Status Updates From How to Make the World Add U...

survivor bias distorts studies of investment performance, if ignore all funds that quietly disappear, apparent performance twice as good as actual perf. Result is to persuade ppl to invest in actively managed funds which often charge high fees when better served by low-cost passive whole stock market fund, multibillion $ mistake. Contest cow same as stockbrokers

Even cases of COVID-19 are subject to selective attention:people who feel terrible go to the hospital and are tested for the disease; people who feel fine do now.As a result, the disease looks even more dangerous than it really is.Even though statisticians understand this problem well there's no easy way to solve it without systematic testing,elusive in early stage of pandemic when diff policy decisions being made

How to evaluate a statistical claim: 1rst chap:try to notice your feelings about the claim, 2nd chap: constructively sense-checking the claim against your personal experience, 3rd chap:asking yourself if you really understand what the claim means.4th:Step back and look for information that can put the claim into context. Try to get a sense of the trend.