and the people and companies engaged in making sense of this information with the idea to convert it into products, services and even votes.

The author's venture into this field comes at a junction in time when the analysis tools and ideas are still in their infancy. The science is not perfect and there will be more hits than misses. However, as some of the people interviewed in the book suggest, even imperfect information is better than what is available at present through conventional means. For example, in the case of targeted political marketing, a slight improvement in messaging can deliver a tight district to a party using the new data analysis techniques.

The book needs to be viewed from a larger perspective. Data analysis techniques should augment and complement business strategies, not replace them. They are tactics for improvement. For example, a politician who does not have the right message for voters will lose even if he is an expert at identifying swing voters.

Tags: technology statistics

This is a small pamphlet from Tufte's "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" demonstrating two examples of real-life graphics that had consequences. One was how British medical authorities were able to locate the source of cholera by John Snow's map of cholera deaths in a London locality. Another was the disastrous Space Shuttle Challenger disaster where the root problem was known before the launch, but the engineers were unable to present their facts effectively to management.

Tags: statistics

Tufte explains how information can be more effectively conveyed to audiences, even those with less knowledge about the details. As an example, he shows how the NASA Challenger tragedy could have been prevented by better presentation of engineering data that showed the possibility of failure. The book also describes various methods of displaying data to emphasize similarities and differences in data. One problem with the book is that the writing is inconsistent. The latter portion of the book is very tedious at places.

Tags: graphics statistics