By: Pam Lau on February 14, 2023
Annie Dillard, in her beautiful book The Writing Life, says, “How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour and that one is what we are doing.”[1] Every time I begin the process of writing this blog I pick up a book and hold it…
By: Tim Clark on February 13, 2023
When I was 15 years old my Grandad and I got into an old manual transmission pickup truck and drove to a very steep hill where, without warning, he pulled the emergency brake, got out of the vehicle, and told me to get into the driver’s seat. He was determined to teach me how to…
By: John Fehlen on February 13, 2023
I’ve been reading, nay, freebasing (that’s the only drug term I know) leadership books, conferences, resources, consultations, seminars and symposiums for decades and decades. Like a “user,” I couldn’t get enough. If you put me in the business section of a bookstore I’m like a kid in a candy shop. I can quote John Maxwell…
By: Kim Sanford on February 13, 2023
I admit that I was not looking forward to reading Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership by Eve Poole. I figured it would be yet another book on leadership that doesn’t really apply to me because I don’t hold a traditional leadership role. Then Poole opens with a reference to Goya and his portrait…
By: Russell Chun on February 12, 2023
رهبري د ژوند وخت نیسي – نو یو کومان شئ، نه خر. In Pashtu, رهبری یک عمر طول می کشد – پس یک لاک پشت باشید نه خرگوش. In Dari/Persian. Leadership takes a life time – so be a tortoise, not a hare. (Poole,p.182) [1] As some of you may have noted, my subject titles…
By: Noel Liemam on February 11, 2023
‘Even one glass of wine a day raises the risk of cancer’ ‘Hate crimes have doubled in five years’ ‘Fizzy drinks make teenagers violent’ “How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Stats in the News.” (Tom Chivers & David Chivers) I was not able to get my book in time for the readings therefore, I…
By: Dinka Utomo on February 9, 2023
“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure” – Goodhart’s Law – Living in a Swirl of Measure and Target Human life is filled with the process of “measuring”. Measuring the extent of achievement, how much income, how smart thinking. The greater and higher the achievement of man and…
By: Jana Dluehosh on February 9, 2023
I find myself surrounded by numbers…I try to get away from it, and yet I land smack dab in the middle of numbers. I’m in the business of people and yet I recognize that this book is going to be crucial to my studies and surprisingly is one I am glad I purchased, and I…
By: Adam Harris on February 9, 2023
Twelve years ago, I drove to Ohio to interview a man who claimed he died and experienced “the other side”. Months earlier I had finished his book, My Descent into Death that described his spiritual journey while in France with his wife and college students. Howard was an art professor at the University of Kentucky…
By: Pam Lau on February 9, 2023
Sitting across the top of my desk are the first several books assigned to us for our program. True Confessions: Since November, each time I read the title, “How to Read Numbers,” my heart raced with excitement thinking it was a guide in reading the Old Testament book of Numbers! To be fair, the English…
By: Todd E Henley on February 9, 2023
While reading How to Read Numbers, I received two notifications on my phone about 15 seconds apart. The first one read, “Thousands Killed in Turkey-Syria Earthquake” [1]. The second one read, “40% of American children have a parent who works outside the traditional daytime schedule.” [2]. Normally, I would have responded to the second notice…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on February 9, 2023
My Relationship with Numbers Are you good with numbers? Are you a numbers person? Are you a writer or mathematician? I’ve heard these questions asked many times. It always felt a bit limiting to me. I never understood why you had to be one or the other. But I just accepted that being good at…
By: Mathieu Yuill on February 8, 2023
And I have the mugs to prove it. After the 15th consecutive year I had this honour bestowed on me unanimously by the judging panel, I made the decision that I would wait until I hit the 20 years or maybe even when I eclipsed the quarter century mark that I would start to speak publicly…
By: Esther Edwards on February 8, 2023
In 2017, my husband began having pain while running. The doctors dismissed it but as it continued to get worse, tests were taken and concluded that Keith had bladder cancer. Within minutes our family was googling bladder cancer and every statistic possible to inform us of what might be our future. We breathed a sigh…
By: Cathy Glei on February 8, 2023
In all honesty, when I first read the title, my heart sank and a bit of math phobia was reactivated. In 1990, Ray Hembree, from Adrian College, conducted a meta-analysis of 151 studies concerning math anxiety. The study determined that math anxiety is related to poor math performance on math achievement tests and to negative…
By: Kally Elliott on February 8, 2023
I got a D in statistics in college. Yep. I tell you that because several of you have admitted your own inadequacies when it comes to math and statistics. To be fair to me, my statistics class was at 8am in winter quarter in Davis, CA where between tule fog and rain it was always…
By: Jenny Dooley on February 7, 2023
When I read the title of the book for this week’s blog post I cringed. I’m not very good with numbers. When I went to my bookshelf to retrieve, How to Read Numbers, by Tom Chivers and David Chivers it was not there. I hadn’t purchased the book! Maybe I was in denial and holding…
By: Tim Clark on February 6, 2023
When someone quotes a statistic in a conversation with me, I’ve been known to respond: “Did you know that 78% of all statistics are made up on the spot?” What varies is that I make up a different number, every time, on the spot. It’s a slightly sarcastic way to let them know that I’m…
By: John Fehlen on February 6, 2023
I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was about 30 years old, had been a senior pastor for 3 years, and God was doing good things in our ministry. I was asked to preach at what would be the largest gathering of people that I had ever been in front of. It was…
By: Kim Sanford on February 5, 2023
I’ve just turned over the last page of How to Read Numbers; I’m vacillating between writing a cheerful blog post or a doomsday one. On one hand, that was a delightful read. Tom Chivers and David Chivers explain a complicated topic in a very approachable way. The sprinkling of dry humor and clever examples didn’t…
