Our world is plastered with statistics. Some good. Some bad. But all, relative, subjective, and never quite capturing the whole picture.
That’s a statistic though.
What we want is that bittersweet spot between the alphabet and the number system, between a statistic and the reality of it all. (The reality being that one can never simplify their lives down to fulfill one statistic.) What we want is trends.
Discovering trends creates a yin-yang vibe to creativity. Fifty percent of your mind thinks, “hey, similar ideas to this have worked in the past,” or “these numbers look offly familiar to the numbers in 1980, 1964, and 1952.” The other 50 percent of your mind is asking “what does this mean?”
You have a field covered with geese. The geese then take flight and you have a flock. The flock flies in a V formation, and now you have meaning.
Statistics alone make you think of all the goose poop on the ground. Put the statistics together and give them a kick, and you have a trend – something that works consistently and collectively. Then it is to each his own to derive meaning from it.
The meaning you come up with is what becomes invaluable to your readers and listeners.
Note though, that detailing the meaning alone in a book though, is pointless.
There’s a famous philosopher called Kierkegaard. He wrote an insanely long volume about the existence of God. In the end, he notes that all of what you have read is pointless, that nothing of it matters, but the journey was an important one for you to take to make that realization. This is the result of only writing about meaning. It’s a journey, yes, and maybe entertaining, but in the end, pointless.
It is the statistics and the trends that you put before the meaning which induce action. Without them there are no stepping-stones, only preaching to an audience who has no reason to believe you are credible enough to be preaching. Meaning alone is simply interesting.
Stay Positive & Use Statistics and Trends. Don’t Pull A Kierkegaard.
Garth E. Beyer
