More Numbers Every Day: How Data, Stats, and Figures Control Our Lives and How to Set Ourselves Free

Description

In the vein of Factfulness, How Not to Be Wrong, and The Drunkard's Walk, a timely and delightful look at how numbers have taken control of our lives and how to get it back, from two rockstar Scandinavian economists who study happiness and creativity How many unread emails are there in your inbox? How many hours of sleep did you get last week? How many steps did you walk today? We're drowning in digits and immersed in integers, and More Numbers Every Day, by internationally renowned economics professors Micael Dahlen and Helge Thorbj rnsen is a timely and powerful investigation -- and warning -- about the trouble numbers can bring us. Today we all strive to quantify everything: calories, likes, website traffic, and even friends. And then we rate things, too: movies, restaurants, taxi drivers, experiences, professors, and dates. We measure ourselves against others and compare our real experiences to imagined averages. But in our rush to measure, we can lose sight of what matters. In this delightful and alarming book, Dahlen and Thorbj rnsen show how we're exposed and infected by an ever-more contagious pandemic of numbers. With groundbreaking, empowering, sometimes frightening, and sometimes funny research, they help us see how numbers creep into our heads and bodies, affecting how we think and feel. When do numbers make us stronger and when do they make us weaker? When do they mislead us? And when do they turn us into narcissistic idiots? Look at the book as your numerical vaccination, for a happier and more numerically healthy life.