Data & Infographics: Crash Course Navigating Digital Information #8

[@chinhnk]

well, since I'm probably among the earliest and this comment probably has higher chance of being read, I'd like to say thanks to John and the Crash Course crew. Crash Course has been a major part of my information diet for the last 3 years. This newest course is a badly needed addition to the public awareness, especially nowadays. Even though being an IT professional, I was heavily involved in teaching debate and media literacy in my earlier years. This course so far has been much much more comprehensive than I had ever been able to deliver to my fellow students. Best wishes for all of you. From a Vietnamese in Finland.

[@nerdfighter2004]

+

[@jasminnyack1724]

When I worked for cosmetic brands, you'll get a lot of "9/10 women found their skin was better after this product" that would have a cross beside that, and in tiny tiny tiny letters (TINY) on the giant poster would be "36 women were tested" and when you look further into it -- all of them were either workers for the cosmetic brand, or loyal brand users who refuse to use any other brand. Also, 36 women is a tiny sample.

[@とちちとタウン]

、

[@mikenorman4001]

> Also, 36 women is a tiny sample. On the other hand, women are generally smaller than men.

[@Haze01Smash]

Enjoy your 36th thumbs up.

[@d4mdcykey]

Yet another excellent, thought-provoking, informative installment. This series has become one of my most anticipated playlists. Thanks again for the important work your channel does for us all.

[@coralee5628]

As a graphic designer, this episode is going to help me be much more aware of potentially misleading messages in the infographics I create. I wish that this topic had been present in the (albeit basic) infographics training I received - especially considering how much can apparently be covered in 13 minutes! Thank you for another great episode.

[@tophers3756]

Learning to interpret data should be required in public schools, especially in the digital age. It needs to go hand-in-hand with teaching critical thinking. Unfortunately, often in the US critical thinking isn't just ignored, but viewed with hostility.

[@Justanotherconsumer]

This isn’t even hyperbole. It was an official stated goal of the Texas GOP. They were concerned about undermining parental authority.

[@chillsahoy2640]

I couldn't agree more. I was lucky to enrol in a science degree with some lectures dedicated specifically to learning how to distinguish good quality data from poor quality data when the visualizations seemed fine at first glance. After seeing just how much graphs and demographics can mislead an audience, I was stunned that this essential information was locked behind a university degree that most people won't see instead of being part of the basic curriculum for all children. It's far too easy for ill-intentioned people to mislead you if you don't know how to properly analyze the data they give you.

[@somethingelse9228]

This same thing happens in India too

[@cholten99]

As soon as John said "9 out of 10 crash course employees" I immediately yelled "STAN!"

[@tranbach9431]

same

[@mustardsfire22]

If I learn anything from this CC, it's *LATERAL READING*

[@jonathanowo7584]

alternatively *LATERAL VIEWING*

[@casebeth]

@@jonathanowo7584 YAS

[@curiousfirely]

"Data in the Wild"!! I'm in love with this phrase.

[@RangerRuby]

Oh man! I have a big research paper coming up and I simply can't wait to be able to make an awesome paper with all of these tips and tricks to find good, reliable information!

[@red__guy]

Good luck mate, beautiful data visualization is key to Wow to readers. Use a color wheel for matching and contrasting colors.

[@timmcdaniel6193]

6:39 "Forget about snail slime. Have I told you about Squarespace?" You evil man! I was just starting to take a drink of water!

[@hansolo762]

This is such an important video. Many people nowadays try to mask their racist and outdated ideas with "statistics" and many people believe them because "statistics" great to to see this video educating on this topic and explaining what statistics are and how to check if they are reliable etc.

[@mikeg9b]

10:28 "The size of a filled in or inked area should be proportional to the data value it represents." The way I interpret that is that a 1% movement in the graph should represent a 1% movement in the data. How do you determine what 100% is? Should all temperature graphs start at 0 Kelvin? Should all graphs representing percentages range from 0% to 100% even when it is completely implausible that the exreme values could ever be present in the data? Instead, I would be inclined to consider only the plausible range of values (so, probably not including 0 Kelvin) -- and plausible is a judgement call.

