Do you see the big picture?
Why taking in the whole view is so important to winning
In pictures and photography there is something called “forced perspective”.
Now you may not have heard this term before…
So this is what it means…
“an optical illusion technique that manipulates human perception to make objects appear bigger or smaller than they actually are”.
And here are some examples…
So this isn’t some giant about to pick up the Eiffel Tower…
This isn’t a guy doing keepy-uppys with the sun…
And the person below isn’t trying to hold an enormous golf ball…
I’m afraid not.
These are all misleading images which are created because the viewer has only a limited line of sight (or perspective) of what’s being shown before them.
In other words, they don’t see the big picture.
Forced perspective and data analysis
Whitney Wolfe Herd is an American entrepreneur…
Reported to be the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire.
And good luck to her!
But the reason why I mention her name is because she said something which is bang-on-the-money with regards to this subject.
I quote…
“Life is about perspective and how you look at something… ultimately, you have to zoom out”.
Because I spend a lot of my time studying numbers, figures, statistics… data, in one form or another. Anything and everything to do with a potential, or actual, source of profitable winning bets.
And how I process that, or at least how I try to assess the information before me, is to gather as much of it as I possibly can.
You really can’t have too much of the stuff!
Point being…
All too often in my dealings with people in and around this industry over the past 30-plus years, have I encountered situations where the conclusion reached is based on a very small amount of data.
A limited, forced perspective, you might say.
Frequently I will have would-be members, or actual subscribers, taking the view that “this service is great” or “that service is rubbish”… but base their argument on a handful of results. A week or two, a month at best.
I then send them figures which covers YEARS OF SUCCESSFUL BETTING…
And in some cases THOUSANDS OF BETS…
Zooming out as Ms. Herd would have us do.
Now I fully appreciate that if any service encounters a poor run, there is a natural reaction (among some, not all – let me stress) to believe it to be fundamentally flawed.
“This service is useless… look at last week’s bets”
This sort of thing.
But as I always say in reply, you cannot focus on just a small sample of data. Certainly not when a much larger set of figures is readily at hand.
If a service has made money over the past few years, is it right/fair to judge its output on the past 2 or 3 weeks? Even the last 2 or 3 months.
You have to zoom out.
A good data analyst will study the “whole” and not the “part”.
Otherwise, you will end up with a forced perspective of your own.
Your own giant golf ball, if you will!
OPINION: To use another quote, this time by the US businessman, Al Neuharth – “the difference between a mountain and a molehill is your perspective”. And I firmly believe in looking at data from the best possible perspective, which usually means with a wide angle lens! You have to study all the figures at hand, otherwise your conclusion, judgment, and ultimate decision, may not be the right one.
