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by hdlothia 800 days ago
I disagree, you need both. Statistics sometimes obscure the reality of what's happening and can't be relied upon in a vacuum. I recently learned about on hn about a story where Amazon's statistics proved that there was no wait time problem on it's phone lines even though it was a common customer complaints. We need a mix of statistical analysis and first hand accounts.

Source: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/95066/jeff-bezos-explains-the...

2 comments

"A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." - Joseph Stalin [0]

(To be clear, I'm agreeing with the point that you need both)

[0] Or maybe not - see https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/21/death-statistic/

Get enough first hand accounts and you can do stats!