One thought on “Nightcap”

1. I am going through my 15th True Up bill from PG&E this am so this bit of the first article hits home for me-

   …”Out of these circumstances emerged data’s own uncertainty principle: accuracy and timeliness were in conflict; prioritising precision in one typically meant compromising precision in the other. If numbers weren’t provided at the right time, decision-making suffered. But what good would those decisions be if the numbers themselves were of poor quality? The paradox was debilitating. In September 1957, the head of the State Statistics Bureau Xue Muqiao broke the deadlock by declaring that:

   In order for the leading authorities to understand the situation, research questions, and decide on policies, they frequently need reference data on a timelier basis. Such data need not possess a high degree of accuracy or be comprehensive, but it must be supplied in a timely fashion.

   Xue’s decision released the cat of estimation among the pigeons of accuracy. Higher levels of the statistical system set ever stricter deadlines and the lower levels responded with more and more estimated numbers”…

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