Book Club: Truth, Data, and a Fact-based Worldview

For our next meeting we have decided to read about truth, data, and developing a world view based on facts.

Suggested Reading

• How to Make the World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers, by Tim Harford
• Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think, By Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund

If you don’t have the time for any books, you could read articles by David Spiegelhalter, listen to his talks on YouTube.

Do you listen to More or Less on Radio 4? Perhaps you are already ready to participate!

Whatever you decide to read or listen, join us for a stimulating discussion with like-minded people in a relaxed atmosphere.

In How to Make the World Add Up, Tim Harford draws on his experience as both an economist and presenter of the BBC's radio show More or Less. He takes us deep into the world of disinformation and obfuscation, bad research and misplaced motivation to find those priceless jewels of data and analysis that make communicating with numbers worthwhile. Harford's characters range from the art forger who conned the Nazis, to the stripper who fell in love with the most powerful congressman in Washington, to famous data detectives such as John Maynard Keynes, Daniel Kahneman and Florence Nightingale. He reveals how we can evaluate the claims that surround us with confidence, curiosity and a healthy level of scepticism.

In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective — from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse).

We have a group on Goodreads from which you can see all the books we're discussing and make comments and recommendations to other members of the group. Goodreads: Reading Humanists group.

For those wishing to participate in our discussion, we have a WhatsApp group which you can join at Reading Humanists Book Club WhatsApp Group.