Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 88
 Good book if you're the right audience July 3, 2009
Brian Kramp (Kirkland, WA, USA)
Despite a few college courses, I know little about statistics, and this book helped me think about how I should apply it more in my career. I agree with other reviewers, that it doesn't need to be this long, and it doesn't really have any deep discussions, or how-to ideas--it's more like a motivational book for using statistics to make decisions. Personally, I think that's what a lot of managers need to read. If you disagree, then maybe you need something more technical.
I enjoyed learning about how law experts and doctors should be able to use statistics more in their professions, and it made me think of a way I should use them in mine.
I enjoyed this book, and after finishing it, came to Amazon to see how others reviewed it. I am surprised by all the negative reviews. This book was clearly written for the mass market, not for anyone with a statistics background, which is what I think is driving all the negative reviews.
 Need More Books Like This One May 29, 2009
Sandra Sowers (GA USA)
This book has enlightened me with information that kept me wanting more. Thanks and keep them coming.
Big Brother is Watching May 6, 2009
Robert E. Levasseur (St. Augustine, Florida, USA)
Big Brother is watching, and he is doing it with computers and mathematical methods. As a result, companies know more about us than ever before. This book explains how the power of computers and sophisticated statistical techniques are helping Big Brother to do it and what it all means.
What is really fascinating about this book are the descriptions of how these modern applications of well known quantitative methods significantly affect many aspects of our lives, including sports, wine rating, medicine, government policy making, dating, market research, and many more.
Written in a clear, lucid style, this book is a must for anyone who wants to understand how super large data bases and mega computing power are changing our world as we go about our daily lives.
Robert E. Levasseur, Ph.D., author of "Practical Statistics"
The Way Decisions Are Increasingly Made April 25, 2009
Eric Mayforth (Houston, Texas)
As we have become a more information-based society, huge databases of information have proliferated. Ian Ayres examines the increasing trend of "Super Crunching", which he defines as using statistics to extract hidden information from large datasets.
Super Crunching has repeatedly been found to make decisions superior to more traditional intuition-based decisions in areas as diverse as baseball, health care, and wine production, and has even been used to guess which purchasing decisions customers will make and how certain Supreme Court justices will vote on given cases. Ayres speculates on what role intuition will have in the future, faced as it is with Super Crunching techniques.
The book is an interesting look at how number-crunching decisions are made by people, companies, and governments in today's world and how these techniques will be increasingly used in the future.
Evidence based everything February 23, 2009
Theodore Lind (Lombard, Illinois USA)
The growth of massive databases has created an opportunity to analyze large collections of real world experience to determine what really works. It's application to medical treatments has already provided facinating insight into the effectiveness traditional treatment procedures. In some cases, they are shown to be ineffective. It also helps lead the way to more effective approaches.
The author shows how this approach can be applied to many varied applications resulting in evidence based solutions. It is a very interesting exposition on the use of regression analysis and random experiments to provide answers to many difficult problems in a wide range of human endeavor. Many real world examples highlight the use of stastical techniques. He thinks it is the way of the future and after reading the Super Crunchers I am inclined to agree.
Showing reviews 6-10 of 88
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