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. You’ve been using them wrong your whole life
4. ,
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. The black box from MH370 is 15,000 feet under water. The black box from MH370 is farther under water than the Titanic, which took a lifetime to locate.
12. Statistics engage the brain. Statistics inform. Statistics tell. Stories capture the heart. Stories inspire. Stories sell.
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16. and
27. Mike Trout’s WAR score is 72.5. Mike Trout is already a better baseball player than Hall of Famer Derek Jeter.
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
34. 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. This is Michael and this is Benedicta, and they’re alive today thanks in large part to antiretroviral drugs.
37. 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. 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.
40. Snapchat now has 190 million daily active users. That’s up from 180 million last quarter, and from 130 million a year ago.
42. 0 Q1 2017 Q2 2017 Q3 2017 Q4 2017 Q4 2016 150 200 175
43. Snapchat now has 190 million daily active users. That’s up from 180 million last quarter, and from 130 million a year ago. While this growth constitutes a healthy jump over the last year (44%), it’s only a slight uptick since the last quarter (5%).
44. Snapchat now has 190 million daily active users. That’s up from 180 million last quarter, and from 130 million a year ago. While this growth constitutes a healthy jump over the last year (44%), it’s only a slight uptick since the last quarter (5%).
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.
49. That’s all it took for the malware known as “NotPetya” to cripple thousands of companies in 2017.
50. → →
51. The cybersecurity breach affected 981,000 Americans. Stories capture the heart. Stories inspire. Stories sell. The cybersecurity breach affected 30% of Americans. The cybersecurity breach affected about 1 in every 3 Americans.
52. For only $30 a month, you can change a child’s life. For only a dollar a day, you can change a child’s life.
53. Get immediate access for just $52 a year. Get immediate access for just $1 a week.
54. For 5 years of service, Marissa Mayer was paid $239 million. For 5 years of service, Marissa Mayer was paid $1 million a week.
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.
62. The length of an N.B.A. basketball court is 94 feet. That’s about the length of three school buses.
63. Bomb-sniffing dogs can detect a teaspoon of chemical in a million gallons of water. That’s nearly enough to fill two Olympic-size swimming pools.
65. Stories capture the heart. Stories inspire. Stories sell. 1.3 1.4 2.2
68. The iPhone generates $88.4 billion in annual revenue for Apple. If the iPhone were its own company, its revenue would be as big as that of McDonalds and Coca-Cola, combined.
69. In the last quarter, the iPad raked in revenue of $6 billion. 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. 10 20 30 40 0
72. + + =
77. More people have a mobile phone than a toilet. Only 4.5 billion people have access to a clean, working toilet. WATERAID UK
78. More people have a mobile phone than a toilet. Only 4.5 billion people have access to a clean, working toilet. WATERAID UK
80. More than 350,000 women die during pregnancy or child- birth every year. THE HUFFINGTON POST
81. 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
83. 64 million girls are forced into child marriage every year. CARE
84. 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
86. One billion people around the world go hungry every day. GLOBAL CITIZEN
87. 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
89. It would cost $30 billion a year to end global hunger. CARE
90. American consumers spend nearly half this amount on Super Bowl goodies alone. It would cost $30 billion a year to end global hunger. CARE
92. In launching the Kindle, Jeff Bezos boasted that the e-reader’s library contained 90,000 books.
93. To own a Kindle is to have a Barnes & Noble bookstore at your fingertips. In launching the Kindle, Jeff Bezos boasted that the e-reader’s library contained 90,000 books.
94. We’re proud to report that Pixel earned a DxOMark rating of 89. We’re proud to report that iPhone earned the highest rating ever from DxOMark, an independent group that rates camera quality.
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
101. $3.80 $3.79
102. $3.00 $2.99
103. $2.99 $2.99
104. $2.99 Only $2.99
108. Our system contains the following data: 200 million diagnoses 82 million people 1 billion lab results 500 million procedures Stories capture the heart. Stories inspire. Stories sell. Our system contains the following data: 200 million diagnoses 1 billion lab results 500 million procedures 82 million people Our system contains the following data: 82 million people 200 million diagnoses 500 million procedures 1 billion lab results