A broken valve In the early hours of the morning on March 28th 1979, a valve broke on a water pipe. That pipe was at the nuclear power plant on Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. The failure resulted in the most serious nuclear incident that the USA has ever seen. Chain reaction The broken valve led to […]
The Tiger That Isn’t by Blastland and Dilnot — Book Review
What is it about? According to its authors: “Mathematics scares and depresses most of us, but politicians, journalists and everyone in power use numbers all the time to bamboozle us. It is liberating to understand when numbers are telling the truth or being used to lie.” According to Steven Poole at the Guardian: “This very elegant book… […]
Pointless Conversations
Management meetings Do you ever lose the will to live in management meetings? Sometimes they are so bad I want to scoop out my eyeballs with a tea-spoon. I’d do anything to get out of the conversation. I hate futile meetings that are a waste of everybody’s time — usually highly paid people’s time. Here […]
The Proxy for Performance
Did you hit your numbers? It is a common challenge. You must make your numbers. You must smash your sales target You must slash your budget You must decimate your waiting times If you’ve hit your numbers then you’ve met your performance goals. Numbers and performance are synonymous. But the numbers are only a proxy […]
There Are Lies, Damned Lies and Descriptive Statistics
Anscombe’s quartet Here are some interesting numbers for you. Interesting in a geeky sort of way… They are 4 sets of readings for two variables, X and Y. That is a horribly algebraic. It brings back memories of a comprehensive school deep in the 1980’s. All polyester blazers and fermenting gym kit. Let me bring the […]
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