{"id":35647,"date":"2024-02-08T17:50:57","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T01:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=35647"},"modified":"2024-02-08T17:50:57","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T01:50:57","slug":"chewed-on-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/chewed-on-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Chewed-On Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

We got a puppy this week.\u00a0 A routine trip to Walmart resulted in some potato chips, toothpaste, shampoo and a 9 week old Mini GoldenDoodle named Sullivan that we purchased from a nice lady in the parking lot.\u00a0 In light of reading <\/span>How to Make the World Add Up<\/span><\/i> by Tim Harford I decided to look at some statistics related to this impulse buy. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to Forbes the top lifestyle sacrifices made by dog owners include:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Meet Sullivan aka “Sully”<\/p><\/div>\n

39.29% lived on a tighter budget to afford their dogs\u2019 expenses.<\/span>
\n<\/span>13.96% moved from an apartment to a house so their dog would have a yard.<\/span>
\n<\/span>7.47% stayed at a job they disliked because it allowed them to work remotely or had a dog-friendly office.<\/span>
\n<\/span>6.78% broke up with a significant other who didn\u2019t like their dog.<\/span>
\n<\/span>5.25% took a pay cut or accepted a position with fewer benefits to work remotely or have access to a dog-friendly office.<\/span>
\n<\/span>4.57% left a job they liked because another company let them work from home or had a dog-friendly office.<\/span>
\n<\/span>36% of dog owners reported that they would spend $4,000 or more out-of-pocket on life-saving medical care for their dogs. [1]<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally: 100% increase in damaged furniture, shoes, socks, and anything else within reach. Turns out puppies experience the world through their mouth.\u00a0 And boy is this little guy curious!<\/span><\/p>\n

This book was a definite change of pace compared to the last couple.\u00a0 Not nearly as complex.\u00a0 While Harford outlines ten rules for thinking differently about numbers, I think his 11th rule he terms “The Golden Rule” which is really the melody playing throughout the whole book, “Be Curious.”\u00a0 For me that’s the lesson.\u00a0 Be curious and ask questions.\u00a0 When you first encounter a claim backed by a number: Be curious about your feelings. Be curious about your personal experience. Be curious about the numbers and what’s really being counted.\u00a0 Be curious about the number and its context.\u00a0 Be curious about the back story.\u00a0 Be curious about missing data. Be curious about the algorithm that produced the numbers. Be curious about the statistical bedrock. Be curious about the graphs. Be curious about your own bias assimilation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I sense a consistent lesson from both Harford and Sully: Be Curious.\u00a0 Chew on every number!\u00a0 We need to go deeper not only with the statistics but our interaction with the statistics.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I find this lesson both challenging and timely.\u00a0 Challenging in that it isn’t quick.\u00a0 It can take time to process and deep dive statistics in the way Harford recommends.\u00a0 Chewing on the numbers may also be challenging because it can reveal what Harford refers to as “Motivated Reasoning” which occurs when someone’s judgment of the numbers is significantly swayed by their desire for a particular outcome to be true. [2] This is timely because as I have been researching my NPO I have fallen into this trap.\u00a0 My NPO looks at the correlation between “Rugged Individualism” and human flourishing vs. languishing. \u00a0 Recently I was reviewing numbers related to suicide rates, substance abuse, physical abuse, foster care and poverty.\u00a0 I found myself hoping to find a connection between “Rugged Individualism” and human languishing evidenced by the numbers.\u00a0 I realized my own tendency of biased assimilation. I wanted the data to support the connection.\u00a0 I found just how common this tendency can be.<\/span><\/p>\n

The challenge to self-evaluative curiosity reminded me of Camacho’s concept of “looking under the hood” of our life and leadership. [3]\u00a0 Curiosity allows me to chew on and explore my biases both in research and leadership, allowing for transformation and growth.\u00a0 In this way, curiosity is implicit to the transformative learning process which drives us to seek out new information, ask questions, face biases and engage with challenging concepts, especially those sometimes daunting threshold concepts. [4]<\/span><\/p>\n

Key takeaway: Be curious, be a puppy, chew on everything, ask questions.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Harford says, “If we want to make the world add up, we need to ask questions – open-minded, genuine questions. And once we start asking them, we may find it is delightfully difficult to stop.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Just to clarify.\u00a0 Although the percentages for puppy ownership may indicate it isn’t a good idea, it is 100% worth it.\u00a0 But then again I may be biased. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

____________________________________<\/p>\n

[1] Michelle Megna, “Pet Ownership Statistics 2024,” Last modified January, 24 2024, Accessed February 8, 2024 http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/advisor\/pet-insurance\/pet-ownership-statistics\/#:~:text=3%25%20of%20pet%20owners%20gave,deposits%20for%20apartments%20(5%25).<\/p>\n

[2] Harford, Tim, How To Make the World Add Up,<\/em> (London: The Bridge Street Press), 2021.<\/p>\n

[3] Camacho, Tom,\u00a0Mining For Gold,\u00a0<\/em>(London: Inter-Varsity Press), 48.<\/p>\n

[4] Meyer, J., & Land, R. Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge<\/em>,(Abington: Routledge), 2006.<\/p>\n

[5] Harford, How To Make the World Add Up, <\/em>294.<\/p>\n

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We got a puppy this week.\u00a0 A routine trip to Walmart resulted in some potato chips, toothpaste, shampoo and a 9 week old Mini GoldenDoodle named Sullivan that we purchased from a nice lady in the parking lot.\u00a0 In light of reading How to Make the World Add Up by Tim Harford I decided to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3048],"class_list":["post-35647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlpg03-harford","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35647"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35663,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35647\/revisions\/35663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}