From “one of the great (greatest?) contemporary popular writers on economics” (Tyler Cowen) comes a smart, lively, and encouraging rethinking of how to use statistics. Today we think statistics are the enemy, numbers used to mislead and confuse us. That’s a mistake, Tim Harford says in The Data Detective. We shouldn’t be suspicious of statistics—we need to understand what they mean and how they can improve our lives: they are, at heart, human behavior seen through the prism of numbers and are often “the only way of grasping much of what is going on around us.” If we can toss aside our fears and learn to approach them clearly—understanding how our own preconceptions lead us astray—statistics can point to ways we can live better and work smarter. As “perhaps the best popular economics writer in the world” (New Statesman), Tim Harford is an expert at taking complicated ideas and untangling them for millions of readers. In The Data Detective, he uses new research in science and psychology to set out ten strategies for using statistics to erase our biases and replace them with new ideas that use virtues like patience, curiosity, and good sense to better understand ourselves and the world. As a result, The Data Detective is a big-idea book about statistics and human behavior that is fresh, unexpected, and insightful. "[Harford] expertly guides us through the many ways in which data can trick us….Though numbers are at the core of The Data Detective, it’s emotion that wields … power, affecting not only how we respond to data but also how we absorb it in the first place." —The Wall Street Journal "The Data Detective is sure to be another success from Harford, and is a powerful tool, especially in the current climate, one that will give readers the confidence to delve into data and statistics in a new and meaningful way." —Booklist "One of the most wonderful collections of stories that I have read in a long time... fascinating." —Steve Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics "Few people write about social science with the clarity and wit of Tim Harford. If you’re staggered by statistics or daunted by data, this entertaining romp of a book is essential reading.” —Daniel H. Pink, author of When and Drive "Nobody makes the statistics of everyday life more fascinating and enjoyable than Tim Harford." —Bill Bryson, author of The Body “Tim Harford is one of the finest writers of nonfiction. This is another brilliant read: wise, humane, and above all illuminating. Nobody is better on statistics and numbers – and how to make sense of them.” —Matthew Syed, author of Rebel Ideas “An immensely enjoyable guide to using statistics. I loved it.” —Matt Parker, author of Humble Pi “We are supremely lucky to have the fabulously readable, lucid, witty, and authoritative Tim Harford to remind us why fact, reason, numbers, clarity, and truth matter, how beautiful they are and how crucial to our understanding of the natural world and human society. Every politician and journalist should be made to read this book.” —Stephen Fry "In The Data Detective, Tim Harford continues to amuse and instruct the reader with deceptively profound and broad statistical intuition and wisdom. He finds historical precedent for our modern mistakes that are delightful and enlightening and serve to make us hopeful rather than despairing about our future—a feat in itself." —Cathy O’Neil, author of Weapons of Math Destruction "Thanks to Tim Harford's characteristic wit and magnetic storytelling, you may not realize you're getting an advanced course in how to understand the kind of statistics we're all faced with every day. The Data Detective is certainly a fun book to read, but it's also a genuinely important one." —David Epstein, author of Range "Tim Harford is a brilliant guide to a world that we humans often find overwhelming and intimidating: the world of data. This entertaining, engrossing book about the power of numbers, logic, and genuine curiosity has, in Harford's own words, 'awakened my sense of wonder' about the beauty of statistics." —Maria Konnikova, author of The Biggest Bluff "Characteristic lucidity, concealed intellectual depths, wry humour—and a big unifying idea—from one of our finest economic and statistical communicators" —The Independent

“用数据说话”是互联网时代的通用思维方式，有人说数据不会骗人，真的是这样吗？ X 让人看不懂的数据分析和神奇算法 X 莫名奇妙的数学方程 X 强行联系因果的统计学论文 X 某些新闻报道或PPT中花里胡哨的图表 …… 我们都曾经或正在被这些东西蒙蔽，却往往毫无察觉，甚至乐在其中！ 一些貌似可靠的数据来源，也可能藏着一本正经的胡说八道。比如TED演讲中的统计数字、《纽约时报》等媒体报道的大数据分析新算法、甚至是医学期刊中的诊断数据……虚假信息都有可能鱼目混珠，而你能分辨其中哪些是真正有用的信息，哪些只是胡扯吗？ 对此，华盛顿大学专门开发了一门尚未开课即爆满的公开课，而这本书正是源自这门引发热议的课程。 两位作者花了多年时间研究打着数学和统计学幌子的胡扯，犀利幽默地对它们分门别类一一剖析，帮助我们培养批判性思维，有效分析海量数据和观点，拆穿无用数据的精致伪装，在信息时代做个游刃有余的明白人。 话说回来，除了教会你如何识别数据胡扯，当你迫不得已需要胡扯时，它也会成为一本实操性强的工具书呢！

