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Making Numbers Count
Making Numbers Count
Oct 4, 2024 1:19 PM

Author:Chip Heath,Karla Starr

Making Numbers Count

A lively, practical, first-of-its-kind guide to understanding cold, clinical data and harnessing it to tell a persuasive story.

__________

How many hours' worth of songs are on your Spotify Wrapped this year?

How much is your commute time really worth?

How do you work out how likely you are to get Covid based on the official statistics?

How do your viewing hours track against the most popular shows on Netflix?

Whether you're interested in global problems like climate change, running a business, or just grasping how few people have washed their hands between visiting the bathroom and touching you, this book will help math-lovers and math-haters alike translate the numbers that illuminate our world.

Until very recently, most languages had no words for numbers greater than five - anything from six to infinity was known as 'lots'. While the numbers in our world have become increasingly complex, our brains are stuck in the past. Yet the ability to communicate and understand numbers has never mattered more. How can we more effectively translate numbers and stats - so fundamental to the next big idea - to make data come to life?

Drawing on years of research into making ideas stick, Chip Heath and Karla Starr outline six critical principles that will give anyone the tools to communicate numbers with more transparency and meaning. Using concepts such as simplicity, concreteness and familiarity, they show us how to transform hard numbers into their most engaging form, allowing us to bring more data, more naturally, into decisions in our schools, our workplaces and our society.

Reviews

Concise, breezy and pragmatic.

—— Wall Street Journal

A unique popular math book... [that] delivers a painless, ingenious education in how to communicate statistics and numbers to people who find them confusing... Packed with tables, anecdotes, and amusing facts, the narrative makes math accessible.... Astute advice for businesspeople and educators.

—— Kirkus Review

Surprisingly fun, surprisingly challenging, surprisingly refreshing.

—— Bookmunch

Very funny

—— Natalie Bowen , Independent

Laugh out loud funny - every teacher who reads it will cringe with empathy

—— Laura McInerney

This entertaining memoir of 10 eventful years at the chalkface further illuminates the debt of gratitude we owe teachers

—— The Bookseller

A genuinely joyful book and a celebration of teaching

—— Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School & College Leaders

A frank, funny and long overdue ode to teachers and teaching

—— Adam Kay

A delightfully frank and funny book - with a very serious message

—— Jacqueline Wilson

An ode to teaching: hilarious, inspiring and so terrifyingly true

—— Lucy Kellaway

Funny, sensitive and clever

—— Victoria Derbyshire

A hilarious love letter to teaching - and to teenagers. It throws open the doors to the staff room and our ears to the gossip inside. As someone who was a nightmare as a teen, it made me think of the teachers who championed me, regardless, and the influence they had on my adult life. A timely celebration of the importance of teachers

—— Christie Watson

If you want to know what the world of schools and classrooms is really like, this is your book. An unputdownable account of Ryan Wilson's teaching years that describes the absolute reality of teaching in UK schools including the good parts, the bad and all that is ugly. I was captivated by Wilson's honesty and vulnerability and loved reading and exploring every minute of this familiar world

—— Andria Zafirakou, 2018 Global Teacher Prize winner

Ryan Wilson passes with flying colours and earns an A-grade for his debut book... If anyone has read Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt... Ryan's terrific tome strikes a similar funny, feel-good and frank tone

—— Thomas Stichbury , attitude

A pleasant and heartfelt account of one man's brief journey into and out of education... unquestionably funny... poignant and very personal

—— Emma Williams , Schools Week

Very funny, often inspiring, occasionally tragic - and a timely reminder of the unforgettable influence of great teachers

—— Daily Mail

Engaging . . . Kessler approaches her topic with even-handedness and rigour.

—— Maclean’s

Brilliantly in-depth not only in the explanations of the gig economy, but in the narratives of people who work gigs as well.

—— Washington Times

As well-reported, and at times as emotionally wrenching, as Amy Goldstein’s Janesville . . . In facing . . . the fraying of the social contract between employer and employee, Sarah Kessler's work in Gigged makes one thing increasingly clear: we must get busy building a new one that benefits all sides of that relationship, and the society around it.

—— Editor’s Choice , 800 CEO Read

Goes under the bonnet of the gig economy.

—— What CEOs Are Reading , Management Today

Kessler’s recent book Gigged is all about [the] desire for independence . . . Kessler investigates the liberating ethos and terrible trade-offs of this new economy by following several people working in such positions. She discovers why the revolution in “independent contractor” work – which comes without guarantees for minimum wages, paid vacation, or health benefits – is paradise for one slice of the population, but has been disappointing, and in some cases devastating, for others.

—— Quartz

For those interested in inquiries into modern (and future) work, there’s Gigged by Sarah Kessler, an analysis of the gig economy.

—— Books of the Year , Buzzfeed News

Looks at the potential of the gig economy and ultimately the problems it bears.

—— Books of the Year , Fast Company
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