[@akivaweil5066]

This is amazing. I love how ridiculously unbiased this is.

[@ersanseer3078]

My grandpa always said to question authority with a healthy dose of skepticism. He was one cool dude.

[@ProfessorSyndicateFranklai]

"There are only three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics" - Mark Twain (Yes I know he probably never said that.)

[@kpmack0914]

It was Benjamin Disraeli.

[@timmcdaniel6193]

About the intro (0:03 - 0:36): STAN IS THE MAN! All praise Stan! (And I loled at "I've seen the comments. That can't be true.")

[@matthewjames7513]

Love this! Would really appreciate an episode where you outline all the best banks of reliable accurate data we can find, rather than show us how we can navigate through potentially bad sources.

[@BradleyKoch]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for saying that data can be qualitative!

[@mikematsuri5]

Speaking of bad visualizations, the world map at 01:26 is missing Japan.

[@Antenox]

The worst thing about this series is that the people who need to watch this the most are the ones who want to watch this the least.

[@jlupus8804]

Please site the statistics source for these claims

[@TunkPotterSV]

Best and much needed Crash Course series ever! Thanks John Green!

[@eliavrad2845]

11:36 source? That's a leap I'd be scared to take even if the relevant data correlated.

[@burrito9466]

As a graduate researcher, I can attest to this. :3

[@butternutsquash6984]

I can hardly wait for the whole series to be available as a playlist so I can send it to all the college educated adults who believe the junk they see online.

[@nathanbarnard7896]

The underlying power of statistics is that they allow us to make quantitative predictions and then test very precisely how good those predictions were and how confident we are about that and this is often much more precise than when describe something qualitatively.

[@3linedHeart]

Just for the record, I love crash course and think that you provide correct information on many beneficial and educational topics. :)

[@davidgalatzer-levy2963]

I would highly recommend the classic "How to Lie with Statistics" by Darrell Huff to anyone interested in a better understanding of this topic

[@franticranter]

I have a feeling you guys have a crush on lateral reading. You should ask it out

[@almarma]

I'm glad to see this topic all over the internet, thank you. The problem we have is that big companies and politicians have psychologists working for them. Yes, psychologists working for marketing agencies who are specialist in manipulation. It's quite hard to fight against them, but videos like this can help. I don't know how those people can sleep knowing they are lying

[@darrenkrivit6854]

I was checking out the polls during the last election and was surprised to see in small print at the bottom of the polls the actual number of people polled. It was always below 200, and this was supposed to reflect the entire country! Yikes, really changed how I look at polls

[@Inoka01]

Can't wait for Crash Course: Linear Regression!

[@alan5986]

This series is excellent. This really should be taught in schools (and also to a lot of adults on my facebook!) Hats off to the animation/production team too, these vids look great.

[@ihatoon014]

This is one of those videos on which I press the like button before watching them.

[@Haze01Smash]

You mention a fair number of interesting or entertaining websites in this video. I wish the video description contained links to these sites.

[@brianb.6356]

Relevant to this video: although it's quite old, the book How to Lie With Statistics is a great book about this topic. (It was written in the 1950s, though, so be aware you ought to multiply any dollar amount by about 10 to get its value in 2019 dollars.)

[@StephanieFink515]

Excellent. Thank you, CrashCourse!

[@johangaray7326]

Dear crash course thank you for helping me pass my science tests because of your videos I get to understand faster and I don’t have trouble in class

[@angelakim2369]

Wow! I’m liking the new pace of speech:) yes!

[@LuinTathren]

In my early 20s, I was a data manager on two NH-funded studies. It opened my eyes to how we can be manipulated and how we manipulate others. I was never able to see data presented in ads or articles or memes the same way ever again. This should be taught in high schools.

[@AlSavant]

Don't know where you live, but this has been taught in schools in my country for decades. It's not obscure knowledge, it's the first thing they teach you in statistics.

