Comments for The Errant Idea

Comment on Soundtrack to a Startup, Track 3: Bonfire by The Errant Idea » Blog Archive » Soundtrack to a Startup, Track 4: Page One

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:25:35 +0000

[...] Errant Idea Being the adventures of a restless notion in a perilous world « Soundtrack to a Startup, Track 3: Bonfire Unanticipation [...]

Comment on Soundtrack to a Startup, Track 3: Bonfire by The Errant Idea » Blog Archive » Soundtrack to a Startup, Track 5: 8pt Agenda

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:25:20 +0000

[...] post is the fifth in a series; see also Track 1, Track 2, Track 3, Track [...]

Comment on Soundtrack to a Startup, Track 3: Bonfire by The Errant Idea » Blog Archive » Soundtrack to a Startup, Track 6: What’s He Building / How’s It Gonna End

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:24:44 +0000

[...] post is the sixth in a series; see also Track 1, Track 2, Track 3, Track 4, Track [...]

Comment on Soundtrack to a Startup, Track 2: So Far I Have Not Found The Science by The Errant Idea » Blog Archive » Soundtrack to a Startup, Track 6: What’s He Building / How’s It Gonna End

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 01:30:13 +0000

[...] post is the sixth in a series; see also Track 1, Track 2, Track 3, Track 4, Track [...]

Comment on Soundtrack to a Startup, Track 3: Bonfire by Music News » Blog Archive » Soundtrack to a Startup, Track 3: Bonfire

Music News » Blog Archive » Soundtrack to a Startup, Track 3: Bonfire — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:16:41 +0000

[...] Check it out here [...]

Comment on Anything You Can Do… by DisMonkey

DisMonkey — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 01:41:16 +0000

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Fun times are ahead!

Comment on Negative visitors by Seth Godin

Seth Godin — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:41:31 +0000

So, guys, thanks for reading.

I actually made up the median in this example. you’re right it should be a lot lower in order to be possible, but the point is correct.

sorry.

Comment on Negative visitors by scier

scier — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:29:13 +0000

Oh, I think his point was right and he explained it well — but by exaggerating the example to the point that it was actually impossible, I think the post might not only confuse people trying to understand the trend (e.g. — try to visualize the visitor graph that would cause that 2.1 vs. 9 case; you can’t), but also fail to drive home the real meaning of those terms. Understanding a particular trend is one thing, but understanding the concepts used to identify and describe it is even more important.

What’s really meaningful here is modes — one could describe these cases as multimodal, and communicate the trend in a word. Unfortunately modes are more difficult to collect and express concisely, at least compared to means and medians which can be distilled to a single number.

My point is just that when one’s talking about something as inherently subtle as statistics, which are notoriously confusing but incredibly powerful, one must take care not to abuse the terminology.

Here a picture is worth a thousand words to non-mathematicians. Unfortunately I’m too lazy^H^H^H^Hbusy to put together a good graphic at the moment.

Comment on Negative visitors by Tom Fox

Tom Fox — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:19:32 +0000

You make an interesting point regarding the value of precise terminology, yet strangely, I did not have any difficulty understanding what Seth was talking about. Perhaps it is because I have seen that same pattern he was referring to in web site statistics, where you have a lot of brief visitors and a lot of extensive visitors to a website, but no middle ground. Nevertheless, I think you are technically correct.

It’s a lot like talking about the weather this week where I live. The high temperatures have been in the 90’s (F) and the lows have been in the 50’s.
Saying that the average temperature has been in the 70’s doesn’t quite capture the reality of the actual experience.

What words would you use to express this idea briefly?