Tim Harford OBE
Transform data-driven decision making with Tim Harford, speaker, behavioural economist and statistics expert. Tim works with organisations to simplify complex economic concepts, manage uncertainty and learn from failure, delivering award-winning insights as an FT columnist and BBC broadcaster.
London, United Kingdom
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His Radio 4 show and podcast, "More or Less", investigates misleading statistics in the news, addressing figures used by politicians, businesses, and social media. Other projects include "How To Vaccinate The World", "Fifty Things That Made The Modern Economy", and "Cautionary Tales", which explores human error through various narratives.
Tim has a strong background in economics, with experience at Oxford, Shell, and the World Bank. His FT columns provide insights into everyday economic issues, often with humorous solutions. His first book, "The Undercover Economist", sold nearly two million copies and drew comparisons to "Freakonomics" for its exploration of topics like coffee shops and organised crime. He has since established himself as a leading writer on economics.
Other notable titles include "The Logic of Life", which examines human decision-making; "Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure", which highlights learning from failure; "Messy: How to Be Creative and Resilient in a Tidy-Minded World", which challenges conventional views on tidiness; and "How to Make the World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers", a guide to understanding numerical data.
Tim's work covers a range of subjects, including learning from mistakes, uncertainty, forecasting, and innovation. He draws examples from diverse fields, such as the military and ballet, questioning established wisdom and statistical norms. He is a member of Nuffield College, Oxford, and the only journalist to be an honorary fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. Tim has received multiple awards for his contributions to economic journalism.
Topics, Sessions And Talks
In this session, Tim Harford discusses the parallels between and lessons from new and old technologies. He delves into how to work with, not against, artificial intelligence, AI and the truth behind the scare stories.
In this talk, Tim Harford discusses how we prepare for and react to crises. He shares what resilience in organisations and individuals means and lessons from how the public and private sectors dealt with vaccination from the logistics to the misinformation.
In this session, Tim Harford explores how data can both mislead and illuminate so we can all use the data we have more effectively. He shares what algorithms really do to data and how to understand it. He’ll also explore why we can all be better at understanding statistics, and why we need to be.
In this talk, Tim Harford teaches how to embrace failure and confusion, how to learn from mistakes, and how to manage intentional or inevitable failure.
In this session, Tim Harford discusses where creative solutions and ideas come from. He explores whether AI helps or hinders creativity and collaboration and why some ideas are dropped and some embraced. Tim will also delve into how we shape new ideas, how they shape us and how to create an innovative environment.
Featured Projects
How To Make The World Add Up
Fifty Things That Made The Modern Economy
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