This book is an essential guide to recognizing bogus numbers and misleading data. Numbers are often intimidating, confusing, and even deliberately deceptive-especially when they are really big. The media loves to report on millions, billions, and trillions, but often makes basic mistakes or presents numbers in misleading ways. Misunderstanding them can have serious consequences, since they can deceive us in making important decisions, including how to vote, what to buy, and whether to make a financial investment. This short, accessible, enlightening, entertaining book by a leading computer scientist teaches anyone-even math-phobes-how to demystify the numbers that assault us every day. With examples drawn from a variety of sources, including journalism, advertising, and politics, it demonstrates how numbers can mislead and misrepresent. Providing simple tools to avoid being fooled by dubious numbers, it is an essential survival guide for a world drowning in big-and often bad-data.