the_book_de...
Price: £16.44
In stock
31 used & new from £0.01
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
Super Crunchers: How Anything Can Be Predicted
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Super Crunchers: How Anything Can Be Predicted (Hardcover)

by Ian Ayres (Author)
2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


21 new from £0.01 8 used from £1.00 2 collectible from £4.00
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Audio Download (Abridged) £16.63 £11.69

Special Offers and Product Promotions

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
   Potts Buckets Limited opens new browser window
www.potts-buckets.com  -  Manufacture of Excavator and Loader Buckets and Attachments 
   Predict opens new browser window
Ask.com  -  Find the Best Results for Predict. 
   Prediction Secrets? opens new browser window
MindReality.com/Prediction  -  Answers to Life Greatest Mysteries, Hidden Knowledge of the Universe! 
  
 

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Tiger That Isn't: Seeing Through a World of Numbers

The Tiger That Isn't: Seeing Through a World of Numbers

by Michael Blastland
4.4 out of 5 stars (17) 
Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning

Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning

by Thomas H. Davenport
4.3 out of 5 stars (6)  £13.40
One to Nine: The Inner Life of Numbers

One to Nine: The Inner Life of Numbers

by Andrew Hodges
2.7 out of 5 stars (3)  £5.96
Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart

Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart

by Ian Ayres
3.7 out of 5 stars (3)  £6.08
The Numerati: In Which They'll Get My Number and Yours

The Numerati: In Which They'll Get My Number and Yours

by Stephen Baker
3.3 out of 5 stars (3)  £14.39
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: John Murray (6 Sep 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0719564638
  • ISBN-13: 978-0719564635
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.4 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 135,090 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Review

Groundbreaking ... Not only is it fun to read. It just may change the way you think'

(Stephen D Levitt co-author of Freakonomics )


Product Description

Companies used to rely on human experts and their years of experience to guide them. Now, cutting-edge organizations are mining the data and crunching numbers instead, to come up with more accurate, less biased predictions. As Freakonomics detailed, statistical analysis can reveal the secret levers of causation. But economist Ian Ayres argues that that’s only part of the story: super crunching is revolutionizing the way we all make decisions.

Beginning with examples of the mathematician who out-predicted wine buffs in determining the best vintages, and the sports scouts who now use statistics rather than intuition to pick winners, Super Crunchers exposes the world of data-miners, introducing the people and the techniques. It illuminates the hidden patterns all around us. No businessperson, academic, student, or consumer (statistically that’s everyone) should make another move without getting to grips with thinking-by-numbers – the new way to be smart, savvy and statistically superior.

See all Product Description

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
(6)
(4)
(4)
(3)
(3)
(3)
(3)
(3)
(7)
(2)
(2)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Super Crunchers: How Anything Can Be Predicted
69% buy the item featured on this page:
Super Crunchers: How Anything Can Be Predicted 2.4 out of 5 stars (5)
Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart
22% buy
Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart 3.7 out of 5 stars (3)
£6.08
The Tiger That Isn't: Seeing Through a World of Numbers
4% buy
The Tiger That Isn't: Seeing Through a World of Numbers 4.4 out of 5 stars (17)
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness
3% buy
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness 3.5 out of 5 stars (23)
£5.84
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:    (0)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
2.4 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Good concept, poor execution, 27 Oct 2007
The concept was reasonable: to show how statistical analysis was changing the way in which the businesses and governments operated. The author also set out the relevant topics sensibly; chapters covered such issues as why this is occurring now, random samples, the reaction of experts to such analysis (with an extra focus on the medical profession) and the legal/ moral issues that this type of analysis raises. The trouble with this book is that the writing style is too simplistic. It's not obvious whether this is the fault of the editor or the author or a combination of the two. Various examples of data analysis are used without it being clear what point the author is trying to make. The result is that at the end of many chapters it's unclear what the author's intent was. There are two other aspects of the writing which are irritating. First, every person whose work is described in the book is given a brief biography which reads as if they were some form of matinee idol. Secondly, the author uses the opportunity to air some personal professional disputes which for anyone outside the argument is tedious. Overall, it's a book you may buy at an airport to read on a flight and throw away
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars overconfident, but worth it, 16 Oct 2007
By Dean Swift (Hertfordshire) - See all my reviews
What this book does well is to show how valuable numerical information can be if you know how to analyse it properly, and how unreliable human judgment can be compared to what the data can tell us. The examples are well chosen and telling. Where it goes too far is in expressing almost unqualified belief that the number stuff trumps everything else, all the time. Contrary to the title, not everything can be predicted. Specifically, the sudden turns of events, in markets or social behaviour (which are often what we are most interested in) are not predictable on the basis of past patterns. By defintion, surprises are not predictable. And there always has to be a human doing the modelling, working out the dynamics of any set of causal relationships. Sometimes, these people get it wrong. Then it's the old case of "rubbish in, rubbish out." But though he has pushed the argument too far, he is interesting, imaginative and persuasive that the balance could be tipped a little further than it now is, towards making better use of statistical data.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Anecdotal Assembly, 7 Sep 2007
By Crispin Batten (South Africa) - See all my reviews
Tiresome. One lengthy anecdote after the other -- albeit, some of interest. No conceptual depth. Surprising that such work can come from an associate of Yale University. However, just as the author "supercrunched" the choice of the title, he may have used the same approach in order to determine what may best sell to a mass of undiscerning readers.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Does not tell the full story - needs an update!
This read must have been compelling a couple of years ago. But the 'super crunching' this book advocates - didn't do a good job in predicting the credit crunch. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Tareq W. Muhmood

4.0 out of 5 stars Persuasive
This book is not as poor as the previous reviews suggest. It offers a persuasive account of the potential of mass numeric data in coming to better (evidence-based) decisions. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Avid

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 

   

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject









i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.