E's Reviews > The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics

Well, I suppose I should relate the "ten easy rules." 1. Learn to stop and notice one's emotional reaction to a claim, rather than accepting or rejecting it because of how it makes one feel. 2. Look for ways to combine the bird's-eye statistical perspective with the worm's-eye view from personal experience. 3. Look at the labels on the data one is given, asking if one understands what's really being described. 4. Look for comparison and context, putting any claim into perspective. 5. Look behind the statistics at their source--and at what other data might have vanished into obscurity. 6. Ask who is missing from the data being shown, and ask whether one's conclusions might differ if they were included. 7. Ask tough questions about algorithms and the big datasets that drive them, recognizing that without intelligent openness they cannot be trusted. 8. Pay more attention to the bedrock of official statistics. 9. Look under the surface of any eye-catching graph or chart. 10. Keep an open mind, asking how one might be mistaken, or whether the facts have changed.

Rather uncontroversial as far as they go. Harford's strength is in explanation and illustration. The book is basically a long way of teaching people to slow down and take statistics with a grain of salt. Inasmuch as that advice is heeded, the book should be a success.