[@LuinTathren]

@@AlSavant They teach it in universities, but they do not teach it in high schools (to my knowledge). I live in the United States. Granted, it's been over 20 years since I was in high school so maybe they do teach it. Where are you from?

[@AlSavant]

@@LuinTathren I live in Greece and I distinctly remember learning about this in school almost 30 years ago. I can't remember if it was late elementary classes or early high-school classes. Definitely not in University, I studied Electrical Engineering, nothing to do with statistics. It was definitely in school. Maybe it's not part of the US curriculum? I know US education lacks in some aspects compared to that of other countries'.

[@LuinTathren]

@@AlSavant Maybe you don't realize this, but your comments sound pretty condescending. I'm glad your country has a good educational system, but that's no reason to speak negatively about mine. Belittling each other is not how we're going to solve problems.

[@AlSavant]

@@LuinTathren I wasn't speaking negatively, I was just repeating information I have heard multiple times, and most of them being from actual US politicians and academics, across the political spectrum. USA ranks pretty low in educational standards compared to other first world countries (even mine, that barely counts as 1st world given our recent financial issues). If the information I have is incorrect, I'd be glad to get corrected, but as long as we're discussing hurt feelings and not the actual information I have, we won't have a productive discourse.

[@gokk99]

I love you for making this series

[@GrubbyZebra]

Loving this series, however, "data" is plural, so shouldn't it be "these data" and "data are"?

[@connorvonwinckelmann2013]

Data comes from the Latin word datum, whose plural would then be data. So, in a sense, yes. Data is considered by many to be a plural and, therefore, some argue that determiners and verbs should be inflected to agree with data. However, this is simply a matter of style and preference. English is *not* Latin - we do not speak a language where plurals are formed with an -a. Data is officially an English word (as is datum), and so it is subject to English's rules, not those of Latin. Under English's rules, we can say data is a mass noun - that is, a noun that can't be counted and is therefore always singular. Take money, for instance. One cannot have two monies, and one cannot say "the monies are dirty." It just doesn't work. It's very unnatural to me, a native English speaker, to say "two data." Ultimately, then, there are arguments for both sides: some consider it a mass noun, and others consider it a plural form of datum (similar to how bacteria is the plural of bacterium). While I agree that data should be considered a plural, I don't believe it truly matters. As long as the writer stays consistent and it doesn't impede comprehension, I'm not particularly bothered by it, just how I'm not particularly bothered by how you chose to put the question mark outside of the quotation marks. Edit: today I learned putting in two hyphens makes a strikethrough.

[@GrubbyZebra]

@@connorvonwinckelmann2013 Regarding the question mark: unless the question mark is part of the quote, it is properly placed outside the quotation. Regarding data: even in English it is considered the plural of datum. Its use as a singular mass noun is akin to using literally to mean figuratively; it may be accepted by the general public (and is similarly a relatively recent phenomenon), but it remains anathema to those with technical or scientific backgrounds.

[@deyesed]

Differing conventions regarding collective nouns between English dialects.

[@misse1228]

@@GrubbyZebraThere isn't one correct answer regarding the use of "data" as a non-count noun or as a plural noun. It depends on how you argue it. The short answer is: it doesn't matter. --a linguist

[@brid101286]

Are there links to the info graphics mentioned?

[@caryrodda]

100 percent of me enjoys this series.

[@iamjustaguy3379]

Not ur grades

[@megamangos7408]

"In Bad Faith" is a term that needs to trend.

[@cencfs]

5:58 Crash course confirmed to be fellow 9-year olds. They did their part.

[@dropmelon]

Rikucfs He then proceeds to say to not trust research made by a 9 year old :p

[@yaumelepire6310]

11:10 That isn’t abstract art?

[@mahaabdulhadi1884]

Abstract art? It looks like one of the Microsoft Paint images I made back in the days...

[@unleashingpotential-psycho9433]

Love this channel 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@sccrash420]

This is an excellent, and needed, addition to all of the Crash Course modules. I wonder if these guys ever saw the Penn & Teller BS show....

