Slashdot Mirror
Turning Numbers into Knowledge
An overview: TNIK is one of those rare books that is simple in its presentation and quietly leaves a deep understanding of its topic. Chapters read like common-sense and jibe with everyday experience in a satisfying way. Koomey is a masterful analyst who has distilled his years of experience into a well-thought-out, well-written book on the "art of problem solving." Koomey's tone is conversational and succeeds in making a potentially dry topic interesting and relevant through genuine insight, clear prose, and real-world examples.
TNIK is divided into 5 sections containing a total of 38 chapters. The chapters are easily digested. The book can be read equally well straight-through or in bites here and there as interests warrant -- in fact, Koomey uses icons in page margins to cross-reference chapters encouraging the reader to jump around if a thread seems particularly interesting.
See table of contents at bottom for more information on content -- the chapters are small enough that the ToC provides an excellent summary of the territory covered in the book. Also, here are some sample chapters online.
Why Recommend a Book about Problem Solving on Slashdot:
While I consider myself more of an analyst than a programmer, I've written a fair amount of code in support of data analysis (mostly perl and sql). I've benefitted invaluably from books recommended on Slashdot that I wouldn't have known to pick up or notice otherwise. I thought this book might be similarly useful to others who were interested in improving their problem solving skills and/or analytical approach. This book is the The Practice of Programming of the practice of problem solving.
What I Enjoyed About the Book:
I have read TNIK twice and used it as a reference on many occasions. Reading it has helped me retool my approach to analysis in a broad way (getting more organized, becoming more cynical about "official" analysis, questioning my own analysis more deeply, and developing different analytical scenarios all come to mind), pointed me to other excellent references, and most importantly, always helped me with whatever problem I'm currently working on. I tend to pull it off the shelf when I'm starting a big project and it has been an easy way to gain inspiration.
Other Good Stuff:
There is an outstanding "Further Reading" section which is essentially an annotated bibliography of recommended books organized by topic. There are many, many excellent books in this section and each listing contains a short description by Koomey as to why he recommends them.
Each chapter begins and ends with a quote relevant to the chapter topic and lots of humorous comic strips (Calvin and Hobbes, Dilbert, New Yorker, etc.) relevant to the chapter throughout the text serve as comic relief.
A Note on the Publisher:
This book is published by Analytics Press in Oakland CA. Individual copies are available through Amazon or Barnes and Noble.com. Ordering options here.
Conclusion:
This book is on par with Edward Tufte's influential Graphical Explanations (which amazingly hasn't been reviewed on this site yet!) The beauty of the book is in its elegant coverage of so many topics in such a short space. This book is a road map to great analysis and it behooves anyone interesting in improving their skills to take advantage of it, and judging by the amount of bad analysis created on a daily basis, it deserves a spot on many bookshelves! Other reviews are here.
Table Of Contents:
- Part I: Things to Know
- Beginner's Mind
- Don't be Intimidated
- Information, Intention, and Action
- Peer Review and Scientific Discovery
Part II: Be Prepared
- Explore Your Ideology
- Get Organized
- Establish a Filing System
- Build a Toolbox
- Put Facts at Your Fingertips
- Value your Time
Part III: Assess their Analysis
- The Power of Critical Thinking
- Numbers Aren't Everything
- All Numbers Are Not Created Equal
- Question Authority
- How Guesses Become Facts
- Don't Believe Everything You Read
- Go Back to the Questions
- Reading Tables and Graphs
- Distinguish Facts from Values
- The Uncertainty Principle and the Mass Media
Part IV: Create Your Analysis
- Reflect
- Get Unstuck
- Inquire
- Be a Detective
- Create Consistent Comparisons
- Tell a Good Story
- Dig into the Numbers
- Make a Model
- Reuse Old Envelopes
- Use Forecasts with Care
- Hear All Sides
Part V: Show your Stuff
- Know Your Audience
- Document, Document, Document
- Let the Tables and Graphs Do the Work
- Create Compelling Graphs and Figures
- Create Good Tables
- Use Numbers Effectively in Oral Presentations
- Use the Internet
Conclusion: Creating the Future
Further Reading
Notes
Index
You can purchase Turning Numbers into Knowledge from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
There is just no way I can stay awake this holiday weekend!
What an insightful comment. And it shows a remarkable lack of empathy for those of us who may be a little behind you in their geek development. Put it this way. I'm in sales. For an IT company. And I thought it would be helpful to learn more about the subject. So I'm teaching myself from the O'Reilly books. Something like this for a person like me, who doesn't come from a numbers-based, analytical environment, helps me approach matters and can give me valuable pointers. I for one will be buying it. So please, try and be a little less elitist with your posts. Some of us want to get to a decent level and don't need thoughtless and insulting posts like this. Especially anonymously. Here endeth today's sermon on behalf of newbie geeks.
