Together we want to thank the two people most responsible for nurturing this book from its earliest stages: Lisa Gallagher of DeFiore & Company and Tim Bartlett of St. Martin’s Press. This is the first thing either of us have written that wasn’t for an academic audience, and we started with almost no sense of what writing and publishing a “real” book would actually entail. We are so grateful to Lisa for seeing and cultivating the potential in those first scribbled drafts, which now look so painfully clunky. We are equally grateful to Tim, both for taking a gamble on two data scientists foolhardy enough to try their hands at writing, and for giving us such unerring advice along the way. We are also indebted to Doug Young of Transworld for his valuable editorial feedback.
We also thank the many other people at DeFiore, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan who have been so helpful, including Robert Allen, Alan Bradshaw, Jeff Capshew, Laura Clark, Jennifer Enderlin, Tracey Guest, Leah Johanson, Linda Kaplan, Alice Pfeifer, Gabrielle Piraino, Jason Prince, Sally Richardson, Brisa Robinson, Mary Beth Roche, Robert Van Kolken, Laura Wilson, and George Witte. We give special thanks to India Cooper, whose magnificent editing efforts have put into stark relief the difference between a professional writer and two amateurs like us. Thanks also to Larry Finlay, Bill Scott-Kerr, and the rest of the Transworld team for their support.
We thank Ellen Zippi for her invaluable help in researching this book. We are also grateful to many of our colleagues for sharing stories and expertise, most especially Steven Levitt for introducing us to Lisa Gallagher, and David Madigan for drawing our attention to the two studies on bisphosphonate usage described in chapter 7. We thank Rosalind Eggo, Katherine Heller, and Mark Sendak for their time and trouble in agreeing to be interviewed. Thanks also to those family members who tirelessly read early drafts and gave their feedback: Catherine Aiken, Patricia and Josh Lowry, Anne and George Scott, and Brian Woods.
PERSONAL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to my co-author, James Scott. Above all, I thank my family for their love and support: my wife, Anne Gron, and our children, Emma, Michael, and Sarah.
Thank you to Nick Polson. I owe Nick for so much in my career that I cannot possibly list it all here; this book is but the latest in a long string of projects and ideas that he has so generously shared with me. I expect that over the decades to come, I will look back and see Nick as the single most important influence on my professional life, and the best friend I ever had in this field. I also want to thank the three most important teachers I ever had: Bill Jeffreys, Jim Berger, and John Trimble. Without Bill and Jim, I would never have become a statistician. Without John’s kindness and generosity, I would never have known how to “tighten/sharpen/brighten” my way to better prose. I also thank my parents, who gave me so much—not least of which was their example. Finally, I am grateful to my wife, Abigail Aiken, for just about everything. I love you, and I could not have helped write this book without your support.