1) I'm a huge sports fan but It should always be recognised that sports are just a very elaborate way of generating random numbers.
2) That manager ratings table is a prime example of "Excel disease" - the default precision in Excel is 2 d.p. and most people just blindly cut+paste that spurious precision without any thought as to its significance.
It really struck a chord - I am an engineer, in a big aerospace company. I work with many, many numerate, clever, highly educated engineers. All graduates, and many of them with PhDs. The presentation of data to unjustifiable levels of precision drives me mad. Computational simulation results are the worst, usually.
Great post.
Two things:
1) I'm a huge sports fan but It should always be recognised that sports are just a very elaborate way of generating random numbers.
2) That manager ratings table is a prime example of "Excel disease" - the default precision in Excel is 2 d.p. and most people just blindly cut+paste that spurious precision without any thought as to its significance.
Great article, loved it!
It really struck a chord - I am an engineer, in a big aerospace company. I work with many, many numerate, clever, highly educated engineers. All graduates, and many of them with PhDs. The presentation of data to unjustifiable levels of precision drives me mad. Computational simulation results are the worst, usually.
Very interesting insight! Thanks again! As a LFC fan I hope luck is with us too when Klopp is replaced.
I’ve heard the first part of this (and taught it) lots over the years and it’s good to see it being brought to domains outside of the sciences.
The last part though- about luck and careers- is personally timely and well worth reiteration. Thanks for the great post.
The Liverpool manager numbers are hilarious. I'd love to take bets from whoever produced them.
"When numbers get serious they leave a mark on your door"... have I found a fellow Paul Simon fan :)?