Book Review: The Lady Tasting Tea by David Salsburg

subtitle: ‘How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century’

Meta

• Who should read this book?

Someone wanting to know the backstory for how the daily statistical techniques we use to make decisions were developed. This should be on the bookshelf of any statistician. It can also be considered a generally interesting book for a lover of history.

• Time to Read

I read this book over the course of several months. It’s essentially a history and philosophy book  delivered through a set of stories. I would usually read a few chapters, set it down for a month, then pick it up again. For me it was leisurely sort of read.

• Pages & Highlights

340 pages. There were about 70 sections that I noted or highlighted- about two or three ideas per chapter. Mostly I found something interesting about how techniques were generated, and occasionally my interest was piqued about a philosophical area of statistics.

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