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

Slide 1

Slide 1 text

HOW TO HUMANIZE NUMBERS You’ve been using them wrong your whole life

Slide 2

Slide 2 text

No content

Slide 3

Slide 3 text

MH370

Slide 4

Slide 4 text

That’s how many feet under water from which we detected a signal from MH370’s black box. 15,000

Slide 5

Slide 5 text

1,000 feet 1,250 feet The Empire State Building (inverted)

Slide 6

Slide 6 text

2,600 feet The maximum known depth at which giant squids swim 2,717 feet The Burj Khalifa (inverted) 3,000 feet

Slide 7

Slide 7 text

3,280 feet The maximum known depth that a sperm whale has dived

Slide 8

Slide 8 text

9,816 feet The deepest that any mammal (in this case, the Cuvier’s beaked whale) has been recorded swimming

Slide 9

Slide 9 text

12,500 feet The RMS Titanic

Slide 10

Slide 10 text

14,763 feet The maximum dive depth of Alvin 15,000 feet Signal detected

Slide 11

Slide 11 text

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.

Slide 12

Slide 12 text

Statistics Statistics engage the brain. Statistics inform. Statistics tell. Stories Stories capture the heart. Stories inspire. Stories sell.

Slide 13

Slide 13 text

No content

Slide 14

Slide 14 text

Statistic Story or

Slide 15

Slide 15 text

Statistic Story or

Slide 16

Slide 16 text

Statistic Story and

Slide 17

Slide 17 text

The Individual Internal Context Techniques Digestible Bites External Context Quality

Slide 18

Slide 18 text

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

Slide 19

Slide 19 text

Syria

Slide 20

Slide 20 text

No content

Slide 21

Slide 21 text

No content

Slide 22

Slide 22 text

No content

Slide 23

Slide 23 text

No content

Slide 24

Slide 24 text

No content

Slide 25

Slide 25 text

No content

Slide 26

Slide 26 text

No content

Slide 27

Slide 27 text

Quantity Mike Trout’s WAR score is 86. Quality Mike Trout is already a better baseball player than Hall of Famer Derek Jeter.

Slide 28

Slide 28 text

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

Slide 29

Slide 29 text

“The death of millions is a statistic.” — JOSEPH STALIN

Slide 30

Slide 30 text

“The death of one man is a tragedy.” — JOSEPH STALIN

Slide 31

Slide 31 text

“If I look at the masses, I will never act.” — MOTHER TERESA

Slide 32

Slide 32 text

“If I look at the one, I will.” — MOTHER TERESA

Slide 33

Slide 33 text

Bono

Slide 34

Slide 34 text

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.

Slide 35

Slide 35 text

No content

Slide 36

Slide 36 text

Syria

Slide 37

Slide 37 text

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.

Slide 38

Slide 38 text

No content

Slide 39

Slide 39 text

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

Slide 40

Slide 40 text

No Context Snapchat now has 453 million daily active users. Context That’s up from 443 million last quarter, and from 414 million a year ago.

Slide 41

Slide 41 text

Period DAU (Millions) Growth Q4 2024 453 2.3% Q3 2024 443 2.5% Q2 2024 432 2.4% Q1 2024 422 2.0% Q4 2023 414 N/A Pro Tip

Slide 42

Slide 42 text

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%).

Slide 43

Slide 43 text

Slide 44

Slide 44 text

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

Slide 45

Slide 45 text

No content

Slide 46

Slide 46 text

No content

Slide 47

Slide 47 text

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

Slide 48

Slide 48 text

That’s all it took for the malware known as “NotPetya” to cripple thousands of companies in 2017. 7 Minutes

Slide 49

Slide 49 text

# % ½ à à

Slide 50

Slide 50 text

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.

Slide 51

Slide 51 text

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.

Slide 52

Slide 52 text

Year Get immediate access for just $52 a year. Week Get immediate access for just $1 a week.

Slide 53

Slide 53 text

Tim Cook

Slide 54

Slide 54 text

Years Over the past 4 years, Tim Cook has been paid $262 million. Week Over the past 4 years, Tim Cook has been paid $179K a day.

Slide 55

Slide 55 text

The U.S. federal budget is about $7 trillion a year.

Slide 56

Slide 56 text

“Human intuition quickly reaches its limits as numbers rise this high.” — DANIEL KRAUTHAMMER

Slide 57

Slide 57 text

The U.S. federal budget is about $19 billion a day.

Slide 58

Slide 58 text

The U.S. federal budget is about $800 million an hour.

