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User-mining: Start at the gym, end up at a bar?

simplyryan.com

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Re: User-mining: Start at the gym, end up at a bar?

#11

The restaurant data is the only one that is at odds with intuition, and strongly so. Why would Thursday be 3.5x more popular than Wednesday? Without an explanation, I'm more willing to believe that there was a data anomaly.

You're making a critical logical mistake - assuming a data anomaly when you don't know anything about the field, but you take a 5-second check with your own intuition, and can't find an explanation. You've never heard "Thursday's the new Friday"? College kids and young employeds party hearty on Thursdays now. It started in the early 2000's. Uncle Google shows that even the NYT knows about it: http://www.google.com/se…

This started in the City as far back as the 80s - everyone wanted to leave work early on Friday and go away for the weekend with their partners/families/whatever. So Thursday was the night for getting drunk with your cow-orkers. Casual Fridays comes from this time too.

Re: User-mining: Start at the gym, end up at a bar?

#13

The restaurant data is the only one that is at odds with intuition, and strongly so. Why would Thursday be 3.5x more popular than Wednesday? Without an explanation, I'm more willing to believe that there was a data anomaly.

In almost every major venue I have frequented, Thursday night is considered "ladies" night. It's when they waive cover charges for women, luring them in, and in the process lure in more men.

Re: User-mining: Start at the gym, end up at a bar?

#14

The restaurant data is the only one that is at odds with intuition, and strongly so. Why would Thursday be 3.5x more popular than Wednesday? Without an explanation, I'm more willing to believe that there was a data anomaly.

You're making a critical logical mistake - assuming a data anomaly when you don't know anything about the field, but you take a 5-second check with your own intuition, and can't find an explanation. You've never heard "Thursday's the new Friday"? College kids and young employeds party hearty on Thursdays now. It started in the early 2000's. Uncle Google shows that even the NYT knows about it: http://www.google.com/se…

Genuinely not sure about that, but considering how this analysis was done, it's equally likely, that Thursday is the day that people would start talking about a restaurant ... i.e. looking for recommendations for the weekend or talking about going to a particular restaurant.

Re: User-mining: Start at the gym, end up at a bar?

#16
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're making a critical logical mistake - assuming a data anomaly when you don't know anything about the field, but you take a 5-second check with your own intuition, and can't find an explanation. You've never heard "Thursday's the new Friday"? College kids and young employeds party hearty on Thursdays now. It started in the early 2000's. Uncle Google shows that even the NYT knows about it: http://www.google.com/se…

This started in the City as far back as the 80s - everyone wanted to leave work early on Friday and go away for the weekend with their partners/families/whatever. So Thursday was the night for getting drunk with your cow-orkers. Casual Fridays comes from this time too.

They also introduced more flexible schedules. Some folks opted to take Fridays off; some could only get away with every second Friday (folks in the US Fed gov't, for example).

It just occurred to me that there are probably reading this who have no idea what it was like when your schedule was entirely set by your employer with no wiggle room. Yikes!

Re: User-mining: Start at the gym, end up at a bar?

#17

The restaurant data is the only one that is at odds with intuition, and strongly so. Why would Thursday be 3.5x more popular than Wednesday? Without an explanation, I'm more willing to believe that there was a data anomaly.

You're making a critical logical mistake - assuming a data anomaly when you don't know anything about the field, but you take a 5-second check with your own intuition, and can't find an explanation. You've never heard "Thursday's the new Friday"? College kids and young employeds party hearty on Thursdays now. It started in the early 2000's. Uncle Google shows that even the NYT knows about it: http://www.google.com/se…

[deleted]

Re: User-mining: Start at the gym, end up at a bar?

#19
post #15

Any idea why there are two peaks for bar attendance at 8am and 10am?

It uses Twitter posts (sentiment) as well as actual Foursquare check-ins (location). I'm guessing people are waking up and either commenting on how they shouldn't have partied so hard the night before, or are saying something to the effect of "why'd I leave the bar?" / "I should move in to the bar" / etc.
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