[@211-w3s]

Have you guys ever considered providing practice quizzes based on the material you cover?

[@gabrielpope1931]

1:25 New Zealand is a victim of geographical amnesia (or space saving) once again

[@1TW1-m5i]

New Zealand doesn't exist

[@joostvanrens]

"She does watch a lot of tennis" Is there data on this?

[@abhaysharrma5309]

Probably there is a common sense in it or perhaps it also includes the time she plays tennis which in sense is kind of watching it with a different frame of reference.

[@joostvanrens]

@@abhaysharrma5309 sure, but it would be difficult to deduce differences in penalties between men and women from playing tennis.

[@joannemarkov]

Awesome, again!

[@ianprado1488]

Alex Jones sheds a tear for every video in this series

[@lhfirex]

Based upon last week's video, I think this is a deepfake of John Green.

[@oldrabbit8290]

while i agree that seeing the entire scale of the chart is important, it could be misleading, too. Sometime there is a line in your progress that, once you cross, it will be significantly harder to improve. Like, Germany economy grew 1,5% in 2018, while Vietnam - a middle lower income, developing country - grew 7,08% in the same year. If you put that in a "fair" chart, Germany will seem to be outperformed by Vietnam, while we all know it's the opposite. Another example can be found in videogame: You could easily go from level 1 to level 10 in the matter of days, but level 80 to 81 will require months of grinding. It's doesn't mean that level 80 player are worse than a newbie; he just have to deal with a much higher requirement to advance, espescially when compare with new players.

[@oldrabbit8290]

Now consider CC's example about US graduation rate. If the graduation rate of about 20 years before that fluctuate in a range of, let say, 72-76%, then the 82% at the end is a BIG deal. And while the White House's graph may not be perfect, the "fair" graph will be a huge disservice to that massive achievement. Of course, this's just an example. The real rate could be like this, a it could be a downward trend from a 90% mark - i don't know and, quite frankly, don't care.

[@yousufazad6914]

best segway to ad ever

[@ChessMasteryOfficial]

*Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive. ^^*

[@lhfirex]

Even if it's a vat of toxic waste? Or a hungry grizzly bear?

[@youssefhassanein3888]

I hope that he talks about search engines next.

[@Pecisk]

World going to kitter? No worries, just watch John and friends at CrashCourse for your daily dosage of common sense. This course in particular is so on topic. Big thanks!

[@magicarpiutrwq3377]

This reminds me of one of my favorite statistics. Did you know that about 73% of statistics are made up on the spot?

[@DPGrupa]

About data visualization manipulation on the graduation rate statistics at 9:50. Showing scale from 0% to 100% might not be the most “correct” way either. Consider a counterfactual example: in 2009 it climbs from 80% to 90%, but in 2010 it climbs from 90% to 100%. In the 0%-100% scale it would look like a similar climb, but it would be much much more difficult to get from 90 to 100 percent than from 80 to 90 percent. I have no idea how to present such date correctly. Logarithmic scale is not good either.

[@iceflame12]

You remind me of Daniel Jackson/Michael Shanks from SG-1 back in the day. I love your series.. but I've noticed a change in you recently. Hope all is well with you man. take care

[@MKPiatkowski]

I was wondering why I have been so drawn to John. I was a huge Daniel Jackson gal. Thanks for solving my mystery!

[@geoffreywinn4031]

Educational!

[@Larry21924]

I'm struck by the original concepts in this content. A similar book I read inspired new directions in my life. "The Art of Meaningful Relationships in the 21st Century" by Leo Flint

[@azertyQ]

Thought Slime is the only Slime I'll ever need

[@ductuslupus87]

NASA was around in the 1800's?

[@rhubarbjin]

The British Museum wasn't around in 3000 BC, but they can still publish archeological findings about ancient Egypt.

[@zactownsend1099]

9 year olds rise up!

