How to Make Numbers Meaningful: You’ve Been Using Them Wrong Your Whole Life

When faced with lots of facts and figures, many people recoil. Big numbers can be intimidating.

That’s both unfortunate and fixable. In fact, even if you’re terrible at math, I can help you make numbers meaningful.

In this workshop, you’ll learn not only how to analyze any kind of data, but also how to crank it down into familiar comparisons that even your innumerate uncle can understand. You’ll learn how to turn spreadsheets into stories.

We’ll conclude with a group exercise in which you’ll apply these lessons to humanize various statistics.

As a result, you’ll be able to comb through any chart, database, or spreadsheet, and emerge with an essential takeaway that everyone remembers. With unflagging consistency, you’ll be able to turn metrics into meaning.

Transcript

1. HOW TO HUMANIZE NUMBERS You’ve been using them wrong your whole life
3. MH370
4. That’s how many feet under water from which we detected a signal from MH370’s black box. 15,000
5. 1,000 feet 1,250 feet The Empire State Building (inverted)
6. 2,600 feet The maximum known depth at which giant squids swim 2,717 feet The Burj Khalifa (inverted) 3,000 feet
7. 3,280 feet The maximum known depth that a sperm whale has dived
8. 9,816 feet The deepest that any mammal (in this case, the Cuvier’s beaked whale) has been recorded swimming
9. 12,500 feet The RMS Titanic
10. 14,763 feet The maximum dive depth of Alvin 15,000 feet Signal detected
11. Statistic The black box from MH370 is 15,000 feet under water. Story The black box from MH370 is farther under water than the Titanic, which took a lifetime to locate.
12. Statistics Statistics engage the brain. Statistics inform. Statistics tell. Stories Stories capture the heart. Stories inspire. Stories sell.
14. Statistic Story or
15. Statistic Story or
16. Statistic Story and
17. The Individual Internal Context Techniques Digestible Bites External Context Quality
18. Emphasize Differences of Quality, Not Quantity 1 Q U A L I T Y | T H E I N D I V I D U A L | I N T E R N A L C O N T E X T | D I G E S T I B L E B I T E S | E X T E R N A L C O N T E X T
19. Syria
27. Quantity Mike Trout’s WAR score is 72.5. Quality Mike Trout is already a better baseball player than Hall of Famer Derek Jeter.
28. Focus on the Individual 2 Q U A L I T Y | T H E I N D I V I D U A L | I N T E R N A L C O N T E X T | D I G E S T I B L E B I T E S | E X T E R N A L C O N T E X T
29. “The death of millions is a statistic.” — JOSEPH STALIN
30. “The death of one man is a tragedy.” — JOSEPH STALIN
31. “If I look at the masses, I will never act.” — MOTHER TERESA
32. “If I look at the one, I will.” — MOTHER TERESA
33. Bono
34. 8 Million People Since 2000, antiretroviral drugs have saved the lives of eight million AIDS patients. Eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa have seen their death rates plummet by 75%. Every day, 7,256 fewer children die. Michael & Benedicta This is Michael and this is Benedicta, and they’re alive today thanks in large part to antiretroviral drugs.
36. Syria
37. 200,000 Dead During the past several years of warfare and flight, more than 200,000 Syrians have died. They’ve died in bomb- ings. They’ve died in chemical weapons attacks. They’ve died attempting to flee their country. Alan Kurdi In 2015, a dozen Syrian refugees drowned off the coast of Turkey fleeing to Greece. Among the dead was Alan Kurdi, a three year old whose tiny drowned body was found, face down, on a beach off the Mediterranean Sea.
39. Give Your Readers Internal Context 3 Q U A L I T Y | T H E I N D I V I D U A L | I N T E R N A L C O N T E X T | D I G E S T I B L E B I T E S | E X T E R N A L C O N T E X T
40. No Context Snapchat now has 190 million daily active users. Context That’s up from 180 million last quarter, and from 130 million a year ago.
