1 1

Escape from Model Land: How Mathematical Models Can Lead Us Astray and What We Can Do About It Spiral-Bound | December 6, 2022

Erica Thompson

★★★☆☆+ from 101 to 500 ratings

$31.27 - Free Shipping

Why mathematical models are so often wrong, and how we can make better decisions by accepting their limits   

Whether we are worried about the spread of COVID-19 or making a corporate budget, we depend on mathematical models to help us understand the world around us every day. But models aren’t a mirror of reality. In fact, they are fantasies, where everything works out perfectly, every time. And relying on them too heavily can hurt us.  

In Escape from Model Land, statistician Erica Thompson illuminates the hidden dangers of models. She demonstrates how models reflect the biases, perspectives, and expectations of their creators. Thompson shows us why understanding the limits of models is vital to using them well. A deeper meditation on the role of mathematics, this is an essential book for helping us avoid either confusing the map with the territory or throwing away the map completely, instead pointing to more nuanced ways to Escape from Model Land. 

Publisher: Hachette Book Group
Original Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1541600983
Item Weight: 1.0 lbs
Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.1 x 9.6 inches
Customer Reviews: 3 out of 5 stars 101 to 500 ratings
“Escape from Model Land offers a contemplative, densely encapsulated summary of her reflection and research... Ms. Thompson emphatically counsels not abstinence but discipline and humility… But it’s up to us to learn from models without being drawn in by their seductive elegance, and to ensure that the lessons from Model Land find substantive expression where it actually matters: in our messy, material, magnificent world”
 —Wall Street Journal
Erica Thompson is a senior policy fellow at the London School of Economics’ Data Science Institute and a fellow of the London Mathematical Laboratory. With a PhD from Imperial College, she has recently worked on the limitations of models of COVID-19 spread, humanitarian crises, and climate change. She lives in West Wales.