Summary of Cathy O'Neil's Weapons of Math Destruction

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 The Indians’ manager, Lou Boudreau, used statistical analysis to turn Ted Williams’s hits into outs. Today, every player is treated like Ted Williams, and teams analyze every variable they can quantify and attach a value to.

#2 The term Moneyball is now used to describe any statistical approach in domains long ruled by the gut. Baseball is a good example of a transparent model, as everyone can access the stats and understand how they’re interpreted.

#3 The model I use to manage my family’s food is a simplified version of the real world’s complexity. It is always making mistakes, because it is, by its very nature, a simplification.

#4 Models are created to simplify a complex world into a simple version that can be easily understood and from which important facts and actions can be inferred. They are opinions embedded in mathematics.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669359104

IRB Media

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Book preview

Insights on Cathy O’Neil's Weapons of Math Destruction

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Indians’ manager, Lou Boudreau, used statistical analysis to turn Ted Williams’s hits into outs. Today, every player is treated like Ted Williams, and teams analyze every variable they can quantify and attach a value to.

#2

The term Moneyball is now used to describe any statistical approach in domains long ruled by the gut. Baseball is a good example of a transparent model, as everyone can access the stats and understand how they’re interpreted.

#3

The model I use to manage my family’s food is a simplified version of the real world’s complexity. It is always making mistakes, because it is, by its very nature, a simplification.

#4

Models are created to simplify a complex world into a simple version that can be easily understood and from which important facts and actions can be inferred. They are opinions embedded in mathematics.

#5

The most common model for detecting fires in a home or office weighs only one strongly correlated variable, the presence of smoke.