"This is your life - and it's ending one minute at a time" - Narrator, Fight Club
Where?
After reading the review I didn't know what the book was 'about', sure it sounded interesting, interesting enough to take a look at the web site.
This book appears to present methods of managing and analysing data so that you can 'solve' the problem without getting bogged down.
I would recommend giving this book a look over for the following reasons.
I do a great deal of analysis work and a lot of the concepts in the TOC sound familiar.
The logical approach the book appears to present should help you fine tune your analysis and hopefully identify some areas where you've been slipping.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
I totally agree with your sermon. Nobody is forcing anyone to read articles - if you don't like it, then don't read it!
And for the original poster - if you really think that your opinions are worth something, why are you posting behind a veil of anonymity? At least this Marketing Geek has the courage to stand by his name, and take some flak for it. That's worth a +1 bravery in my books.
"Turning Webservers into Puddles - a guide to mastering the art of Slashdotting"
Anyone reading 'Dianetics' need not apply... ;)
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
Are you telling me I can't hold a logical conversation?!
<voice value="Home">Why you little...</voice>
forgive me, but while Im reading the preface/overview of the book, I cant help but think of the radio interview/commercials on gra:vice city, where the guy is selling books/tapes with titles like "think, hold that thought, complete," and "learn, start, doing" ("where I explain the mysteries of starting!"). The book does seem interesting - I'm going to check it out at bn today. thanks for pointing it out
beginner: ask slashdot
advanced: ?
expert: google.com
1) Get numbers (any numbers will do)
2) Turn numbers into knowledge
3) ???
4) Profit!
Bottom line: you may be kick-ass at this kind of thinking, these kinds of approaches to problems, but there are plenty of geeks out there who suck at it. You know, for a geek, your bozo filter seems to be malfunctioning - you should be able to filter this stuff out and dump it from the cache more easily than this!
"Content's a bitch."
I am sure that Many of you kown of this book: "Handbook of applied cryptography" well I found out lately that it is available at http://www.lockless.com/cryptography.html in pdf. There are many other texts available on this web site This might be more for the nerds like /. is supposed to be.
Maybe TIA will use TNIK.
Put it this way. I'm in sales.
;)
Reminds me of the time I admitted to owning a Packard Bell computer here on Slashdot.
Now wait for the tide....
Slashdot readers interested in improving the quality of their critical thinking skills...
:)
You've got to be kidding me right? Slashdotters? Thinking Skills? Someone ate too much turkey yesterday.
Who said Freedom was Fair?
Now I get to see advertisements where Cmdr Taco "recommends" the T-mobile sidekick???
Not really offensive or anything, just funny. Like those old-school product placements in the 50s.....(i.e. "Boys like the Beav drink their Ovaltine....")
...Slashdot readers interested in improving the quality of their critical thinking skills...
:)
Actually, it's the Slashdot posters who need to improve their thinking skills.
Slashdot: come for the pedantry, stay for the condescension.
every time I see a book that's supposed to make you think better,act smarter, etc- I wonder...
does the book really do that? it seems they always get positive reviews(wish I could think of other examples)...
it sort of leads me to believe that this is sort of like the emperor's new clothing.... you have the choice of saying
"this book didn't make me smarter/it didn't work because I'm too dumb"
or
"I am now enlightened. look how clever I am. if you can't understand this book, you must be too stupid to help."
Don't know how true that is with this reviewer, but I tend to take these things with a grain of salt. just a thought....
Looking for Book Reviews? Check out Literary Escapism.
here on /. we have a nearly pateneted method (remember now, we like our patents, not theirs) for problem solving. it might not contain the uber genius problem solving skills that went into many internet startup companies in the late 90's, but we like it. it goes a little like this:
1) start off with some really pointless statement.
2) add another unrelated and even more pointless statement.
3) ???
4) Profit!!!
we're still waiting the first real-world implementation of our problem solving skills, but rumor has it that the next Sims game will include the plan many times over.
Look, either you are a geek or you aren't.
If you want to improve your critical thiking, analysis and reasoning skills, pick up books (not magazines and no "for dummies", easy reading material with comic strips) on objective topics like mathematics and science. There are no shortcuts or "valuable pointers".
The original poster wasn't being elitist at all. It's just that user #5 billion types like yourself (no offense) haven't been able to witness Slashdot's decline. Slashdot wasn't perfect to begin with (esp. judging from CmdrTaco's atrocious spelling skills and their policy not to edit story submissions), but they have managed to steadily go downhill over the years.
Phase One: Collect underpants. Phase Two: ...?
Phase Three: Profit!
