Scan barcode
davidsteinsaltz's review
1.0
This one goes on my list of books whose purpose is almost exclusively to tell the reader how brilliant the author is, and how stupid everyone else is. (Other items on the list are [b:Fooled by Randomness|38315|Fooled by Randomness The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets|Nassim Nicholas Taleb|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169137831s/38315.jpg|3119175] and [b:The God Delusion|14743|The God Delusion|Richard Dawkins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166659877s/14743.jpg|3044365] -- in fact, almost anything by Richard Dawkins.) It seemed like a good idea -- there certainly are fundamental problems with the notion of statistical significance, and huge confusion about its application. But the authors seem to have just one hobbyhorse -- statistical significance ignores the size of effects -- and they ride it for chapter after chapter, heaping up anecdotes about colleagues and predecessors who supposedly didn't get it, instead of actually developing an argument. I gave up after about 50 pages.
More...