Welcome to Diverse Measures

I’m starting a blog. The internet, famously lacking in opinions and infographics, clearly needed more of both.

I want this to be a data blog where I approach the same idea from multiple angles. If you look at a dozen metrics and they all tell the same story that means your result is fairly robust. If they contradict each other, that is interesting in its own way.

When thinking of my approach I am reminded of the parable of the blind men and an elephant. Per Wikipedia:

A group of blind men who have never come across an elephant before and who learn and imagine what the elephant is like by touching it. Each blind man feels a different part of the animal's body, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk. They then describe the animal based on their limited experience and their descriptions of the elephant are different from each other. In some versions, they come to suspect that the other person is dishonest and they come to blows.

The moral they're usually trying to convey is that people claim absolute truth based on their limited, subjective experience as they ignore other people's limited, subjective experiences which may be equally true, yadda yadda yadda. Sure, fine.

I think the other take away is the catastrophic failure of measurement and communication. Apparently none of them even mentioned the smell. Pretty sure the debate would have been ended if any one of them had said "well, just come over here and feel my part."

Either that, or when the elephant decided enough was enough and started squishing the handsy blind men.

I plan on groping around blindly like everyone else, but I’ll share what I find.

Also, the name is a reference to Proverbs 20:10

Diverse weights and diverse measures, They are both alike, an abomination to the LORD.

So God hates my blog and is maybe a bit fatphobic; you can’t please everyone.