John Johnson
First-time author John Johnson will discuss his new book, “Everydata,” during the Arkansas Literary Festival at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock.
Johnson is the president and CEO of Edgeworth Economics and a professional economist, expert witness, author and speaker. He co-authored the book with Mike Gluck, a writer and marketer from New York.
“Everydata,” published this week, examines how consumers interpret data and provides examples of misinterpreted data. It also outlines ways to be a “sound consumer of data,” including understanding where data comes from and watching out for data traps.
“I’m really excited about this book. I really hope people are willing to be open-minded, because we write about a lot of things that I think are fun and exciting,” Johnson said. “We talk about the space shuttle Challenger, we talk about the Fukushima nuclear disaster, we talk about all the stories on what makes people smarter …
“This is not some statistics book — this is a hopefully fun read and a chance to learn something.”
Ahead of his Saturday festival session, which will be moderated by Arkansas Business Online Editor Lance Turner, Arkansas Business talked with Johnson to learn more about “Everydata” and how the book came to be. His responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Arkansas Business: What prompted you to write “Everydata”?
John Johnson: I testify in large-scale litigation matters where data and statistics are often at issue or I have to analyze data sets and make sense of them both as an economist and a statistician. And then I have to explain them to judges and juries and lawyers.
So over the course of my career, noticing how people think about these things and noticing some of the fear about numbers and statistics, I started having this idea for this book. And it really just represents several years of research and thinking about, how are numbers presented in our everyday life and what are some of the basic things people can do to become better consumers of data.
AB: Why does this skill — interpreting data — matter to the average consumer?
JJ: In our everyday lives — even someone who doesn’t work with data — we are exposed on a daily basis to 34 gigabytes of data. That’s the equivalent of 34 pickup trucks full of data.
From our smartphones to our computers to our e-mails, our cars, alarm clocks, in the news media, on the Internet, there is an enormous amount of data that, just in our everyday lives, we confront. So it’s not just an issue of thinking about what’s called “Big Data” and giant data sets, but it’s actually about the daily decision-making we make in our everyday lives.
So our book is important because … it helps raise people’s awareness to the amount of data they’re exposed to and to the types of data that can be confusing or lead someone to the wrong conclusion. So they can begin to identify for themselves — when they’re making decisions, when they’re deciding what to do in their everyday life — how to use the data effectively.
AB: Can you tell me about the process of writing this book?
JJ: I have a background in what’s called econometrics, which is the combination of economics and statistics — that’s what my Ph.D is in, and I went to MIT, so I’m a math geek.
For the book, some of the basic concepts I drew over the course of my professional career as an economist, but then the actual work for the book involved looking very hard at decisions in our daily life.
I did a lot of research with my co-author on newspaper articles, on practical examples. I very much went through this process of discovery and awareness myself as I said, “Well, let me look at my life and the different decisions I make. What are the types of news stories I read? I wonder what the data is behind this story.”
One of our favorites in the book — we talk about an article that said that grilled cheese improved your sex life. And we’re like, “Well, that seems like a pretty odd story.” We did some research and found out that the story actually is from a dating website where people self-reported their love of grilled cheese and how frequently they had sex — and there was a whole bunch of issues with the story.
But the book kind of just takes you through some of the basic questions you could ask. The process was truly a lot of work looking at news articles, pulling original research, and then reading the studies and sort of saying, what do the numbers tell us, and what are some of the basic questions that someone without the kind of background I have could ask themselves?
AB: What one thing would you like people to change in how they consume data?
JJ: One of the very first things I say in the book is the plural of “anecdote” is not “data.” We love to take our own personal experiences and try and extend them to the world. That’s just kind of human nature.
I went to Starbucks on Monday, I had a coffee, and then I came to work and had the best day ever. So Tuesday I’m going to Starbucks again to have another coffee so I can have another great day. But that’s probably not really what caused my great day.
… Throughout our book it’s very much about saying look, as a consumer, try and stop and be aware when you see a number, when you see a statistic, when you see a relationship, and just think to yourself … does that match my intuition, could something else be going on?
That’s a skill I think everybody can master no matter what level of statistical training they have. And hopefully that’s something everybody can take from my book.
(For more information about the Arkansas Literary Festival and a full schedule of events, visit the program website.)
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