Slide 59

Slide 59 text

The U.S. federal budget is about $13 million a minute.

Slide 60

Slide 60 text

The U.S. federal budget is about $222,000 a second.

Slide 61

Slide 61 text

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

Slide 62

Slide 62 text

Number The length of an N.B.A. basketball court is 94 feet. Analogy That’s about the length of three school buses.

Slide 63

Slide 63 text

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.

Slide 64

Slide 64 text

1 Hacker Way

Slide 65

Slide 65 text

Percentage Stories capture the heart. Stories inspire. Stories sell. 1.4 1.4 2.2

Slide 66

Slide 66 text

No content

Slide 67

Slide 67 text

1 Infinite Loop

Slide 68

Slide 68 text

Number The iPhone generates $200 billion in annual revenue for Apple. Analogy If the iPhone were its own company, it would earn as much as McDonald’s, Nike, PepsiCo, and Starbucks, combined.

Slide 69

Slide 69 text

Number In the last quarter, the iPad raked in revenue of $7 billion. Analogy The iPad earns as much in a quarter as Ralph Lauren earns in a year.

Slide 70

Slide 70 text

No content

Slide 71

Slide 71 text

Grams of Fat The Maximum Daily Intake USDA Recommends A Medium-Size Bag of Movie- Theater Popcorn 10 20 30 40 0

Slide 72

Slide 72 text

+ + =

Slide 73

Slide 73 text

Popcorn Gets an “R” Rating Theater Popcorn Is Double Feature of Fat Lights, Action, Cholesterol!

Slide 74

Slide 74 text

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

Slide 75

Slide 75 text

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

Slide 76

Slide 76 text

Slide 77

Slide 77 text

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

Slide 78

Slide 78 text

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

Slide 79

Slide 79 text

Translate Numbers Into Time

Slide 80

Slide 80 text

350,000 women die during pregnancy or child-birth every year. THE HUFFINGTON POST SPR EA D SH EET

Slide 81

Slide 81 text

STO RY A woman dies of pregnancy-related causes every 90 seconds. That’s 1,000 moms a day. 350,000 women die during pregnancy or childbirth every year. HUFFPOST SPR EA D SH EET

Slide 82

Slide 82 text

Use “More or Less” Likely Logic

Slide 83

Slide 83 text

64 million girls are forced into child marriage every year. CARE SPR EA D SH EET

Slide 84

Slide 84 text

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

Slide 85

Slide 85 text

Cite Population Data

Slide 86

Slide 86 text

One billion people around the world go hungry every day. GLOBAL CITIZEN SPR EA D SH EET

Slide 87

Slide 87 text

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

Slide 88

Slide 88 text

Assign a Monetary Value

Slide 89

Slide 89 text

It would cost $30 billion a year to end global hunger. CARE SPR EA D SH EET

Slide 90

Slide 90 text

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

Slide 91

Slide 91 text

Emphasize Benefits, Not Features

Slide 92

Slide 92 text

In launching the Kindle, Jeff Bezos boasted that the e-reader’s library contained 90,000 books. SPR EA D SH EET

Slide 93

Slide 93 text

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

Slide 94

Slide 94 text

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.

Slide 95

Slide 95 text

No content

Slide 96

Slide 96 text

Size 4” x 2.5” x .75” RAM 32 MB Storage 5 GB Battery 10 Hours

Slide 97

Slide 97 text

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

Slide 98

Slide 98 text

“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

Slide 99

Slide 99 text

“I’m not interested in knowing which processor model is in a phone. I want to know if the phone is fast.” — DAVID POGUE

Slide 100

Slide 100 text

Use Psychological Pricing

Slide 101

Slide 101 text

Amy $3.80 Sam $3.79

Slide 102

Slide 102 text

Amy $3.00 Sam $2.99

Slide 103

Slide 103 text

Add to Cart $2.99 Check Out $2.99

Slide 104

Slide 104 text

Check Out Right Now $2.99 Share With Your Friends Only $2.99

Slide 105

Slide 105 text

1. Create an _______. 2. Translate numbers into ____. 3. Use “____ or ____” likely logic. 4. Cite __________ data. FINAL RECAP

Slide 106

Slide 106 text

6. Assign a _______ value. 7. Emphasize ________, not features. 8. Use _____________ pricing. FINAL RECAP

Slide 107

Slide 107 text

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

Slide 108

Slide 108 text

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

Slide 109

Slide 109 text

Questions? @jrick linkedin.com/in/jrick [email protected]