[@WiseWik]

Scrolled way too long for this

[@TomazSuller]

How do I determine a source is reliable? I understand that all of these techniques are very important in the wilderness of the internet, especially social media, and should be used, but I just can't afford the time it takes to evaluate every single news article I read from a place I trust

[@shaktiprasannachand4319]

Please talk about quora

[@eve36368]

Personally, I'd like more charts that were like 1 in x are blank. Like for the Obama chart it'd go from 1 in 4 not graduating high school to 1 in 5.xx. It's basically a "race to the nines" style of framing the statistics.

[@stephaniehight2771]

I just wanted to thank you for using the Mark Twain quote. I would have been disappointed if you had left it out.

[@Impactiveshop]

@5:50 there was a reference to pewdipie fans, pewdiepie is a largre youtuber with the hight 173cm, he has been getting attacked by T-series and wall street journal but he has a 9 year old army

[@Impactiveshop]

He also has the most reliable news station hosted by gloria bourgor

[@joshbobst1629]

Wow, Glenn Greenwald and Nate Silver in a fight? How did I miss that?

[@MakeMeThinkAgain]

Statistics are often used to knock down straw-men. But you have to understand straw-men to know if that's happening.

[@nosferat_factory]

Please don use shirts with small grid od stripes pattern when doing videos :)

[@PkmnBreeder]

I the last Chilean elections, the candidate that won used many charts purposely made to mislead, but people only noticed when they made a bar chart were the smaller data set was the longer bar, so people began retrospectively question his data. He still won though.

[@TheResidentPsycho]

So the scheduling of publishing is around 6AM my time on wednesdays

[@sincyprine3487]

*our attention span has waned* (citation needed)

[@Bastispark]

So the source of your Glasses-Dealer in which he recommended you these glasses wasn't correct but you didn't check... nice tutor

[@ultimateo621]

9 year olds unite! Pew News Research center

[@geminibodyshop71]

first time im in first wooo hooo great video

[@cavemanic9558]

You second!

[@geminibodyshop71]

ha ha 2 of us @@cavemanic9558

[@peace299]

' Serval minute of "Waning attention" ' ? Oh no man I heard you all ears. I ALWAYS do

[@BlueyMcPhluey]

it's okay Glenn Greenwald, I still love you

[@travellogram-bonvoyage71]

please make video on HINDUISM

[@Derkiboi]

dammm they even drew the actual posts on R/dataisugly I saw some recent from yesterday in the video

[@ransom4734]

I am watching this Lil pump University and wondering how ignorant people have so good self-esteem.

[@lhsalmond]

We will only accept your apology to 9 year olds in the form of subscribes to Pewdiepie

[@JinzoTK]

9 Year Olds, Pew Research Centre. BROFIST!

[@jeffthegangster6065]

Surfing in the web totutu

[@wafflebattery9439]

I think mr Miller gave us the wrong video

[@ireallydontlikewater]

this is awesome i feel like Jesus being smart.

[@Someone-cr8cj]

Wait that story with the 9 year old actually happened?

[@joostvanrens]

Don't know; source unreliable.

[@antivanti]

Wait. 9 year olds? Pew Research?

[@김준성-h1f]

DFTBA

[@AnnoyingOnion]

What do you mean Ninnnnnnnnnnnnne years old! And why is Pewds vids are in the suggested videos?

[@acg4879]

MarkTwainMarkTwainMarkTwain....yeeessssssss

[@FlesHBoX]

Crash Course talking down on 9 year olds... what does this mean for pewds v t-series?

[@VitruvianSasquatch]

Just saying, if you're hoping to educate viewers from across the political sphere, picking contentious examples is likely not the best way to do it. Maybe teach the techniques and let them come to conclusions by themselves? More convincing that way.

[@MoriahCarry]

My whole class hates this channel lol

[@mahaabdulhadi1884]

Then I bet you’re all 9 year olds.

[@MoriahCarry]

Nah, they act like them tho

[@funkyflames7430]

Talks about nine year olds, than talks about pew research. Is John hinting that he supports pewdiepie? Could be a coincidence.

[@JamesTownsendJian]

We need a badly scaled graph to support this theory that he secretly supports Pewdiepie!