After a short exchange about the philosophy behind mountain biking, this episode turns to Statistics, the branch of math that's most applicable to the real world, but also the messiest. We point out aspects of statistical reporting that are surprisingly arbitrary, like why a 5% chance of error is considered low enough, or why the mean wealth or income are reported more than the median. We wonder whether this selectivity is inevitable, or if it's sometimes backed by malicious intentions. We think about demographics from this perspective: people look at the world's population as neatly divided into countries and regions, but in reality it's much more diverse and complex. We realize that although simplifications can be useful or necessary for some purposes, like foreign policy, on the flip side they can prevent people in general from getting a deeper appreciation of humanity.
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Links
Johnny Harris' Video: Why is Russia So DAMN BIG?
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