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Absolute vs relative numbers. If you want to judge the shift in quality in a thing that grew in quantity, then you should look at percentages — otherwise you e
by atoav 3y ago
Absolute vs relative numbers.
If you want to judge the shift in quality in a thing that grew in quantity, then you should look at percentages — otherwise you end up creating statements that are true, but don't say anything meaningful.
E.g. there are probably more absolute listeners of Jazz music today than back at the height of the cultural bloom of the genre. But that isn't because Jazz is more popular today than it once was, but because there are more absolute listeners of any kind of music. Would you say that Jazz in the US is now more important, influential etc. than it was at its peak?
- hiAndrewQuinn 3y agoNo, but there's so much great jazz these days that wouldn't have existed without those absolute numbers. Quantity (aggregate supply) is a quality (increases specialization of labor) all its own!
- atoav 3y agoYeah, sure. But I hope you are aware your argument is dishonest? If you want to compare two times, looking at absolute numbers isn't useful unless those numbers contributed to the rise or fall of the phenomenon we are observing. Whether from that quantity new qualities emerged is a different question. E.g. the new quantity of diverse jazz listeners probably has lead to an explosion of new sub-genres, that might have never emerged otherwise. Still, just because there is more different Jazz now does not mean Jazz has become more relevant overall. This was the factor we discussed btw.