How To Lie With Statistics - a classic by Darell Huff

Self-Improvement

This book is an old classic by Darell Huff. He went out of his way in the 1950s to explain how cognitive biases and statistical manipulation are used in research, media, and business opportunities.

Every founder and investor should read this book, mostly because it brings to life some of the most basic forms of statistical and emotional manipulation one might try to present to you during a pitch.

As investors and founders, we get paid to have an opinion about the future and to be right ahead of others. As you build your self-fulfilling prophecy, make sure that you are aware of others trying to manipulate information to convince you of their agenda.

My favorite excerpt:

Possibly more important to keep in mind is that the distortion of statistical data and its manipulation to an end are not always the work of professional statisticians. What comes full of virtue from the statistician's desk may find itself twisted, exaggerated, oversimplified, and distorted through selection by salesman, public relations experts, journalists, or advertising copywriters.                                                                                                                            
But whoever the guilty party may be in any instance, it is hard to grant him the status of blundering innocent. False charts in magazines and newspapers frequently sensationalize by exaggeration, rarely minimize anything.



Other blog posts

Listen to John Cowgill (Costanoa) on Inevitable Podcast

In this episode, I had the honor of talking to John Cowgill, Partner at Costanoa Ventures. You can listen to it on YouTube, Spotify, and other podcast apps.

Read more
Starting Atman Capital

I am pleased to announce my next company, Atman Capital. Atman is an egregore of the most successful founders in tech with full alignment from day one.

Read more
Untrained Algorithms

Algorithms need to training. Repetition is king. I just don't have any desire to "train Facebook" on my preferences. Account deactivated.

Read more

Receive new essays as soon as they're published

You won't receive spam and you can unsubscribe at any time