People in orbit and skeleton counts - view on the website
Last week, a new record was set for the number of people in the Earth's orbit at one time: 19.
What's special about 19? Not much. Is knowing that 19 people are currently in space any more important or useful than when your child learns that the Stegosaurus had 19 plates on its back? No.
Not all data is equal. That's obvious. What's harder to distinguish is the difference between data that's useful and data that is a 'fun fact'.
Is the number of plates on a Stegosaurus less 'important' than the number of people in space right now? Probably not. Both of these data points are 'fun facts'.
I describe a 'fun fact' as a data point we can't do anything with, but it seems like it should be useful. Fun facts are great for conversations with friends. "Hey, did you know ... ?"
The problem is that fun facts end up in the business world, and people spend their time discussing fun facts as though they have some 'meaning'.
Why do we spend so much time on fun facts? Because they're easy. Finding something meaningful is hard. Measuring this correctly adds additional complexity. Knowing what to look for over time is now a serious intellectual exercise. We haven't even started on the assumptions of statistical tests.
I could cite statistics about the percentage of adults with obesity, which you'll never remember, or I could tell you that the average number of skeletons in the human body is greater than one. The average number of hands people have is less than two. You'll remember those. They're fun facts. Could either of these be used to improve health outcomes? No.
Your culture survey results are an example of where we think we're discussing something useful, but it's just a 'fun fact'. If these were useful, you would have done something with them by now. Instead, you poke, prod and wonder; no wonder you achieve nothing useful. Try a hypothesis instead.
Summation is not insight.
Andrew
Want more? Great.
On LinkedIn, I describe why this concept is hard to implement.
Here's a short data bite if you want to hear me expand on the idea.
Last week I wrote about pain diaries and stamps.