"There has been this - and it's reflected in the broadcasts - this moronic use of statistics. Which has suggested to everyone who is intelligent the use of statistics is moronic"
About this Quote
Lewis is doing a neat bit of rhetorical aikido: he attacks the dumb way numbers are used so hard that he exposes the backlash it creates among smart people. The line isn’t just a complaint about bad math on TV; it’s a diagnosis of a cultural pattern where mainstream data talk becomes so crude it poisons the well for everyone else.
The key move is the double “moronic.” First, it targets the broadcasts: the on-air habit of tossing out percentages and win probabilities as if they’re self-evident truth, stripped of assumptions, sample sizes, uncertainty, or incentives. Then Lewis flips it outward: that performance teaches “everyone who is intelligent” to treat the entire enterprise of statistics as suspect. It’s irony with teeth. Intelligence here isn’t ignorance of numbers; it’s the social instinct to avoid looking gullible. When statistics are presented like cheap props, skepticism becomes a status marker.
Contextually, this sits inside Lewis’s broader project (Moneyball, The Big Short): showing how institutions launder narratives through “objective” figures, and how audiences learn the wrong lesson. The subtext is less “people misunderstand stats” than “media incentives reward the appearance of quantification, not the rigor.” Bad statistical rhetoric doesn’t merely misinform; it builds a cynical immunity to evidence. Lewis’s intent is to defend quantitative thinking by conceding its worst public ambassadors - and warning that the real damage is reputational. When the numbers sound like hype, even the careful ones start getting lumped in with the hype men.
The key move is the double “moronic.” First, it targets the broadcasts: the on-air habit of tossing out percentages and win probabilities as if they’re self-evident truth, stripped of assumptions, sample sizes, uncertainty, or incentives. Then Lewis flips it outward: that performance teaches “everyone who is intelligent” to treat the entire enterprise of statistics as suspect. It’s irony with teeth. Intelligence here isn’t ignorance of numbers; it’s the social instinct to avoid looking gullible. When statistics are presented like cheap props, skepticism becomes a status marker.
Contextually, this sits inside Lewis’s broader project (Moneyball, The Big Short): showing how institutions launder narratives through “objective” figures, and how audiences learn the wrong lesson. The subtext is less “people misunderstand stats” than “media incentives reward the appearance of quantification, not the rigor.” Bad statistical rhetoric doesn’t merely misinform; it builds a cynical immunity to evidence. Lewis’s intent is to defend quantitative thinking by conceding its worst public ambassadors - and warning that the real damage is reputational. When the numbers sound like hype, even the careful ones start getting lumped in with the hype men.
Quote Details
| Topic | Reason & Logic |
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