Making Numbers Count: The art and science of communicating numbers

(Paperback)

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New in Penguin paperback, Making Numbers Count offers quick, simple and practical hacks to understand and communicate numbers at all scales, from bestselling author Chip Heath. Until very recently, most languages had no words for numbers greater than five - anything from six to infinity was known as 'lots'. Understanding numbers is essential in the modern world, but we simply aren't built to understand them. What does 5GB of storage actually mean (Two months of commutes, without repeating a song.) What's the size of a nucleus compared to a cell (Imagine a bee in a cathedral.) How much bigger is a billion than a million (Well, a million seconds is twelve days. A billion seconds is...thirty-two years.) 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 understand and communicate numbers with more transparency and meaning. Offering practical principles to help us imagine numbers at all scales, Making Numbers Count shows us how to transform them into concrete, vivid and meaningful messages so that we can make better decisions every day.

Reviews

Concise, breezy and pragmatic. * Wall Street Journal *
A unique popular maths 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 maths accessible.... Astute advice for businesspeople and educators. * Kirkus Review *
This cure for statistical illiteracy couldnt come at a better time or from a better team - a psychologist and a journalist present remarkably practical techniques for comprehending and communicating the maths that really matters. -- Adam Grant, bestselling author of Think Again

Author Bio

Chip Heath (Author) Chip Heath is a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Chip and his brother, Dan, have written four New York Times bestselling books- Made to Stick, Switch, Decisive and The Power of Moments. He has helped over 530 start-ups refine and articulate their strategy and mission. Chip lives in California. Karla Starr (Author) Karla Starr has written for O The Oprah Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, Popular Science, the Guardian and the LA Times. She has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning. She is the author of Can You Learn to Be Lucky and lives in Portland, Oregon.