Lying Numbers

Book Name : Lying Numbers

Author : Hugh Barker

What is it about : A book to smarten up readers against all those bad ass out there who try to fool you with their impressive numbers and statistics, these conman at large include politicians, adverting agents, scientists, supermaketeers and pollsters. The book covers comprehensively their tricks, distortions, fake news, scams and dodgy schemes (Ponzi, Pyramid) and teaches you how to spot a Number Liar from a mile away. The name given to the Conclusion Chapter is People Suck.

Some thoughts after having read the book : The Author's frequent use of slangs and the way he interjects the paragraphs with his digression make reading and thinking during the reading of this book rather distracting. This is an example of his digression in the middle of discussing When Scientists Lie - "… you may not like this chapter, you could always skip it and move on to the next chapter, though I'd be offended if you did ...".

That aside, having read the book, readers will be more cautious, sketical and on guard when they come across "buy one get one free" stickers in the supermarkets, "clinically provened" skin care products endorsed by dubious authorities, fancy 3-D graphical presentations providing illusions of grandeur and readers will definitely first check if biased or deliberately framed questions are being asked in a poll or survey before agreeing to the results.

Would I recommend this book to you : So read this book to smarten yourself up and the key takeaway from this book is - Numbers Don't Lie, People Do. On the other hand, the main theme and message in the paragraphs can get lost very easily with too many of Author's own opinions on democracy, climate change, covid, politics, and at times, boardering waffles and yapyaps, so I found it very tiresome to constantly distill the key points whilst reading, you have been warned.