Why “Stats for Humans”?
I love stats. Here’s why you should too.
I love stats.
That’s probably not too surprising — I’ve literally made a Medium publication on stats.
But here’s the thing:
I strongly believe you should love stats too.
Not because stats are more special than prose, the arts, or having, you know, feelings or anything. I’m a strong proponent for acting on your emotions and for trusting your gut.
What stats can do, though, is add to your experience as a human being on earth.
When introduced properly, stats don’t confuse us about the world — they connect us more intimately with how we’re being affected by it.
For example: if you’re reading this there’s a high likelihood you also write on Medium. On the back end of your Medium dashboard you can see stats on views, reads, and fans of your articles. Separately, these stats don’t mean much. But let’s say you want to know things like:
- Am I impacting people with my writing?
- What kind of stories are resonating with my readers?
- Am I improving as a writer?
You could try and “guess” the answer to those things.
