A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking with Statistics and the Scientific Method

I was already aware of many of the tricks used that are described in this book, but there was a good bit that I didn’t know as I never took a statistics course in school. This book does a good job of describing the stuff that will be helpful to see past the games that the media often play without a bunch of extra stuff that just confuses the whole idea. Really, some people might think they are better off not being so woke to the lies we are told every day but knowledge is never really a bad thing. The ways that numbers are manipulated that are described in this book are used quite often in our society. It helps to be able to learn to look at the numbers for yourself so you can do the math and know what is really going on, or that the statistics being reported to you cannot be true at all due to it being impossible to figure such things. Overall an eye opening book that I recommend to everyone even slightly interested in the truth. They should teach more of this in school but I’m afraid they don’t for a reason.

I liked the style the content was presented in, and thought most of the examples were easy to follow along with. Some of the content was technical. I think people who know they are in situations where it's common to experience dishonesty mostly for work will benefit by giving this book a read.

Straightforward explanation of how sources continually misstate statistical “facts”. Easy to understand book. More importantly, highlights how sources manipulate data to bias a perspective/narrative. If you have not taken a formal stats course, after reading the book, you will never read or listen to information the same way again.

The book was as advertised and on time.

This book presents in clear language how statistics are used and misused. It covers many of the problems encountered today where numbers are manipulated incorrectly to deceive us. This book won several awards for non-fiction science, and it deserves them. It's a short delightful read, and if has my strongest recommendation.