John A. Paulos — Avoiding Innumeracy (EP. 219)

Professor, Mathematician and Writer John A. Paulos joins the show to discuss math education, the power of puzzles, cognitive biases, and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• John’s Website
• John’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• Why Do People Hate Math?
• The Power of Posing Problems with Counterintuitive or Shocking Results
• Using Everyday Examples to Understand Math Concepts
• Systems Designed to Take Advantage of Innumeracy
• People’s Ignorance of Randomness and Random Samples
• The Strange Power of Anchoring Bias
• Tradeoffs between Probability and Plausibility
• The Prisoner’s Dilemma & Math Anxiety
• Improving the Monty Hall Problem
• Designing an Ideal Intro Math Course
• The Big Brother Aspect of Nudging
• John as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Innumeracy - Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences; by J.A. Paulos
• A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market; by J.A. Paulos
• A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper; by J.A. Paulos
• Statistics; by D.A. Freedman, R. Pisani, and R.A. Purves
• Thinking Fast and Slow; by Daniel Kahneman