The chapters are easily digested
One more fluff book full of trivial common sense. That's exactly what I have been missing in my daily analyses. Thank You so much, Slashdot!
every time I see a book that's supposed to make you think better,act smarter, etc- I wonder... does the book really do that?
I agree. I've often wondered about the various structured problem solving methods out there like TRIZ, QFD, Taguchi, TQM, etc. and wondered if anyone has done an objective study to see if these methods really do work and maybe even comparing them. Does anyone know if there have been any studies like this? I'd be interested in seeing them. Until then, I'm not likely to take testimonials as an acceptable reason to invest time and effort learning and implementing these approaches.
And for all of you out there who are tempted to reply "Just try it!" I'll just say that I'm looking for studies of the effectiveness of these approaches on a study group of larger than one person. If you try a new method and it works well for the first problem you try it on, that doesn't mean "Hey, it works!" You need to try it on multiple problems. And, really, you should compare the results you get following the new approach with your old approach before claiming the new technique is an improvement. Hence the need for controlled studies.
GMD
watch this
Nevertheless, just trying to learn and understand math/numbers helps develop the mind.
"I don't think it's selfish, to eat defenseless shellfish." -NOFX
Book might be great, but you couldn't tell it from the review, which reads like a marketing blurb.
Sex - Find It
And it shows a remarkable lack of empathy for those of us who may be a little behind you in their geek development. Put it this way. I'm in sales.
Put it this way. You're probably getting paid twice as much as the average technical person, you have better career prospects, and sales skills are not tied to the IT industry. Also your job involves personal contact so cannot be moved to India/Russia/Bangladesh.
Now why was it you needed empathy and understanding again?
Ha! When I read about TNIK, I thought, "Oh! A success book about programmers!" I don't know that it's really a success book, but it is in that domain of higher level approach to world problems that success books belong to.
I have been a programmer my entire life. I recently read Napoleon Hill, Frank Bettger, and Dale Carnegy for the first time. Wow! My life changed completely. And I realized that us programmers have a LOT to learn from sales people, both in terms of culture and skills.
Us programmers need a Napoleon Hill of our own.
Any rate- thanks for trying to understand our mindset.
You don't seem to be aware, but this whole phenomenon was started on south park, in an episode featuring underpants gnomes. Their plan was this:
Phase 1: Steal Underpants
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: Profit!
Point being, your second item doesn't belong in the list.
Actually, this is an established business model in modern literary circles (cf. John Barth, Don DeLillo, Dave Barry). Also see: Literary Hypertext Theory, Post-structuralist Criticism, and Humor/Opinion/Commentary Columns.
Sorry, all you patent hopefuls: publishing got there first.
Just a bunch of common sense. The only thing that amazes me is this guy actually bothered to put it all together and try to sell it. I mean, even you could write a book like this. er..
:(
1. Be prepared
2. Study hard
3. Don't break the law
4. Talk clearly
5. You are biased towards your own work
a..ehem. I mean, if this guy was a bit more humble, or would just admit all he is doing is "helping out" by putting some common sense in a binding, then I'd praise the guy. But when the last section reads:
Conclusion: Creating the Future
It depresses me. It should read:
Conclusion: Catching up to YESTERDAY
If anyone thinks this will help them with their analytical skills, then this should only be the beginning of their to-read list. IMHO.
I wouldn't be so harsh if this didn't remind me so much of those sad self-help books..
Just from the first comment: Turning Numbers into Knowledge teaches readers to be critical of everything they hear, see, and read, thus making them more effective scientists, social scientists, and citizens. ...
Personally, I've found it very interesting to look at the social, political and economic conditions that caused these "lean manufacturing" ideologies to develop in Japan first. The best explanation I've heard so far is that during the American occupation of Japan after WW2, many labor laws and conditions were put in place, making the HR environment very different. This combined with cultural differences and a need to develop very good manufacturing and assembly industries because of Japan's (supposed - I haven't checked for myself) low level of mineral resources and more compact manufacturing facilites to drive this development.
In effect, raw material, manpower and space became much more expensive than in the Western world. This meant that higher levels of automation and more emphasis on waste reduction could be justified.
So, a set of advanced manufacturing ideologies evolved to suit the prevailing conditions. The ideologies are expanding, displacing the old ideologies in the western manufacturing world, especially in the automotive sector. You can thank this for the vastly increased quality and rapid technology advance in many modern cars.
But when someone comes to you with that look in their eye and says "We need to implement 5S to save the company!", I believe it pays to look at these techniques through OUR eyes. For us, it may well be more prudent to build a larger factory. Or lay off workers in the tough times - the inflexibility of the Japanese labour market has been blamed for keeping Japan's economic growth stunted for the last decade or so.
Slavish adherance to any ideology is bad..... is that what makes things become "-isms"?
"In person, WAP'ed up and making your life a misery!" BOFH, 2003