Site of the Day: Innumeracy.com
By Barry Ritholtz - November 20th, 2009, 1:30PM
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Some good learnin’ here:
This web site stems from a personal interest in critical thinking and is a collection of links to articles and sites pertaining to numeracy and critical thinking. Links should be good for at least the date posted. After the posting date, link reliability depends on the policy of the linked sites. Some sites may require registration before allowing access.
November 20th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
have read 4 books on it a year ago, uhhhhhhhhhhhhh, not saying it’s wrong, probably right, to me it seemed like alll it was was numbers with confirmation bias, self-motivated obviously, so nothing really new or revolutionary jumped out at me, different brain types have strengths and weakness’s with numbers, ala, the artist and the accountant syndrome
November 20th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
It ’s nice to know how to play with numbers but in the end, I always revert to the Game of Life.
http://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/
This is a simple game and the outcome is extraordinary. The real world is way too complex to predict for our little brains.
Luck accounts for most of our life experiences. Being at the right place at the right time with the right package.
November 20th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
fwiw, number fans, imho, Complexity Theory is much more interesting, also a great story
November 20th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
@danm
That’s what Malcolm Gladwell thinks and writes as well.
Considering our chances, each of us had a 1 in 350,000,000 chance of being born, chance would seem to begin right at the very beginning of life.
November 20th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Love Gladwell, have not read his new book, yet, on Blink, imho, where he set the stage, he gave no answer, which imho is wrong, there is a clear answer, what i totally agree with is when and where it will happen, yet it will, we make thousands of snap decisions a day, this is just but an example of one, yet, it’s one that counts…………
November 20th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
@danm
Tried to open the game but Explorer shut it down.
Is there another way in?
November 20th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Do they have a companion site for spelling? When I click the link, the header in my browser says “More aticles from Innumeracy.com” which is pretty damn funny.
November 20th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
I’ve seen a million sites like that one.
November 20th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
For those of you too young, the first time I ever heard the term is from the 1988 book “Innumeracy” by John Allen Paulos…who later wrote a book about losing all his money in the stock market.
It is a lifelong dream of mine to force every public official to read this book, under duress “A Clockwork Orange” style if necessary
November 20th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
flipspiceland:
You can find it in many more places. Here is another:
http://www.math.com/students/wonders/life/life.html
When I started my math degree, the first thing they made us do was solve a problem that showed us how we could not trust our own intuition.
In computer sciences, the first thing they work on, I’ve been told, is the Game of Life.
November 20th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
This is no lie.
Years ago my son brought home a 6th grade math homework assignment and asked me to help him. Math being my strongest subject. I looked at the questions and I was confused. They were written in such a way that there was no correct answer. It turns out this was the latest innovation in teaching. There should not be a right or wrong answer because little Johnny’s self esteem might be damaged if he is wrong. So everybody will be right. In reality it only caused confusion.
I suspect little Cheng is learning rigorous mathematical formulas. How will we compete in a global economy when “How do are children feel about themselves?” takes precedence over competency?
November 21st, 2009 at 5:32 am
They go into innumeracy in media there. That is one of my favorite peeves. There is nothing more frustrating to hear than how company profits shrunk by 200%
@danm Huge time sink there
@ajw
Do they have a companion site for spelling? When I click the link, the header in my browser says “More aticles from Innumeracy.com” which is pretty damn funny.
When I was reading Barry’s intro above I was think to myself how funny it would be if the site was riddled with spelling errors. Maybe it was deliberate. If not then it was a beautiful piece of irony
November 21st, 2009 at 5:39 am
Obviously, the world will end in a war between the math quants and the spin doctors who can write things about them
So that would propose an interesting dilemma. You’ve got the math quants on one side designing rockets and weapons and writing books on how to use them that are so bad that nobody knows how to use the weapons properly.
On the other side you have a bunch of writers and idea guys who know exactly what to do and how to explain what to do to their troops. The only problem is they can’t design a weapon that will work let alone aim the thing
I think we’ll call this story the Politician and the Banker