41. Period DAU (Millions) Growth Q4 2017 190 5% Q3 2017 180 5% Q2 2017 170 6% Q1 2017 161 24% Q4 2016 130 N/A Pro Tip
42. Pro Tip Snapchat’s Daily Active Users 0 Q1 2017 Q2 2017 Q3 2017 Q4 2017 Q4 2016 150 200 175
43. Context Snapchat now has 190 million daily active users. That’s up from 180 million last quarter, and from 130 million a year ago. Characterization While this growth constitutes a healthy jump over the last year (44%), it’s only a slight uptick since the last quarter (5%).
44. Context Snapchat now has 190 million daily active users. That’s up from 180 million last quarter, and from 130 million a year ago. Characterization While this growth constitutes a healthy jump over the last year (44%), it’s only a slight uptick since the last quarter (5%).
45. Break Numbers Down Into Digestible Bites 4 Q U A L I T Y | T H E I N D I V I D U A L | I N T E R N A L C O N T E X T | D I G E S T I B L E B I T E S | E X T E R N A L C O N T E X T
48. That’s how many threats Symantec tools block every day. That’s how many businesses depend on Symantec tools. That’s how many cybersecurity researchers work at Symantec. 142M 300K 4K
49. That’s all it took for the malware known as “NotPetya” to cripple thousands of companies in 2017. 7 Minutes
50. # % ½ à à
51. Number The cybersecurity breach affected 981,000 Americans. Percentage Stories capture the heart. Stories inspire. Stories sell. Percentage The cybersecurity breach affected 30% of Americans. Fraction The cybersecurity breach affected about 1 in every 3 Americans.
52. Month For only $30 a month, you can change a child’s life. Day For only a dollar a day, you can change a child’s life.
53. Year Get immediate access for just $52 a year. Week Get immediate access for just $1 a week.
54. Years For 5 years of service, Marissa Mayer was paid $239 million. Week For 5 years of service, Marissa Mayer was paid $131K a day.
55. The U.S. federal budget is about $4 trillion a year.
56. “Human intuition quickly reaches its limits as numbers rise this high.” — DANIEL KRAUTHAMMER
57. The U.S. federal budget is about $11 billion a day.
58. The U.S. federal budget is about $500 million an hour.
59. The U.S. federal budget is about $7.5 million a minute.
60. The U.S. federal budget is about $127,000 a second.
61. Give Your Readers External Context; Use Analogies 5 Q U A L I T Y | T H E I N D I V I D U A L | I N T E R N A L C O N T E X T | D I G E S T I B L E B I T E S | E X T E R N A L C O N T E X T
62. Number The length of an N.B.A. basketball court is 94 feet. Analogy That’s about the length of three school buses.
63. Number A bomb-sniffing dog can detect a teaspoon of chemical in a million gallons of water. Analogy That’s nearly enough to fill two Olympic-size swimming pools.
64. 1 Hacker Way
65. Percentage Stories capture the heart. Stories inspire. Stories sell. 1.4 1.4 2.2
67. 1 Infinite Loop
68. Number The iPhone generates $88.4 billion in annual revenue for Apple. Analogy If the iPhone were its own company, its revenue would be as big as that of McDonalds and Coca-Cola, combined.
69. Number In the last quarter, the iPad raked in revenue of $6 billion. Analogy If the iPad were its own company, its revenue would be as big as that of Yahoo, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Groupon, and Tesla, combined.
71. Grams of Fat The Maximum Daily Intake USDA Recommends A Medium-Size Bag of Movie- Theater Popcorn 10 20 30 40 0
72. + + =
73. Popcorn Gets an “R” Rating Theater Popcorn Is Double Feature of Fat Lights, Action, Cholesterol!
74. 1. Emphasize differences of _______, not quantity. 2. Focus on the __________. 3. Give your readers internal _______. 4. Break numbers down into __________ bites. 5. Give your readers ________ context; use _________. LET’S RECAP
75. 7 Easy Ways to Turn Spread- sheets Into Stories 6 Q U A L I T Y | T H E I N D I V I D U A L | I N T E R N A L C O N T E X T | D I G E S T I B L E B I T E S | E X T E R N A L C O N T E X T
