Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers

Stanford business professor Heath (Decisive) and journalist Starr (Can You Learn to Be Lucky?) deliver a mixed collection of tips for making data more easily understood. Based on the premise that human brains can’t easily work with large numbers, the authors provide ways to break down, reframe, and convert them into everyday comparisons or analogies. It’s helpful, for instance, to use concrete objects as size references (“a deck of cards” sticks with people more than a three-to-four-oz. portion size); to use culturally relevant comparisons (the Covid-19 pandemic’s six-foot social distancing guideline is illustrated by a hockey stick in Canada and a surfboard in San Diego); and if something is hard to grasp, to convert it (how long it takes to walk somewhere can be easier to interpret than how far away it is). Though the authors write that their tips are aimed at both “numbers people” and “non numbers people,” the text tends to read like a corporate training course, and their somewhat dismissive view of math as incomprehensible and useless in the “real world” will strike many as blatantly wrong. Still, “non numbers” people will find plenty to consider. (Jan.)