Darrell Huff (1913–2001)

Good, reasonably entertaining introduction to the basic ideas behind statistics as used in the "popular" sphere. No serious complaints, but it doesn't particularly stand out as insightful, mostly because of a few problems:

- Old, so it uses outdated terms and examples that can be confusing and sometimes insulting - I didn't understand a couple of examples at all
- The use of maths is confusing - it says everything in word form instead of equations, which doesn't particularly help those with trouble with maths and for those who are good with it requires a lot of mental translation. This is a problem with 1 chapter mainly.
- The last chapter is basically a recapitulation in different terms of the others. This isn't a big deal, I was just hoping for more general advice along similar lines about spotting lines
- The illustrations don't really add much mostly - they aren't particularly funny or helpful, which is a shame.

As it's a big market I'm being a bit more critical than I would otherwise. Summary: good book, good introduction, worth reading if you get it, but nothing extraordinary.… (mehr)