Making Numbers Count – Book Review
- Dr. Moria Levy
- 2 hours ago
- 7 min read
The book "Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers" is a helpful and valuable resource for every adult, not just those in the field of mathematics. It was written in 2022 by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, not Karla Starr. Many are familiar with the excellent and practical books by the Heath brothers, whether on the topic of change management (Switch - summary >>), decision-making (Decisive - summary >>), influence (Made to Stick - summary >>), or the importance of moments (The Power of Moments - summary >>). And indeed, this additional book meets all expectations.
The organizing idea: People often struggle to understand numbers, especially those that are particularly small or large. However, numbers are important, whether for understanding or decision-making. Therefore, we must find a way to communicate them more effectively by translating the numbers into language and contexts that are easier for people to understand.
The book offers several key tactics:
Avoidance
Calibration to 1
Using friendly numbers
Comparison
Visual illustration
Translation into actions
Emotional and personal message
Surprise
Complex message
The various tactics can be integrated and applied together to achieve optimal results (see examples below).
This summary includes the main ideas; however, for details and examples, I recommend reading the entire book, both for those who understand numbers (and probably think that others do too) and those who fear numbers. You won't regret it.
Avoidance
When it's possible to convey the message effectively without mentioning numbers, so that the correct understanding is achieved and optimal decision-making is enabled even without the exact number, it's preferable.
An example mentioned in the book illustrates the idea wonderfully:
97.5 percent of the world's water is saltwater. Of the remaining 2.5 percent, 99 percent is trapped in glaciers and snowfields. The water that people and animals can drink is only 0.25 percent of the world's water.
Suggested way to convey the message in a way that people will better understand:
Imagine you have a large pitcher full of water in front of you, and next to it, two ice cubes. These cubes represent the fresh water in the world. Humans can only drink the drops of water that drip from them as they slowly melt.
There's no doubt that the spirit of the message has been preserved accurately, but it's much easier for people to understand the meaning of the matter. Too often, when people encounter statistics and a multitude of numbers, they simply skip over them, and as a result, they fail to receive the message.
Calibration to... One
We struggle, as already mentioned, to understand huge numbers.
And therefore, as much as a total sum may sound impressive because it's "a lot," people cannot translate it into a clear message.
For example, instead of talking about the large number of firearms in the United States:
There are over 400 million firearms in the U.S.
Calibrate to the individual level:
There are more firearms in the U.S. than residents. So that even if every man, woman, child, and even baby owned a gun, we would still have 70 million additional firearms.
Calibration to the individual level can be done in several ways:
Typical case
Average (on average in each game...)
Day/person
And more.
Moving to the individual level allows, beyond translating the statistic into a message, to color the message with additional details that humanize the situation and make it easier for message recipients to connect and understand the message (see below in the Visual Illustration section).
For example:
Citing women aged 32, married with children, will be enhanced by describing a typical mother who stops after a long workday and picks up the kids to go to a store to purchase supplementary products for dinner. The descriptive information will, of course, be connected to the context of the statistic and the message being conveyed.
Using Friendly Numbers
Friendly numbers are those that are easier for us to understand and remember:
When above 1, whole numbers (not fractions)
Rounded numbers (even if less precise - for example, 300 and not 314)
Numbers that are not too small and not too large (ones that we can grasp and understand). It's easiest for us to discuss a scale of 1-5, and no more than 10.
Everything, of course, is tailored to the target audience.
Comparison
To facilitate understanding, compare the size of the number and its significance to a context that the target audience is familiar with and understands.
It's worthwhile to conduct a preliminary thought process about the terminology world and appropriate comparison methods.
When speaking to a broad population (where there's no knowledge of the specific familiar content world), use a comparison basis of:
Familiar cities
Animals and the natural kingdom
Familiar organs in the human body
Fruits, vegetables, and familiar foods, and more.
The book offers a comparison table of sizes in relation to different foods.
For example: 1 cm >> pea. 2 cm >> peanut.
Make the comparison to a world that's appropriate for making an inference about.
