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by onetimemanytime 2424 days ago
Unless it misleads you. One can "lose" 2 lbs...by weighing before drinking water after a run. Did you really lose 2 lbs?
3 comments

If you're allowing a single data point to have that much power over what or how you think, you've already lost. Especially if you decide to ignore context like "I just lost water by running and I haven't had anything to drink yet", or even important variables like time of day. The number by itself is meaningless. Data (as in a ton of data points) with context can be incredibly useful. Don't blame the tool if you don't learn how to use it properly.
Oh to be blessed with decent analytical intelligence. Not everyone is, however.
Weight loss isn't really a good analogy. It's much more about trends over time than any individual data point.

When we're talking about diabetics and blood sugar, one data point could be the difference between life and death.

If you're misled by thinking you lost 2 pounds when instead you just lost some water, you are missing some pretty essential data.