Turning Numbers into Knowledge

rcr1001 writes "Turning Numbers into Knowledge (TNIK) is an entertaining and readable primer on practical problem solving. TNIK is about structured analytical thinking and Slashdot readers interested in improving the quality of their critical thinking skills should consider learning from this book." Read on for the complete review. Turning Numbers into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving author Jonathan G. Koomey, PhD pages 221 publisher Analytics Press rating 9 reviewer rcr1001 ISBN 0970601905 summary A guide to mastering the art of problem solving

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:

1. Part I: Things to Know
2. Beginner's Mind
3. Don't be Intimidated
4. Information, Intention, and Action
5. Peer Review and Scientific Discovery

   Part II: Be Prepared

6. Explore Your Ideology
7. Get Organized
8. Establish a Filing System
9. Build a Toolbox
10. Put Facts at Your Fingertips
11. Value your Time

    Part III: Assess their Analysis

12. The Power of Critical Thinking
13. Numbers Aren't Everything
14. All Numbers Are Not Created Equal
15. Question Authority
16. How Guesses Become Facts
17. Don't Believe Everything You Read
18. Go Back to the Questions
19. Reading Tables and Graphs
20. Distinguish Facts from Values
21. The Uncertainty Principle and the Mass Media

    Part IV: Create Your Analysis

22. Reflect
23. Get Unstuck
24. Inquire
25. Be a Detective
26. Create Consistent Comparisons
27. Tell a Good Story
28. Dig into the Numbers
29. Make a Model
30. Reuse Old Envelopes
31. Use Forecasts with Care
32. Hear All Sides

    Part V: Show your Stuff

33. Know Your Audience
34. Document, Document, Document
35. Let the Tables and Graphs Do the Work
36. Create Compelling Graphs and Figures
37. Create Good Tables
38. Use Numbers Effectively in Oral Presentations
39. 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.

Comments

Re:This is ridiculous

[Geek_in_Marketing]

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.

And the review is.....

[oliverthered]

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.

Re:Critical thinking skills?

[zephc]

On second thought, anyone reading Dianetics should immediately put it down and pick this one up. Maybe even read the first couple chapters a few times to make sure it sinks in. Got to rescrub those brainwashed minds...

emperor's new clothing...

[morgajel]

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....

Re:emperor's new clothing...

[joto]

This is quite interesting. And I definitely think you are on to something. I've read some very highly acclaimed books of this type myself, and can't say I have become much smarter. But then again, I might be to stupid to understand it... Or I might be to smart to gain anything by reading what should be common sense, you decide.

Of course, as with almost all books, you will learn something, but you are not going to get much smarter by reading this, than almost any other book on mostly anything else. So why does this kind of book, almost always get a cult-like following? Beats me... Maybe we should all take up Dogberts course in common sense for people without common sense?

Re:emperor's new clothing...

[Anonymous Coward]

I havn't read the book. But it looks like it is building a framework for analysis. Frameworks don't solve everything, but they are very important. People devolp "models" in their head about things, and teaching them well frequently involves improving stretching, or compleatly changing those models.
I know that is how I learned the physics in High school and now am learning business in grad school. The ultimate framework is the scientific method. Kids learn it in school but can't solve difficult problems, but latter if they stick with it can perhaps advance the total of human knowledge.
This looks like a framework to solve problems with. It won't be perfect, but gives people a way to start. Some people will be like kids in second grade science class. Others will be like phd's. But the phd's get there by starting slow and learning the basic framework.

"geek development"

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Wow! A book full of common sense!

[Fefe]

Chapters read like common-sense [...]

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!

Review is Useless

[Squintfield]

Book might be great, but you couldn't tell it from the review, which reads like a marketing blurb.

Re:This is ridiculous

[njdj]

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?

Re:This is ridiculous

[eykd]

1) start off with some really pointless statement.

2) add another unrelated and even more pointless statement.

3) ???

4) Profit!!!

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.

Re:Critical thinking skills?

[jnana]

There's nothing wrong with teaching somebody how to think; it is teaching him what to think that is the problem. Teaching somebody how to think amounts to little more than introducing him to the principles and patterns that good thinkers intuitively use.

Teach a man what to think, feed him for a day; teach him how to think, feed him forever. Or something like that ;-)