

How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking - mindcrime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZTKuMBJP7Y

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quizotic
Very fun read. Debunks casual and misleading uses of mathematics to make
social arguments seem unassailable. For example, using percentages in an
argument can be misleading when some quantities are (a) very small or (b)
negative:

(a) at-home day care has SEVEN times the risk of infant mortality of
commercial day care centers... but the mortality rate is SO low, that driving
an extra ten minutes to the "safer" choice increases the overall chance of
mortality (due to risk of car accidents)

(b) under Scott Walker, Wisconsin created HALF of all jobs created in the
USA... ~18,000 net jobs were created, and Wisconsin created ~9,000. But
neighboring Michigan created 13,000. Some states lost jobs.

More sophisticated examples of faulty reasoning using statistics. Don't know
whether the book is really helping me to listen more critically, but it's fun
to think I might be wiser, or at least less gullible, after reading it.

