Numbers Don't Lie
Quantitative reality checks on how the world actually works.
Smil uses 71 short essays to demolish a long list of popular narratives by subjecting them to arithmetic. The lesson is not cynicism but discipline: before building a system around an assumption about how the world works, check whether the numbers support it. In financial infrastructure, model risk and narrative risk are the same thing — both are what happens when you mistake a compelling story for a measured fact.