Synopses & Reviews
Military intelligence analyst and Harvard Law student Tyler Vigen illustrates the golden rule that "correlation does not equal causation" through hilarious graphs inspired by his viral website.
Is there a correlation between Nic Cage films and swimming pool accidents? What about beef consumption and people getting struck by lightning? Absolutely not. But that hasn't stopped millions of people from going to tylervigen.com and asking, "Wait, what?" Vigen has designed software that scours enormous data sets to find unlikely statistical correlations. He began pulling the funniest ones for his website and has since gained millions of views, hundreds of thousands of likes, and tons of media coverage. Subversive and clever, Spurious Correlations is geek humor at its finest, nailing our obsession with data and conspiracy theory.
Review
"Draws into comical and obvious relief how easily we can get trapped into seeing relationships where there are none."--Boston Globe
Review
"Hilarious."--Washington Post
Review
"Cheeky."--Huffington Post
Review
"Bizarre."--The Daily Mirror
Review
"Spurious Correlations...is the most fun you'll ever have with graphs."--Bustle
Synopsis
"Spurious Correlations ... is the most fun you'll ever have with graphs."--Bustle
Military intelligence analyst and Harvard Law student Tyler Vigen illustrates the golden rule that "correlation does not equal causation" through hilarious graphs inspired by his viral website.
Is there a correlation between Nic Cage films and swimming pool accidents? What about beef consumption and people getting struck by lightning? Absolutely not. But that hasn't stopped millions of people from going to tylervigen.com and asking, "Wait, what?" Vigen has designed software that scours enormous data sets to find unlikely statistical correlations. He began pulling the funniest ones for his website and has since gained millions of views, hundreds of thousands of likes, and tons of media coverage. Subversive and clever, Spurious Correlations is geek humor at its finest, nailing our obsession with data and conspiracy theory.
Synopsis
Spurious Correlations ... is the most fun you'll ever have with graphs. -- Bustle
Military intelligence analyst and Harvard Law student Tyler Vigen illustrates the golden rule that correlation does not equal causation through hilarious graphs inspired by his viral website.
Is there a correlation between Nic Cage films and swimming pool accidents? What about beef consumption and people getting struck by lightning? Absolutely not. But that hasn't stopped millions of people from going to tylervigen.com and asking, Wait, what? Vigen has designed software that scours enormous data sets to find unlikely statistical correlations. He began pulling the funniest ones for his website and has since gained millions of views, hundreds of thousands of likes, and tons of media coverage. Subversive and clever, Spurious Correlations is geek humor at its finest, nailing our obsession with data and conspiracy theory.
About the Author
Tyler Vigen is a student at Harvard Law School. He created the Spurious Correlations website during a week before finals, when he probably should have been studying. Prior to attending Harvard, Tyler was trained in visual intelligence collection and analysis by the military.