Tim Harford’s latest book targets cynicism about data. The villain of the piece is Darrell Huff. Huff is the author of a fun book on lying with statistics, see here for more. Harford argues we are in danger of writing off the value of statistics. Instead, we need to develop clearer ideas for understanding statistics….
Search Results for: academia
The Perils Of Status
Most people worry about being low status. That makes sense. It really isn’t great to be low status. Academia is so status-obsessed it often makes me laugh. Doctor this, and professor that. I’m just waiting for carpets that non-doctors can’t walk on and we’ll have gone full-on House of Lords. This reminds me of the…
Understanding Public Opinion: Oldie But Goodie Insights
In this post I look at classic book on understanding public opinion. Edward Bernays’ Crystalling Public Opinion. Some Advice Has Stood The Test Of Time In Helping Understand Public Opinion Firstly, this book clearly has a decent amount of the material that has stood the test of time pretty well. As far as PR precepts…
Customer Equity: Nice Idea, Bit Of A Mess In Execution
In the 1990’s/early 2000s great interest arose in how to understand marketing strategy and its financial impact in terms of customers. This was an extremely welcome occurrence. The concept of customer equity (CE) was developed. It is an interesting story, full of insightful comments. Sadly in some ways the whole thing became a bit of…
The Problem Of Understanding Others
A second post on Gad Saad’s, The Parasitic Mind. I’m not sure this was his central aim but he did make me think about the problem of understanding others. Is Society Really Collapsing? I really wanted to know why he thinks society is collapsing. I have never known why people think this. It is not…
Scientific Thinking Is Hard (Especially For Academics)
I must confess to being disappointed with Gad Saad’s The Parasitic Mind. Before purchasing the book I knew I would disagree with many of his points given his robust public profile. (For background, Saad is the sort of evolutionary psychologists your mother warned you about. Lots of sex differences in consumption). That I would disagree…
Advice For The Marketing Academic Job Market
As a tenured professor I have seen a bunch of people on the academic job market. I, unsurprisingly, have been on the market myself. This means I have advice which I hope will be useful. That said, I do not have ‘the secret’ and would never claim to have. I would love to be able…
Do Generalists Triumph?
I am a marketing professor, who has been an accountant working in politics, and who was educated as an ancient historian. As such, it is perhaps no surprise that I am naturally drawn to the arguments in Range. In this David Epstein lays out his case for having a diverse range of skills. His argument…
Universities Don’t Seem Completely Toxic To Me
If you like your angst with lashings of the phrase neoliberalism John Smyth’s book, The Toxic University, is for you. The title with its references to Zombie and Rock Stars is fun. Unfortunately, you get the impression that the title is where the fun ends. Smyth makes a number of criticisms of universities and many…
American Higher Education’s Uncertain Future
Moving to the US I thought I should get up to date with US higher education. Daniel Johnson’s book, on American Higher Education’s Uncertain Future, is a critique of where we are. I was expecting criticism of government funding levels, lack of appreciation of the benefits of academic thought, and maybe students themselves. It isn’t…
