Each year, I try to find a good book to bring with me to the beach. A few months ago, I came across Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World while doom scrolling Twitter one night. I ordered the book and did not wait for the beach to get started reading.
Written by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West, Calling Bullshit is their effort at helping everyone develop the necessary skills for critical thinking. The book reads as if you were following a college lecture. And this makes sense, since the authors are professors at the University of Washington in Seattle. You can see the course syllabus here. The book is organized close to what you see in the syllabus.
The authors start strong with “The world is awash with bullshit, and we’re drowning in it.” They point out how creating bullshit is easier and often simpler than speaking the truth. You have likely heard the phrase “the amount of energy required to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than [that needed] to produce it” from Italian software engineer Alberto Brandolini.
Everyone knows this, everyone wishes the bullshit would go away, and yet we seem to accept nothing can be done.
Well, one of the main purposes of education is to teach students to think critically. And the authors want to help people separate fact from fiction. Therefore, the need for the course, and this book.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. My favorite chapter was ‘calling bullshit on big data’. I want to personally thank the authors for those 25 wonderful pages. This section alone is worth the price of the book. Anyone currently using, or considering, data science projects at their company will want to read this chapter.
The chapters on numbers and nonsense, selection bias, and data visualization all struck a chord for me. The authors do a wonderful job of detailing their thoughts and using practical examples. And they don’t just tell you how to call bullshit, they remind you to do so in a respectful way, again with examples. Part of the problem when trying to refute bullshit tossed at you from your crazy uncle at Thanksgiving involves confirmation bias, a similar topic discussed in the social dilemma. You must find a way to separate identity from the topic being debunked.
I’ve added this book to my bookshelf. With the holidays coming up, you may want to consider buying a few copies for your friends and relatives. Might make holiday dinners a bit more palatable.
Sounds like a great book. Added to my reading list.