best way to become a "Numerati"?
dronethebone: Look at some fun stuff like the Monty Hall problem, and Benford's law.  These are delightful examples of how  counterintuitive probabilities and statistics can be.  If either of these things surprise you, you are in the great majority, and unlikely to perform practical statistical work without first doing a great deal of studying.  Nothing to be ashamed of, not even Gauss was born knowing this stuff.