Numbers don’t lie.
Steven D. Levitt is an economist. Stephen J. Dubner is a writer.
Upon reading the book, Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, I found this interesting quote:
‘I’d like to put together a set of tools that let us catch terrorists,’ Levitt said. ‘I don’t necessarily know yet how I’d go about it. But given the right data, I have little doubt that I could figure out the answer.’
It might seem absurd for an economist to dream of catching terrorists. Just as it might have seemed absurd if you were a Chicago schoolteacher, called into an office and told that, ahem, the algorithms designed by that skinny man with thick glasses had determined that you are a cheater. And that you are being fired. Steven Levitt may not fully believe in himself, but he does believe in this: teachers and criminals and real-estate agents may lie, and politicians, and even CIA analysts. But numbers don’t.
– The New York Times Magazine, August 3, 2003
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