Making Numbers Count tells us that there are two types of people in the world – those that understand numbers (very few of us) and those who don’t (most of us). It’s difficult for nearly everyone to comprehend large numbers (millions, billions) but really, our brains start to get confused when numbers are more than just five. This book describes many ways in which you can make numbers meaningful to everyone – whether they understand your field of expertise or not.

The book has a good premise – how to take your relatively dry numbers and make them snazzy and memorable. That’s really useful when you are trying to convey a message about the urgency or importance of numbers. Rather than saying ‘1 million people will get this disease’ you say ‘1 person in 10 will get this disease’ for example. It also talks about adding feelings to your numbers to make them more relatable to the audience, for example Florence Nightingale talked about the losses of the army in terms of regiments when showing how infection control and better nursing saved lives.

There are many examples like this throughout the book, some interesting and some less so to me. I did feel that some of the book was saying the same thing over in a different way – make your numbers relatable in a scale, setting or size that means something to your audience. Turn numbers into stories. Make people feel the weight of the meaning of the numbers. I think this would be a useful book to have on hand for a presentation to executives/accounts to describe why you might be asking for money for a program or intervention. As a read cover to cover book, I felt it was a bit repetitive when reading in chunks but better when reading a couple of (short) chapters at a time. There was less of ‘yes, I know you told me this already’…

One thing that struck me as odd was the combination of examples from countries using different units, such as temperatures from the UK in degrees Celsius and then American Fahrenheit in another. Maybe the authors were trying to capture a global audience, but to me, the mixing of units felt messy. Put both in, or stick to one. Also the rounding of figures felt a bit sacrilegious to those who report in exact statistics – sometimes a few % make a LOT of difference! Also, most of us who read widely can do rough calculations between units of distance, weight, currency, temperature and more. Although it isn’t quite clear who the audience is – academics/clinicians looking to explain their work to those outside their field? The general reader?

It’s an interesting read but then premise wears thin quickly and there’s not enough substance to bring the reader back.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com ( )

A book teaching you how to make really big or really small number have actual meaning. ( )

I have a hate-hate relationship with math in general (with the admitted occasional flirtation with statistics) so why would I pick up a book about numbers? Well I have a professional interest in how we communicate complex ideas, and this book definitely delivered on that even for a “not a numbers person” like me.

I was made to feel better by the assertion that the human brain isn’t programmed to deal with large complex numbers, and the author’s stance that math is a second language that needs translation. The book offers a guide through several different techniques for doing that, several of which I know I will put into practice going forward. It’s a fun, engaging, educational read that also provides practical advice.

Unfortunately it also suffers from a trope I come across in US business communications on an all too regular basis - an over-reliance on sports-metaphors in general and American stick & ball sports in detail. ( )

Excellent collection of ideas and techniques for presenting numbers to others who may/not be number savvy. The authors provide lots of examples that are very helpful as well. Highly recommended! ( )