April Book of the Month "Super Crunchers"

I'll admit that statistics were not my favorite courses in college.  In fact I purposefully found the teacher that everyone said was the "Easiest" and would get me through unscathed.  I am not proud of my behavior and have since learned to enjoy statistics.  When I saw Ian Ayres book Super Crunchers it resonated with something inside me that wanted to learn more about databases, statistical modeling, and regression analysis.  The book did not disappoint.  IT kicks off with a great discussion of predicting price and quality of French wine vintages based on meteorological databases and regression analysis.  I was hooked.  I know many of you are thinking Chris Henley is off his rocker.  Trust me you will be hooked too.  Ayres uses a case study format and a story telling style to introduce technical concepts.  His information is presented in a clear and concise way that allowed me to easily understand and then apply what I was learning onto situations in my own day to day life.  I loved his matter of fact observations.  It is science and math.  This book will debunk some of the myths you hold about education, healthcare, and even entertainment.  It will allow you to reconsider alternatives to the commonly held wisdom of the day by using analysis to validate or disprove commonly held beliefs.  To be honest the most difficulty thing about reading this book for me was that I had to let go of some of the assumptions I have held to be correct in the face of factual evidence to the contrary.  If your into reading and learning along the way Ian Ayres "Super Crunchers" is for you.  Enjoy!