On the other hand, every number in this book has many hundreds, often many thousands, of people behind it, none of them famous. Here’s the kernel of it: the phrase “one in a million” is at the core of so many wonderful works of art. It means a person so special, so talented, so something that they’re practically unique, and that very rareness makes them significant. But in mathematics, and so with data, and so here in this book, the phrase means just the opposite: 1/1,000,000 is a rounding error.
