Michael Graham Richard has a great post about survivor bias of frontier log cabins - essentially all the ones you see are well made because they were well made:
I have to chuckle whenever I read yet another description of American frontier log cabins as having been well crafted or sturdily or beautifully built. The much more likely [...]
Archive for February, 2009
Survivor Bias in Log Cabins
Posted in biases, statistics on February 28, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Spolsky on Survivor Bias
Posted in biases, statistics on February 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Joel Spolsky (of Joel on Software fame) has a column “How Hard could it be? Startup Static” about survivor bias when trying to emulate successful companies:
The problem is that trying to copy one company’s model is a fool’s errand. It’s hard to figure out which part of the Starbucks formula made the business a smash [...]
More Literal Survivor Bias from Car Talk Puzzler
Posted in biases, statistics on February 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Car Talk recently had a puzzler that involved another example of (literal) survivor bias:
It’s World War II, an RAF airfield north of London. A dimly lit Quonset hut filled with air crews just returned from bombing runs over Germany.
The meeting opens with the chaplain leading the men in prayer for their lost comrades. He is [...]
