Whom the Gods Would Destroy, They First Give Real-Time Analytics (2013)
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Re: Whom the Gods Would Destroy, They First Give Real-Time Analytics (2013)
#2When I started my business, I looked at sales number every day.
I got my hopes up when I sold 15 copies of my app on a good day, only to feel completely devasted when I sold only 4 copies the next day.
After some time I stopped looking at daily sales numbers, and switched to weekly numbers instead. But even that was too often.
Now I fetch my numbers roughly every other week, and don‘t worry at all about an individual numbers. Only by looking at trends over a longer timeframe can you make sensible decisions... The numbers just fluctuate too much from one week to the next.
Re: Whom the Gods Would Destroy, They First Give Real-Time Analytics (2013)
#3[deleted]
Re: Whom the Gods Would Destroy, They First Give Real-Time Analytics (2013)
#4The last sentence worth reading the entire article!
Real-time web analytics is a seductive concept.
It appeals to our desire for instant gratification.
But the truth is that there are very few product
decisions that can be made in real time, if there
are any at all. Analysis is difficult enough already,
without attempting to do it at speed.Re: Whom the Gods Would Destroy, They First Give Real-Time Analytics (2013)
#5Hate to point this out but it is funny how the Manifesto author equates accuracy to precision: "Accuracy (how precise the data is). Everything should be accurate."
I deal with the subtelties of precision/accuracy everyday.
Re: Whom the Gods Would Destroy, They First Give Real-Time Analytics (2013)
#6Discussed at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5032588.
Re: Whom the Gods Would Destroy, They First Give Real-Time Analytics (2013)
#7This is so true for so many situations. One of the hardest thing to understand on the 'other' side of a browser is the dimensionality of the stuff you are measuring. I recall an A/B test we did at Blekko that simply uncovered the presence of a 'click bot' that was always clicking on like the 15th link on a page.
Re: Whom the Gods Would Destroy, They First Give Real-Time Analytics (2013)
#8"But unless the intention is to make decisions with this data, one might wonder what the purpose of such a system could possibly be."
Speaking as an analyst, you'd be amazed (or not) at how much analytics is done either for resume padding, because one guy thinks it's "cool", or to enable marketing or executives to chase their own tails.
Indeed, with the general phenomenon of bullshit jobs, infinite instantaneous and always changing information is a welcome smokescreen, because it always allows people to "justify doing something". With such numbers, there is always something for them to do :p
Re: Whom the Gods Would Destroy, They First Give Real-Time Analytics (2013)
#9When I started my business, I looked at sales number every day. I got my hopes up when I sold 15 copies of my app on a good day, only to feel completely devasted when I sold only 4 copies the next day. After some time I stopped looking at daily sales numbers, and switched to weekly numbers instead. But even that was too often. Now I fetch my numbers roughly every other week, and don‘t worry at all about an individual…
I am also checking much less frequently now. But it is still zero :) https://www.konstantinschubert.com/2017/09/27/you-have-0-ins...
Re: Whom the Gods Would Destroy, They First Give Real-Time Analytics (2013)
#10Relevant: The empirical distribution is ... not empirical (5:58) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iw9oqnhVKQ