LaPuerta Books and Media

Written by an adept consultant who hasn’t had “permanent employment” since 9/11, this handy little book will help you survive – and thrive – as an independent contractor. Don’t wait for someone else to decide your future – here’s how to write your own story. First in this series of guides for independent contractors and project managers.

First in a series of guides for freelancers, consultants, and project managers.

Not to school hackers but to warn you, here are the most common ways someone can bend or break the truth to generate misinformation. Many of these tricks rely on leveraging emotion to cloud logic. Another technique is to confuse cause and effect, often implying that perpetrators are actually victims (and vice versa).

Thoughtful examples in the book include analyses of world population growth and climate change. The intent is not to advance any conclusions but to examine carefully the methods used to generate charts and interpretations of the underlying metadata. Other examples include analyzing stock market trends and preventing misuse of Electronic Health Records (EHR).

The term Big Data encompasses the technology used to develop and provide metadata, including not only large-scale database systems but also middleware to integrate results from those heterogenous systems. Vendors that provide Big Data solutions have responsibilities to ensure compliance with government regulations and industry best practices about how metadata is extracted and presented.

For example, evaluating their own performance during team play, participants should learn how to answer, "Should I listen more and talk less? Assert myself and talk more? Learn to identify and credit the opinions of quiet experts? Press my point of view even if I feel intimidated or embarrassed?"

The Meeting Leader's Script in the book shows thumbnail illustrations of a color-slide deck, which is separately available from the publisher. However, slides are optional. Participants only need a printed scorecard, which is provided in the book with permission to copy.

Diligent proofing in itself won't make a killer impression. But failing to proof for both accuracy and consistency could have woeful results. Perhaps numbers don't lie, but you can't afford a comma or a decimal point in the wrong place.

From the author of the Eric Hoffer Award-winning textbook, How to Lie with Charts, which is now in its Fourth Edition and adopted as supplemental courseware in college-level studies.