Without Data, You're Just Another Person With an Opinion
Japan is devastated.
It’s 1947. The first and last 2 atomic bombs ever used have just wiped 2 cities clean of almost three hundred thousand people.
An american engineer and statistician is sent to help the Japanese assess their nutrition and housing.
He arrives, and immediately begins “treating the Japanese as colleagues instead of vanquished enemies”.
It’s now 3 years later, 1950. He’s invited to teach how to apply statistics to quality improvement from the union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers.
He’s getting invited to lecture all over Tokyo and builds relationships with the most prestigious society of Japanese executives.
His message:
“Improving quality will reduce expenses while increasing productivity and market share”
Japanese manufacturers go on to experience unheard-of levels of quality and productivity.
In 1951, The Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers establishes the oldest and most widely recognized quality award in the world — and name it after him.
In just 10 years, Japan goes on to become the 2nd largest economy in the world.
He is regarded as having had more impact on Japanese manufacturing and business than any other individual not of Japanese heritage.
His name, William Edwards Deming
Place: Nagano Japan
A college student is studying economics, while a friend signs him up for an eating contest. The prize $5,000.
Its a four-stage eating contest of boiled potatoes seafood, mutton and noodles.
He decides to study other contests. He notices the contestants are eating really hard through every stage but they’re slowing way down as they get to the final round.
He decides to eat just barely enough to advance to the next round.
He blows by everyone to win. He thinks, I should go pro.
He sets his sight on the world championship of competitive eating in Brooklyn New York. The 86th World Championship Hot Dog eating contest in Coney Island.
Because American-style hot dogs aren't available he trains with sausage made of minced fish.
And he trains differently. He devises questions and experimentation
to see how he can do it differently.
“If you just look at it as a way of trying to put something in instead of, how much more can I eat than normal, then it really just takes a few questions and a little research … and experimentation to see how far I could actually go.”
He tries ripping the hot dog and bun in half before eating it improves his times considerably.
He finds the bread part as the biggest obstacle to overcome. Most people can't eat a plain bun within 1 minute.
He tries removing the hot dog and while simultaneously eating it, he dips the bun in his glass of water — which is allowed at the contest — he squeezes out the water and then eats it in a fraction of the time.
And then there’s what will became known as the Kobayashi Shake
Look at him shaking almost like Axl Rose on the stage at the Garden. Did you see that wiggle? Just moving it around like someone put an ice cube down your back, look at him Shake. Chugging those hot dogs like a freshman at a keg party.
It’s unbelievable.
July 4th, 2001
Nathan’s Coney Island hot dog-eating contest. He obliterates the world record of 25 hot dogs by eating 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes.
“I think the thing about human beings is that they make a limit in their mind of what their potential is. They decide, “I’ve been told this,” or “this is what society tells me,” or they’ve been made to believe something. If every human being actually threw away those thoughts and they actually did use that method of thinking [about] everything — the potential of human beings is great, it’s huge, compared to what they actually think of themselves.”
Where it all began.
The Scientific Revolution
1543
The sun, not the earth, is the center of our solar system.
“A new view of nature has emerged, replacing the Greek view that has dominated science for almost 2000 years”
“A Rapid accumulation of knowledge, had never occurred of this magnitude before this time”
We begin to transition from an implicit trust in the internal powers of man’s mind to a dependence on external observation.
The basis for this Scientific Revolution becomes known as The Scientific Method which uses observation and experimentation. A process which removes blind adherence to tradition.
1891 | 1991
100 years after the first motion picture, the first web page debuts
We're not even out of the silent movie era yet.
