Super Crunchers
by Ian Ayres · first published 2007
43% recommend57% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Accessible tour of how data analysis and large-scale statistics beat intuition in business and decision-making; suits readers curious about data mining and conceptual statistics without a technical background.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Why would a casino try and stop you from losing? How can a mathematical formula find your future spouse? Would you know if a statistical analysis blackballed you from a job you wanted? Today, number crunching affects your life in ways you might never imagine. In this lively and groundbreaking new book, economist Ian Ayres shows how today's best and brightest organizations are analyzing massive databases at lightening speed to provide greater insights into human behavior. They are the Super Crunchers. From internet sites like Google and Amazon that know your tastes better than you do, to a phys
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…Fight for Your Financial Future Lewis, Michael (1989) Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street _________ (2010) Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine STATISTICS Ayres, Ian (2007) Super Crunchers: Why Thinking by Numbers is the New Way to Be Smart Bernstein, Peter (1996) Against the Gods: Remarkable Story of Risk Kahneman, Daniel (2011) Thinking, Fast and Slow Silver, Nate (2012) Signal and…
on “Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?” ↗…statistics in college and grad school, and worked as a teaching assistant for undergraduate statistics courses. Here is a short, annotated bibliography of my favorite statistics books. 1. Ayres, Ian (2007) Super Crunchers: Why Thinking by Numbers is the New Way to Be Smart [Good introductory summary of the main concepts in statistics with many real-world examples] 2. Bernstein, Peter (1996) Against the Gods: Remarkable…
on “Recommended Self-Study Path for Statistics” ↗1."The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson 2."Super Crunchers" by Ian Ayres 3."Six Great Scientists" by J.G Crowther 4."The Meaning of It All" by Richard Feynman 5."Dealers of Lightning"(The story of XEROX Parc) by Michael Hiltzik 6."What I Believe" by Betrand…
on “Ask YC: Road trip. Which audio books would you recommend?” ↗Interesting.. Have you read Super Crunchers? [http://www.amazon.com/Super-Crunchers-Thinking-Numbers-Smart...]
on “A new method predicts dropping out of university” ↗…mentioned in your post, I assume you are looking for light readings on statistics and probability. You might enjoy following books. * Darrell Huff, Irving Geis How to Lie With Statistics * Ian Ayres Super Crunchers Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart * David Salsburg The Lady Tasting Tea How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century * Emanuel Deman, Models Behaving Badly * Benoit…
on “Ask HN: Good book about statistics and probability?” ↗You might like SuperCrunchers https://www.amazon.com/Super-Crunchers-Thinking-Numbers-Smar...
on “Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?” ↗…at explaining statistics to anyone interested in learning the material at a conceptual level; anyone can read and understand these books, regardless of their educational background. Ian Ayres (2007) Super Crunchers: Why Thinking by Numbers is the New Way to Be Smart Joseph Healey (2020) Statistics: A Tool for Social Research [This is the textbook used in the class, which I highly recommend] Catherine Marsh and…
on “More than half of adults in U.S. say they lack basic statistical understanding” ↗…at explaining statistics to anyone interested in learning the material at a conceptual level; anyone can read and understand these books, regardless of their educational background. Ian Ayres (2007) Super Crunchers: Why Thinking by Numbers is the New Way to Be Smart. Joseph Healey (2020) Statistics: A Tool for Social Research [This is the textbook used in the class, which I highly recommend]. John Allen Paulos…
on “Ask HN: Would you read a statistics textbook?” ↗i think a lot of very lucrative successes are not in consumer-facing applications. i suggest reading Super Crunchers if you're looking for some very lucrative successes: http://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/supercrunchers/
on “Ask HN: machine learning success stories?” ↗I highly recommend Super Crunchers to anyone who has not yet read it. It is written for the layman, but nonetheless it is highly fascinating and insightful for anyone who is remotely interested in data mining.
on “How Visa Predicts Divorce” ↗…textbook, and expects the learning to come from engaging in problem sets. And it's far less technical than the Stats for Engineers course I barely passed. If you're looking for something less textbooky, Super Crunchers (https://amzn.to/3eTz5RL) is sort of a layman's book on the subject of prediction and statistics.
on “Ask HN: Recommend a maths book for a teenager?” ↗…article on it recapitulates much of what Aaron wrote here. The Gladwell formula of using Semmelweis' personal narrative to articulate a frailty of human reasoning was employed to great effect in Ayres _Super Crunchers_; the Semmelweis section is, for instance, noted prominently in the NYT book review. Aaron has oversimplified the Semmelweis story in some material ways: * Semmelweis didn't institute "handwashing"…
on “Look at yourself objectively” ↗…0.00117 winter rainfall + 0.0614 average growing season temperature - 0.00386 harvest rainfall This is the formula developed by Orley Ashenfelter to predict the quality of wine, as described in the book Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres. It is the Moneyball of wine and he claims it does just as well as experts.
on “Is wine fake?” ↗Interestingly enough Super Crunchers (http://www.amazon.com/Super-Crunchers-Thinking-Numbers-Smart...) goes into this in some detail and shows that the FICO score is really another barrier to minorities. Statistically speaking it's minorities,…
on “The Tyranny of the Credit Score” ↗…emphasized the most emotionally compelling part of the story. And comparing the HN votes and discussion for this post vs. the original New York Times version, they chose wisely. Perhaps Ian Ayres' book Super Crunchers would have been more widely read had it begun with the pregnancy angle.
on “How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did” ↗