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Data & numbers

How Numbers Lie: A Field Guide

Averages that hide, percentages that inflate, charts that mislead without a single false number — and the short questions that break all of them.

6 parts 23 min total Beginner friendly Updated Jul 2026
Read Part 1 free

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What you'll walk away with

The three questions — compared to what, out of how many, who's counting — that defuse most dramatic numbers in seconds.
Mean vs median and the empty middle: how one billionaire in the bar rewrites the "average," and when no middle number tells the truth.
Percentage-point tricks, chained percentages, and small bases — the arithmetic that manufactures headlines from nothing.
The chart frame check and the story traps — confounders, survivorship, regression to the mean — plus how to read "a new study says."

6 parts · 23 min

1
The Number Is Never Just the Number
4 min
4 min FREE
2
Averages That Mislead
4 min
4 min
3
Percentages and Percentage Points
3 min
3 min
4
Charts That Lie
4 min
4 min
5
Correlation, Causation, and the Missing Third Thing
4 min
4 min
6
Polls, Studies, and "Scientists Say"
4 min
4 min
Bonus: one-page cheat sheet
Every part's key points, printable — included when you unlock

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