Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
7
Spotting Differences
Sports commentators like to classify a select few athletes as super-
stars or as part of an elite group, while the rest are designated aver-
age or role players. These classifications usually aren't so much from
sports statistics as they are from watching a lot of games. It's the
know-it-when-I-see-it mentality. There's nothing wrong with this.
The commentators (usually) know what they're talking about and are
always considering the context of the numbers. It always makes me
happy when a group of sports analysts look at performance metrics,
and almost without fail someone will say, “You can't just look at the
numbers. It's the intangibles that make so and so great.” That's statis-
tics right there.
Obviously this doesn't apply to just sports. Maybe you want to find the
best restaurants in an area or identify loyal customers. Rather than
categorizing units, you could look for someone or something that
stands out from the rest. This chapter looks at how to spot groups
within a population and across multiple criteria, and spot the outliers
using common sense.
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