How to Make the World Add Up

Little, Brown Book Group, May 2020 • Tim Harford

Review and personal recommendation by
Tamás Bernáth (SEED Faculty Member) 

Tim Harford, he of „Undercover Economist” fame, has produced another entertaining yet profound book. In essence, he defends the science of statistics from all-too-easy claims of being unreliable and misleading.

Through a series of thought-provoking examples, Harford demonstrates convincingly that you can decide for your own when to trust statistics and when not to.

All you need to do is follow some pieces of advice. These are grouped as rules in the book, from the first one, „Search your feelings” (yes), to the last, simple but powerful one: „Be curious”.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to well understand facts and data.

About the author

Tim Harford is an economist, journalist and broadcaster. He is the author of nine books including “How To Make The World Add Up”, “Messy”, and the million-selling “The Undercover Economist”. Tim is a senior columnist at the Financial Times, and the presenter of Radio 4’s “More or Less”, “Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy”, and the new podcast “Cautionary Tales”.

Tim has spoken at TED, PopTech and the Sydney Opera House. He is an associate member of Nuffield College, Oxford and an honorary fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. Tim was made an OBE for services to improving economic understanding in the New Year honours of 2019.