本书的目标是教会读者使用最重要的数据科学工具，从而为实施数据科学奠定坚实的基础。读完本书后，你将掌握R语言的精华，并能够熟练使用多种工具来解决各种数据科学难题。每一章都按照这样的顺序组织内容：先给出一些引人入胜的示例，以便你可以整体了解这一章的内容，然后再深入细节。本书的每一节都配有习题，以帮助你实践所学到的知识。

The OpenIntro project was founded in 2009 to improve the quality and availability of education by producing exceptional books and teaching tools that are free to use and easy to modify. Our inaugural effort is OpenIntro Statistics. Probability is optional, inference is key, and we feature real data whenever possible. Files for the entire book are freely available at openintro.org, and anybody can purchase a paperback copy from amazon.com for under $10. The future for OpenIntro depends on the involvement and enthusiasm of our community. Visit our website, openintro.org. We provide free course management tools, including an online question bank, utilities for creating course quizzes, and many other helpful resources. http://www.openintro.org/stat/

An Introduction to Statistical Learning provides an accessible overview of the field of statistical learning, an essential toolset for making sense of the vast and complex data sets that have emerged in fields ranging from biology to finance to marketing to astrophysics in the past twenty years. This book presents some of the most important modeling and prediction techniques, along with relevant applications. Topics include linear regression, classification, resampling methods, shrinkage approaches, tree-based methods, support vector machines, clustering, and more. Color graphics and real-world examples are used to illustrate the methods presented. Since the goal of this textbook is to facilitate the use of these statistical learning techniques by practitioners in science, industry, and other fields, each chapter contains a tutorial on implementing the analyses and methods presented in R, an extremely popular open source statistical software platform. Two of the authors co-wrote The Elements of Statistical Learning (Hastie, Tibshirani and Friedman, 2nd edition 2009), a popular reference book for statistics and machine learning researchers. An Introduction to Statistical Learning covers many of the same topics, but at a level accessible to a much broader audience. This book is targeted at statisticians and non-statisticians alike who wish to use cutting-edge statistical learning techniques to analyze their data. The text assumes only a previous course in linear regression and no knowledge of matrix algebra.

本书注重实用性，是一本全面而细致的R指南，高度概括了该软件和它的强大功能，展示了使用的统计示例，且对于难以用传统方法处理的凌乱、不完整和非正态的数据给出了优雅的处理方法。作者不仅仅探讨统计分析，还阐述了大量探索和展示数据的图形功能。新版做了大量更新和修正，新增了近200页内容，介绍数据挖掘、预测性分析和高级编程。

大数据时代最该懂的学科就是统计学 科学松鼠会推荐统计学领域入门必读书 ................... ※编辑推荐※ ★统计学入门首选读本，科学松鼠会强力推荐！ 这是一本经典的入门级读物，每介绍一个新的概念，都会进行大量的背景介绍，再辅以相关奇闻异事。就算是对于一个门外汉来说，也能读懂一个特定概念是做什么用的。 ★像小说一样的科普书，堪称统计学领域的《苏菲的世界》 在作者笔下，固执的皮尔逊、低调的戈塞特、天才的费舍尔，一如武林高手一样，在统计学的思想领域激烈交锋。他们和后续各个时代代表性的天才，共同演绎了二十世纪这场绚丽多彩又跌宕起伏的统计学革命。有读者评论，本书之于统计学，一如《苏菲的世界》之于哲学。 ★了解统计学的人，运气都不会太差。大数据时代，你需要懂点统计学思想。 统计学从不猜想，而是测量未来！从买乐透到大数据，全都需要统计学，不懂统计学，你就等着被骗吧！ ................... ※内容简介※ 统计学之所以被滥用、误用，其实是因为它太有用，在某种程度上,可以说改变了世界上处理问题的方式。 这是一部统计学的史诗。一百多年来，统计学从无到有，以至于蔚为壮观。一部统计学的发展史，就是一部不断革新现有科学体系的历史。本书深入浅出地描绘了这一历程，为读者奉献了一场思想的饕餮盛宴。 这是一部关于叱咤风云的统计学学霸的传奇故事书。回望那段波澜壮阔的时代,一张张脸孔水一样掠过。在英国剑桥的某个午后，有位女士声称，把茶加到牛奶里，和把牛奶加到茶里，两种方法调出来的下午茶喝起来味道不同。在座的科学家都对她的说法嗤之以鼻，但有位来访的瘦小绅士，R. A. 费希尔，提议要用科学的方法，来检验这位女士的假设……本书以这位喝下午茶的英国女士为起点，带领读者一一回顾“统计”这门应用范围最广的科学，了解若干重要理论的发展过程与应用，亲近那些隐身幕后的统计学家，看看统计究竟为今天这个世界，带来了什么样的改变。 这是一部大数据时代不容错过的实用之书。大数据时代，一切以数据说话，如何解读数据便与每个人的日常生活息息相关。统计学的本质就在于解读数据，读懂了本书，你就是大数据时代的明白人。