Sunday, August 06, 2006

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Former Prime Minister of Britain, Benjamin Disraeli, remarked that "there are 3 kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

A story too good to be true? Or is Digg.com really the next Google?

Too bad it’s a blatent lie. BusinessWeek knows it. They prove it themselves in the article:

So far, Digg is breaking even on an estimated $3 million annually in revenues. Nonetheless, people in the know say Digg is easily worth $200 million.
From Bokardo.com:
Companies lie to their customers all the time. They lie when they say that their customers come first. (their investors do) They lie when they say it isn’t about the money. (it always is) They lie when they say that they have so many users. (they never do) They lie when they say they’re worth so much money. (they never are)

Journalism seems to be getting awful.

Anyway... it never ends... thats what statisticians are for. The next time you see statistics (from your government) in the newspaper, think it through.

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