More Numbers Every Day

Description

In the vein of Factfulness, How Not to Be Wrong, and The Drunkard's Walk, a timely and delightful look at how numbers have taken control of our lives and how to get it back, from two rockstar Scandinavian economists who study happiness and creativity 

How many unread emails are there in your inbox? How many hours of sleep did you get last week? How many steps did you walk today? We’re drowning in digits and immersed in integers, and More Numbers Every Day, by internationally renowned economics professors Micael Dahlen and Helge Thorbjørnsen is a timely and powerful investigation — and warning — about the trouble numbers can bring us.

Today we all strive to quantify everything: calories, likes, website traffic, and even friends. And then we rate things, too: movies, restaurants, taxi drivers, experiences, professors, and dates. We measure ourselves against others and compare our real experiences to imagined averages. But in our rush to measure, we can lose sight of what matters. In this delightful and alarming book, Dahlen and Thorbjørnsen show how we’re exposed and infected by an ever-more contagious pandemic of numbers. With groundbreaking, empowering, sometimes frightening, and sometimes funny research, they help us see how numbers creep into our heads and bodies, affecting how we think and feel. When do numbers make us stronger and when do they make us weaker? When do they mislead us? And when do they turn us into narcissistic idiots? Look at the book as your numerical vaccination, for a happier and more numerically healthy life.How many unread emails are there in your inbox? How many hours of sleep did you get last week? How many steps did you walk today? We’re drowning in digits and immersed in integers, and More Numbers Every Day, by internationally renowned economics professors Micael Dahlen and Helge Thorbjørnsen is a timely and powerful investigation — and warning — about the trouble numbers can bring us.

Today we all strive to quantify everything: calories, likes, website traffic, and even friends. And then we rate things, too: movies, restaurants, taxi drivers, experiences, professors, and dates. We measure ourselves against others and compare our real experiences to imagined averages. But in our rush to measure, we can lose sight of what matters. In this delightful and alarming book, Dahlen and Thorbjørnsen show how we’re exposed and infected by an ever-more contagious pandemic of numbers. With groundbreaking, empowering, sometimes frightening, and sometimes funny research, they help us see how numbers creep into our heads and bodies, affecting how we think and feel. When do numbers make us stronger and when do they make us weaker? When do they mislead us? And when do they turn us into narcissistic idiots? Look at the book as your numerical vaccination, for a happier and more numerically healthy life.

Micael Dahlen is the author of six best-selling books and a professor at Stockholm School of Economics. He has risen rapidly to take up a leading position in the fields of consumer behavior, creativity and marketing. He has been ranked number ten in the world among researchers in his field and was nominated for the “Business Professor of the Year” award by The Economist’s Intelligence Unit. Professor Dahlen is an internationally acclaimed speaker and has given keynote presentations in places such as Istanbul, New York, Lisbon, and Shanghai, for clients such as Google, Samsung and Volkswagen. He is also the host of the Audible original podcast Curious with Micael Dahlen. He lives in Stockholmd, Sweden.

Helge Thorbjørnsen is Professor of Marketing at the Norwegian School of Economics. Thorbjørnsen holds a Master of Science degree from NHH and received his Dr.Oecon (PhD) from NHH in 2003. He also holds a cand.mag degree in social sciences from the University of Bergen. Thorbjørnsen is a research director at the Center for Applied Research at NHH (SNF) and a researcher at DIG (Digital Innovation for Growth). Hehas been involved in several business- and tech start-ups, and also serves as chairman or member of the board of several corporations and organizations. His research focuses on consumer psychology, behavioral economics, innovation, decision-making and brand management. He lives in Bergen, Norway.

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