Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres
Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres
Study statistics = Ayres' message. This book just has a bunch of anecdotes that show that statistics work. Naturally, a better argument would use statistics, however that assumes you already find statistics persuasive.
Nowadays when a flight is canceled, airlines will skip over their frequent fliers and give the next open seat to the mine-identified customer whose continued business is most at risk. Instead of following a first-come, first-served rule, companies will condition their behavior on literally dozens of consumer-specific factors.
Several years ago, I had an extra ticket (to a Bulls game) and invited Steve (Levitt) to come with me to see Michael Jordan play with the Chicago Bulls. Steve figured he'd enjoy the game more if he was invested in it, but (in sharp contrast to me) he didn't care that much about whether the Bulls won or lost. So just before the game, he hopped online and placed a substantial bet that Chicago would win.
It's best to have the man and machine in dialogue with each other, but, then the two disagree, it's usually better to give the ultimate decision to the statistical prediction.