On the topic of lies, damn lies, and statistics
I've been logging my exercise w/in the President's Challenge website for several years. See www.presidentschallenge.org for more detail.
There's a feature on the President's Challenge sight that allows you to compare your progress against the progress of others. If you're in a recognized group, you can look at how you're doing versus others w/in your group. You can look at others your same age. You can look at h+ow you're doing when compared to others w/in your home state or w/in the United States.
Well the statistics say that I'm in the 99th or 100th percentile when comparing myself w/ others w/in my age group and/or state. This statistic on its face sounds pretty good. But the fact of the matter is that there's just not that big a sample size in the database. Either I'm a crazy man and logging into this site while others (a) aren't exercising, (b) aren't recording their exercise in this program, (c) they're out doing other things - like earning money, (d) couldn't care, etc., etc., etc.
Regardless, I'm pressing on toward earning -- someday -- a Platinum Award w/in the President's Challenge. At the rate I'm going, this is going to take awhile. But with a little luck and perseverence, I hope to be one of a very few 50 year olds to have achieved this goal.
So it's time to forget the lies, damn lies, and statistics and just 'soldier on.'
There's a feature on the President's Challenge sight that allows you to compare your progress against the progress of others. If you're in a recognized group, you can look at how you're doing versus others w/in your group. You can look at others your same age. You can look at h+ow you're doing when compared to others w/in your home state or w/in the United States.
Well the statistics say that I'm in the 99th or 100th percentile when comparing myself w/ others w/in my age group and/or state. This statistic on its face sounds pretty good. But the fact of the matter is that there's just not that big a sample size in the database. Either I'm a crazy man and logging into this site while others (a) aren't exercising, (b) aren't recording their exercise in this program, (c) they're out doing other things - like earning money, (d) couldn't care, etc., etc., etc.
Regardless, I'm pressing on toward earning -- someday -- a Platinum Award w/in the President's Challenge. At the rate I'm going, this is going to take awhile. But with a little luck and perseverence, I hope to be one of a very few 50 year olds to have achieved this goal.
So it's time to forget the lies, damn lies, and statistics and just 'soldier on.'
posted by John Lesko at
8:21 AM
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