For example, instead of talking about the absolute speed of a chimpanzee, tell them that the fastest human runners today can barely keep up with an average chimpanzee.
In comparisons: Use dimensions of time, money, space, distance, and anything else that people can easily imagine (for example, Pringles chips).
Visual Illustration
Help the listener paint the message in their mind:
Add details that describe the context
Add details that allow imagining the details as if the reality is before your eyes
Dramatize the message; amplify it
Tell a story
Use specific examples that are familiar to everyone (such as a Coca-Cola can), which are vivid and clear.
Escalation: Add a factor that creates a feeling of "even more": even if we subtract from it... It will still be more than...
Example: Instead of - the cargo ship is very long, tell them - Imagine the Empire State Building; now think of a boat attached to it along its length. If we attach the ship this way, it would be taller than it; that's how long it is.
Illustration can also be physical (as seen in Bill Gates' TED talk with the malaria mosquitoes), vocal, or in any other format. The use of aids amplifies the illustration. Physical illustration is significant when we struggle to convey the message clearly using words alone.
Note: In visual illustrations, you must not exaggerate in quantity (only for key points), in the spirit of "less is more"; you also must not exaggerate in the story (and lies end up being revealed and they damage all trust - M.L.).
Translation into Actions
Illustrate by translating into actions.
Example: It will take two days of continuous walking to burn off the calories in...
Talk about a repeated action, multiple actions, or even an entire process to convey a message clearly: Example: Instead of - in cars... that pass quality tests, there is one defect per 3.6 million. Imagine a baker who prepares 5 kg of chocolate chip cookies every night, all night long, each time. Now imagine them like this - from 7 PM to 7 AM, for 37 years. And only once is there a problem with the quality of the cookies.
Note: Use intuition to ensure a natural connection between the analogy and what it represents.
Emotional and Personal Message
Adding an element of emotion to the actions or to the meaning of the numbers helps motivate agreement or action (the book brings several examples from the story of Nurse Nightingale, who changed attitudes toward nursing care for the wounded and investment of budget for their benefit, thanks to vivid, emotion-evoking examples).
Use existing emotions: Comparing topics to those we already understand, and about which we have certain feelings, will amplify the reception of the desired message.
Example: It's terrible that so many people die from cancer, and even more people die from heart attacks. Emotions can also be for less charged topics: heavier than... bigger than... etc. Remember to stick to existing emotions (an elephant is heavy; California is a big state).
Talking about something personally related to the speakers, or referring to and projecting onto them, adds drama, increases attentiveness, and amplifies the reception of the message.
Example (to an audience listening at a conference): Instead of 20% of the world's population can suffer from a mental illness each year. Say: Look at those sitting here in the hall. Start counting 1,2,3,4,5. And again. And again. Every fifth person on average will have a mental illness this year.
Surprise
Explain the scale first. Then add your statistic.
Example: A normal human's temperature is 37 degrees Celsius. Hypothermia is defined as 35 degrees. She was... 20 degrees when she arrived at the hospital.
Create expectations by explaining a topic using numbers (anchoring), and then add your statistic or number, in a way that surprises the listener and collapses the anchor.
Example: The thinnest computer screen we knew until now was between... and... in width (the expectation = the anchor); the new Mac screen, at its widest part, is still 30% narrower than the narrowest we've seen until now (the breaking point). You can also ask people (if you can indeed estimate what the answers will be), after the anchor or even instead of it, and then offer the new number being discussed (M.L.).
Complex Message
To convey a complex message, you can use multiple comparisons or illustrations that integrate and represent different characteristics of the phenomenon being discussed.
It's important that indeed:
They complement each other and don't overlap.
The combination sounds natural to the listener.
An example of this appears at the end of Chapter 1, referring to two related statistics (non-salty water and accessible water).
Summary
Understanding numbers and making decisions based on data and numbers is critical. For this purpose, responsibility falls on the "owners of the numbers." It is their duty to make people take them into account. Several tools were presented in the book. Use them and help us all create a better and wiser world. It depends on us.
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