Statistics Hacks: Tips & Tools For Measuring The World and Beating the Odds, by Bruce Frey

Mention the word 'statistics', and the eyes of many people roll back into their heads as if they are in the presence of some for of unadulterated magic. As someone who too many years ago was dragged kicking and screaming through a boring curriculum, I eyed this book suspiciously - worried that maybe it would apply as much to the standard deviant as much as it did 2 decades ago. Fortunately, during those last 20 years, I found use for statistics in work and even in play, so I did open the covers and peered into the well which most people seem to find discouraging.

Since it had 'Hacks' in the title, I was more comfortable with it. I already did enough statistics between school, statistical process control, and the more entertaining and much less used Blackjack gambling 'skill'. Fortunately for me, the book started off with a primer - I'd forgotten how much I had forgotten (and was humble enough to admit it) - and within the first chapter I was nodding along pretty well. There are 75 hacks altogether, 65 if you discount the first chapter (which should be read). The 6 chapters in this 324 page book cover:

• The Basics: The 'Big Secret' (and a smaller dirty secret), describing the world with two numbers, figuring the odds, Rejecting Null (Begone!), going big to get small, precise measurement, measuring up, powering up (not the Nintendo sort of thing), showing cause and effect and knowing what's big when you see it (whack!).
• Discovering Relationships: Relationships between numbers (not social interactions), graph relationships, using one variable to predict another, identifying unexpected outcomes and relationships, comparing two groups, figuring out how wrong you really are, fair sampling and sampling with some Scotch, choosing the honest average and avoiding the Axis of Evil (graphs, silly).
• Measuring The World: The shape of Everything, producing percentiles (diapers not included), predicting the future with the Normal Curve, giving raw scores a makeover, standardizing scores, asking the right questions, testing fairly, improving your test scores (while watching paint dry), establishing how reliable and valid something is, predicting the length of a lifetime and making wise medical decisions.
• Beating the Odds: Gamble Smart, knowing when to hold 'em, knowing when to fold 'em, knowing when to walk away (but nothing about running), how to lose slowly at roulette (as opposed to quickly?), playing blackjack, lottery, getting lucky with cards (not strip poker), getting lucky with dice, sharpening card-sharping, amazing 23 of your closest friends, making up your own bar bets, crazy wild cards, why you shouldn't trust an honest coin and knowing your limit.
• Playing Games: 'Let's make a deal' Zonk, Monopoly (including how important the penal system in Monopoly really is), Random selection as artificial intelligence, Card Tricks through the mail, checking how honest your iPod is, predicting who will win, predicting baseball games, plotting histograms in Excel (or OpenOffice.org Calc, for that matter), Go! for two, ranking yourself with the best and estimating pi by chance.
• Thinking Smart: Outsmarting Superman (smarter than a speeding bullet?), demystifying amazing coincidences, sensing real life randomness, spotting faked data, giving credit (and understanding how it is given), playing music with Pascal's Triangle, Controlling your random thoughts, searching for Extra-sensory perception, curing conjunctionitis, breaking codes with our friend Etaoin Shrdlu, discovering a new species, feeling connected, learning to ride a votercycle, living life in the fast lane you're in, and seeking out new life and civilizations.

After reading the book (and doing more than that, I played with the ideas in it quite a bit), I can say that somehow Mr. Frey took some very drab material (at least as I was taught it!) and made it interesting through practical applications. If I had a book like this 20 years ago, I probably could have broken out of school more often to sample the odds of being trapped in truancy and shoved into detention. The author made light work of the basic concepts in Chapter One, and danced through practical applications of statistics. I *liked* this book, which I honestly didn't expect; most math-related books seem to have the voice of Ben Stein without the wit.

I'd say that this is a practical book for anyone from statistics students to would-be gamblers to people who mentally do their shopping lists while charts are brought out at meetings. This is a great book, and it gets a KnowProSE 9 out of 10. At less than $20, the odds are good you'll find this book at the least entertaining - and if you read it, the world just might make more sense.