Charles Seife Quotes
If you want to get people to believe something really, really stupid, just stick a number on it.

-Charles Seife
Download
Zero is powerful because it is infinity’s twin. They are equal and opposite, yin andyang. They are equally paradoxical and troubling. The biggest questions in scienceand religion are about nothingness and eternity, the void and the infinite, zero andinfinity. The clashes . . . Read more

-Charles Seife
There are many ways to generate numerical falsehoods from data, many ways to create proofiness from even valid meaurements. Causuistry distorts the relationships between two sets of numbers. Randumbness creates patterns where none are to be found. Regression to the moon disguises nons . . . Read more

-Charles Seife
We tend to shy away from data that challenges our assumptions, that erodes our preconceptions. Getting rid of our wrong ideas is a painful and difficult process, yet it's that very process that makes data truly useful. A fact becomes information when it challenges our assumptions. The . . . Read more

-Charles Seife
Where there is the Infinite there is joy. There is no joy in the finite. —THE CHANDOGYA UPANISHAD

-Charles Seife
Download
Just as it's important to take the changing value of a dollar into account when comparing spending over time, it's important to take doctors' changing diagnoses into account when looking at disease trends

-Charles Seife
Download
Bad information is a disease that attacks the brain. It messes with your head, making you do things that you shouldn't, causing you to make wrong decisions. Just as a potent virus co-opts your cells' machinery, bad information can co-opt your behavior. It can alter the way you interac . . . Read more

-Charles Seife
See appendix A for a proof that Winston Churchill was a carrot.

-Charles Seife
Download