Dear Log,
A private rule of thumb: The accuracy and general informational content of news reports that "[something] costs the US economy N billion dollars every [time period]" is inversely proportional to square of the N dollar figure. If something supposedly cost the US economy 5 billion dollars (over whatever time period), the concept is probably quite meaningful and also probably quite accurate. If something supposedly cost the US economy 50 billion, be prepared to doubt the methodology and to ask whether the concept might be slightly fishy. If something supposedly cost 500 billion, it's almost certainly total nonsense -- or worse than nonsense, it's a fallacy, because it has been dolled up so it can pass for a "fact".
The surprising fact is that you can account for the degree of speciousness/spuriousness of the media assertion just with the dollar figure -- you don't also need to correlate the period of time mentioned, nor do you need mythical quantification of the weirdness of the concept.
So the next time you hear someone report something like "stuttering costs the US economy 232 billon dollars a year", or child abuse, or grafitti, or pagers, don't say I didn't warn you
Use cheaper fonts
jjohn on 2002-10-14T03:27:09
ATTN: TorgoX
FROM: ACNTG
RE: COST OF USE.PERL.ORG POSTS
TorgoX,
It has come to our attention that your online
diary at USE.PERL.ORG has cost this company in
the neighborhood of $822 billion dollars. As
valued as your thoughts are, this cost can no
longer be born by this company in these trying
economic times. Therefore, we ask you to
consider using some of these cost-cutting
measures to help us to continue supporting
your online content.
* Eliminate unnecessary markup.
Your use of fancy HTML entities accounts for
much of the cost of publishing your journal.
Please use single quotes (') or, if needed,
two single quotes ('') in place of double
quotes. You are enjoined from using those fancy
side quotes in future entries. Bulleted lists
will no longer use <UL> tags, but simple
asterisks.
Blockquotes are RIGHT OUT.
* Fewer entries with fewer words.
You lead the USE.PERL.ORG community in number
of posts. Some of your entries are quite
lengthy. Please limit yourself to only one post
per day of 25 words or fewer.
* Serif fonts.
You are no longer allowed to use san-serif
fonts. Serifs are there for a reason: to make
the letters easier to scan. The number of
tech support calls this company has received
from speed reading accidents alone has trebled
since you published your first journal entry.
Your attention to these requirements is greatly
valued.
Another measure ...
drhyde on 2004-03-03T15:45:01
Another useful measure is the number of significant figures. If something is alleged to have cost 4e10 currency units the report is a lot more trustworthy than if it's alleged to have cost 4.15235e10 currency units.
