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> Also, never show cumulative stats in a graph - it almost always go up and to the right: not insightful at all. I mean thats the definition of a cumulative gr
by dgrin91 5y ago
> Also, never show cumulative stats in a graph - it almost always go up and to the right: not insightful at all.
I mean thats the definition of a cumulative graph... it basically has to go up and right. But thats ok. You can look at the slope of the cumulative graph to tell if its gaining steam or not. For example you can clearly see that the cumulative views on StackOverflow is flattening out, but the HN mentions is approximately a slope of 1
- lolinder 5y agoBut if all you're interested in is the slope and the second derivative (which seems to be the case here), why not just graph the slope? With a cumulative graph, reading the slope is hard and reading the second derivative is even more difficult. The only reason I can see to use a cumulative graph is if the total is actually what's interesting (for example, total covid vaccinations in arms over time). The total seems largely irrelevant in a discussion of hype cycles.
- OJFord 5y agoIt seems like the only thing is 'graph what's actually interesting'? A 'cumulative graph' of dy/dx is just a y/x graph; i.e. whether what you're looking at it is 'cumulative' or not is just a matter of perspective of what the 'real' underlying thing is. To use your COVID vaccinations example - is 'percentage vaccinated' that goes up and right cumulative? It is if we think of it as percentage that were being vaccinated at each unit x; but not if we think of it as being percentage that had been vaccinated at each x. It'd be like saying Acceleration is 'a derivative', so show velocity instead. Everything's a derivative if you stand on the right side of it; everything's an accumulation/integral on the other.