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Only in the same way that the plural of 'opinion' is 'fact' ;)
by rtaylorgarlock 1y ago
Only in the same way that the plural of 'opinion' is 'fact' ;)
- stavros 1y agoExcept, very literally, data is a collection of single points (ie what we call "anecdotes").
- rwj 1y agoExcept that the plural of anecdotes is definitely not data, because without controlling for confounding variables and sampling biases, you will get garbage.
- scubbo 1y agoGarbage data is still data, and data (garbage or not) is still more valuable than a single anecdote. Insights can only be distilled from data, by first applying those controls you mentioned.
- jimmySixDOF 1y agoOr you can apply the Bezos/Amazon anecdote about anecdotes: At a managers meeting "user stories" about poor support but all the KPIs looked good from the call center so Jeff dials in the number from the meeting speaker phone, gets put on hold, IVR spin cycle, hold again, etc .... His take away was basically "if the data and anecdotes don't match always default to the customer stories".
- fhd2 1y agoBased on my limited understanding of analytics, the data set can be full of biases and anomalies, as long as you find a way to account for them in the analysis, no?
- LegionMammal978 1y agoThe accuracy of your analysis becomes limited to the accuracy of how well you correct for the biases. And it's difficult to measure the bias accurately without lots of good data or cross-examination.
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- bcoates 1y agoNo, Wittgenstein's rule following paradox, Shannon sampling theorem, the law that infinite polynomials pass through any finite set of points (does that have a name?), etc, etc. are all equivalent at the limit to the idea that no amount of anecdotes-per-se add up to anything other than coincidence
- inimino 1y agoNo, no, no. Each of them gives you information.
- whatnow37373 1y agoWithout structural assumptions, there is no necessity - only observed regularity. Necessity literally does not exist. You will never find it anywhere. Hume figured this out quite a while ago and Kant had an interesting response to it. Think the lack of “necessity” is a problem? Try to find “time” or “space” in the data. Data by itself is useless. It’s interesting to see peoples’ reaction to this.
- bijant 1y ago@whatnow37373 — Three sentences and you’ve done what a semester with Kritik der reinen Vernunft couldn’t: made the Hume-vs-Kant standoff obvious. The idea that “necessity” is just the exhaust of our structural assumptions (and that data, naked, can’t even locate time or space) finally snapped into focus. This is exactly the kind of epistemic lens-polishing that keeps me reloading HN.
- cess11 1y agoNo. Anecdote, ἀνέκδοτον, is a story that points to some abstract idea, commonly having something to do with morals. The word means 'not given out'/'not-out-given'. Data is the plural of datum, and arrives in english not from greek, but from latin. The root is however the same as in anecdote, and datum means 'given'. Saying that 'not-given' and 'collection of givens' is the same is clearly nonsensical. A datum has a value and a context in which it was 'given'. What you mean by "points" eludes me, maybe you could elaborate.
- acchow 1y ago“Plural of anecdote is data” is meant to be tongue-in-cheek. Actual data is sampled randomly. Anecdotes very much are not.
- 9rx 1y ago> “Plural of anecdote is data” is meant to be tongue-in-cheek. To be fair, possibly because of this tongue-in-cheek statement, anecdote is sometimes used in place of datum and not as anecdote is usually defined.
- absolutelastone 1y agoone point is a collection of size 1. It is always data.
- 9rx 1y agoTechnically we call it a datum. An anecdote is a story, not a point. But it is true that colloquially anecdote is sometimes used in place of datum.