Visualising Malaysian Data

Despite budget cutbacks and a laundry list of statistics to compile, DOS has managed to launch some new data extraction and visualisation tools. I’m still playing around with them, but the fact that they’ve managed to do this on top of all the other stuff they’re working on should be acknowledged. Even if the image links are currently bust, I quibble not.

The Power Of Prediction

Not so much about economics, but the following shows mathematics – and statistics – are sexier than ever (excerpt):

How Companies Learn Your Secrets
By CHARLES DUHIGG

Andrew Pole had just started working as a statistician for Target in 2002, when two colleagues from the marketing department stopped by his desk to ask an odd question: “If we wanted to figure out if a customer is pregnant, even if she didn’t want us to know, can you do that? ”...

The Freedom Of Prediction, Or, Problems In Small Sample Estimation

While waiting for the dentist this weekend, I came across this article in the Selangor Times (excerpt):

The Personal and The Professional
Tricia Yeoh

YET another Malaysian incident has made it into international news.

The Wall Street Journal, amongst other newspapers since, has reported on Bank Islam’s suspension of Azrul Azwar Ahmad Tajudin after his analysis of a possible Opposition win at Federal Parliament was presented at a Regional Outlook Forum in Singapore last week.

Azrul’s presentation on Malaysia’s economic and political outlook of 2013 included a section on the domestic political landscape, which outlined three possible scenarios as a result of the upcoming 13th General Election…

Peak Performance, NFL Style

I can’t embed the video, so you’ll have to hit this link to view it.

How many of our athletes, much less our companies, would go to this extent? Of course, in the NFL the stakes are high – revenues this year are expected to hit US$9.5 billion.  When the returns are enormous, it’s worth examining every competitive advantage no matter how small.

But I think the underlying message has some value as well, and is more generally applicable – measure, measure, measure, execute, then measure again. This goes back to the beginnings of operational research in WWII and the heart of Japanese Kaizen. You can only improve if you know what you’re doing. As a society, we need to become more comfortable with statistics, with measuring things and establishing benchmarks. There’s a danger in overly obsessing over numbers, but that doesn’t mean they have no value.