76. Create an Analogy A N A L O G Y | T I M E | L I K E L I H O O D | P O P U L A T I O N | T I M E | M O N E Y | B E N E F I T S
77. More people have a mobile phone than a toilet. Only 4.5 billion people have access to a clean, working toilet. WATERAID UK SPR EA D SH EET
78. STO RY More people have a mobile phone than a toilet. Only 4.5 billion people have access to a clean, working toilet. WATERAID UK SPR EA D SH EET
79. Translate Numbers Into Time
80. More than 350,000 women die during pregnancy or child- birth every year. THE HUFFINGTON POST SPR EA D SH EET
81. STO RY A woman dies of pregnancy-related causes every 90 seconds. That’s 1,000 moms a day. More than 350,000 women die during pregnancy or child- birth every year. HUFFPOST SPR EA D SH EET
82. Use “More or Less” Likely Logic
83. 64 million girls are forced into child marriage every year. CARE SPR EA D SH EET
84. STO RY If you’re a girl in certain countries, you’re more likely to forcibly be married than to freely attend prom. 64 million girls are forced into child marriage every year. CARE SPR EA D SH EET
85. Cite Population Data
86. One billion people around the world go hungry every day. GLOBAL CITIZEN SPR EA D SH EET
87. STO RY That’s more people than the populations of America, Canada, and the European Union, combined. One billion people around the world go hungry every day. GLOBAL CITIZEN SPR EA D SH EET
88. Assign a Monetary Value
89. It would cost $30 billion a year to end global hunger. CARE SPR EA D SH EET
90. STO RY American consumers spend nearly half this amount on Super Bowl goodies alone. It would cost $30 billion a year to end global hunger. CARE SPR EA D SH EET
91. Emphasize Benefits, Not Features
92. In launching the Kindle, Jeff Bezos boasted that the e-reader’s library contained 90,000 books. SPR EA D SH EET
93. STO RY To own a Kindle is to have a Barnes & Noble at your fingertips. In launching the Kindle, Jeff Bezos boasted that the e-reader’s library contained 90,000 books. SPR EA D SH EET
94. Google We’re proud to report that Pixel earned a DxOMark rating of 89. Apple We’re proud to report that iPhone earned the highest rating ever from DxOMark, an independent group that rates camera quality.
96. Size 4” x 2.5” x .75” RAM 32 MB Storage 5 GB Battery 10 Hours
97. Player Price Songs Price/ Song CD $75 15 $5 Flash $150 15 $10 MP3 CD $150 150 $1 Hard Drive $300 1,000 $0.30
98. “The biggest thing about iPod is that it holds 1,000 songs. Now, this is a quantum leap, because for most people, it’s their entire music library.” — STEVE JOBS
99. “I’m not interested in knowing which processor model is in a phone. I want to know if the phone is fast.” — DAVID POGUE
100. Use Psychological Pricing
101. Amy $3.80 Sam $3.79
102. Amy $3.00 Sam $2.99
103. Add to Cart $2.99 Check Out $2.99
104. Check Out Right Now $2.99 Share With Your Friends Only $2.99
105. 1. Create an _______. 2. Translate numbers into ____. 3. Use “____ or ____” likely logic. 4. Cite __________ data. FINAL RECAP
106. 6. Assign a _______ value. 7. Emphasize ________, not features. 8. Use _____________ pricing. FINAL RECAP
107. Bonus Tips 7 Q U A L I T Y | T H E I N D I V I D U A L | I N T E R N A L C O N T E X T | D I G E S T I B L E B I T E S | E X T E R N A L C O N T E X T
108. Random Our system contains the following data: 200 million diagnoses 82 million people 1 billion lab results 500 million procedures Percentage Stories capture the heart. Stories inspire. Stories sell. Alpha Our system contains the following data: 200 million diagnoses 1 billion lab results 500 million procedures 82 million people Ascending Our system contains the following data: 82 million people 200 million diagnoses 500 million procedures 1 billion lab results
109. Questions? @jrick linkedin.com/in/jric k hi@jonathanrick.com