Curiosity in a Data-Filled World: Data Literacy for Everyone, by Dave Wells
Build the curiosity and judgment to make sense of data in everyday life, from news stories and school reports to workplace metrics and personal choices.
From reading and writing to working with data
Data in everyday life
Clearing up misconceptions
Learning to think with data
The personal perspective: my information, my choices
The work perspective: data on the job
The societal perspective: public life, institutions, and power
One day, many perspectives
Personal and family information: records that follow us
Counts and measures: time, money, quantities, and scores
Data in digital life: traces, metrics, and nudges
Simple sense-making: patterns, comparisons, and change
Safety, privacy, and consent basics
Foundations across ages
Reasoning from data to evidence
Correlation, cause, and bias
Misleading numbers and visuals
Ethics, rights, and power
Habits of skepticism and careful thinking
Personal and family decisions
Decision making at work
Civic and community decisions
Decisions about the data: evaluating and learning
Creating and selecting data
From data to message
Communicating visually
Communicating with words
Dialog, feedback, and listening
Students and youth: habits that last
Critical literacy for youth
Supporting young people’s literacy
Parenting and caregiving
Choosing and using products, platforms, and services
Evaluating advice and claims
Navigating public information
Participating in community
Bringing it together
Service workers
Trade workers and technicians
Office and administrative workers
Managers and leaders
Educators and education leaders
Public officials and policymakers
Bringing it together
Software and systems roles
Data and analytics roles
Governance, privacy, and compliance roles
Working together across the roles
Human impact and responsibility
Counting and measuring
Classifying and categorizing
Comparing and contrasting
Patterns, relationships, and trends
Finding meaning and making sense
Curious thinking, cautious thinking, and critical thinking
From information to insight
A way of seeing
A way of thinking
A way of learning
A way of connecting
A way of growing
Staying curious
Continuing the journey
Domain 1: Foundations of data
Domain 2: Data management and responsibility
Domain 3: Finding, evaluating, and preparing data
Domain 4: Analyzing and interpreting data
Domain 5: Visualization and communication
Domain 6: From insight to action
Build the curiosity and judgment to make sense of data in everyday life, from news stories and school reports to workplace metrics and personal choices.
Data literacy is not just for analysts, technical professionals, or “data people.” It is a life skill for parents, students, workers, leaders, and citizens who want to make sense of the information flowing through daily life. From budgeting apps, nutrition labels, and school portals to workplace metrics, public dashboards, and news headlines, this book helps readers interpret data, question claims, recognize patterns, and think more clearly in a world shaped by data.
Explore how people find meaning in data, evaluate evidence, avoid being misled by numbers and visuals, and make thoughtful decisions without needing advanced math or specialized tools. Readers will discover how to move from raw information to real understanding by building habits of curiosity, critical thinking, careful comparison, and healthy skepticism. Along the way, the book addresses data interpretation, decision making, data communication, privacy, consent, ethics, bias, and the growing influence of automated systems and AI in everyday life.
The book also follows data literacy across the many roles people fill throughout life. It examines how children and students begin forming data habits, how families use information in health, education, and household decisions, how workers in every kind of job rely on records, metrics, and reports, and how communities use data to participate in civic life and public conversations. The book’s practicality makes it especially valuable for educators, parents, managers, lifelong learners, and anyone looking for a clear introduction to data literacy, critical thinking, data ethics, and evidence-based decision making.
More than a book about numbers, Curiosity in a Data-Filled World is a guide to living thoughtfully in a data-rich society. It brings together practical habits, real-world examples, and a structured Data Literacy Body of Knowledge (DLBOK) to help readers understand data foundations, responsibility, evaluation, communication, and action. Strengthen your ability to question numbers, interpret evidence, and spot what matters in a world overflowing with data.
Dave Wells is a data management consultant, educator, and author with experience across a broad spectrum of data practices. As a consultant he provides advice, direction, and guidance for data architecture, data quality, data governance, data integration, and data interoperability. As an educator, he serves as Director of Education and instructor at eLearningCurve and teaches a variety of courses at Dataversity.
Over more than fifty years working with data in many roles, Dave has helped people learn how to understand, interpret, and communicate with data. His experience includes data architecture, data analysis, data visualization, data storytelling, and the design and development of data management systems.
These experiences give Dave a broad perspective on how business, information, data, and technology work together—and how people can use data thoughtfully in their work and in daily decisions. Knowledge sharing and skills building are Dave’s passions, carried out through consulting, speaking, teaching, and writing.
Please complete all fields.
