Asides

Correlation is not causation

Prasad AjinkyaLeave a comment

Porn companies know their audience well. So they were braced when, on Friday 3rd March 2017, their traffic began to nosedive. That weekend, Nintendo released its new Switch console, a highly-anticipated event in the gaming world. Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide had pre-ordered the Switch to arrive that day, and by the end of…

via A major porn site’s traffic sank the weekend Nintendo released its new console — Quartz

This article, the infographic it talks about and the implied causation is precisely why people need to understand and practice better data interpretation.

I’d assume that such a trend happens when any new retail brand launch happens. It’s not just Nintendo who would cause such ripples, but any other retail brand.

Owning a Car or taking an Uber

Prasad AjinkyaLeave a comment

Travis Kalanick, founder and CEO of Uber, built his cab-hailing startup with one ambitious goal: to stop people from buying cars. And while his ultimate goal could well be achieved globally, India would remain an exception. New research by Swiss investment bank UBS says that ride-on-demand (RoD) apps won’t stop Indians from buying their own…

via The simple reason why Uber and Ola can’t deter Indians from owning cars — Quartz

The investment bank UBS research might be saying that Indians still want a car, however, I still prefer taking an Uber ride over driving. Here’s why –

  • I can sit and read while the car is happily en route to my destination. Taking calls and thinking through things is a breeze.
  • Labor as well as Time & Material are saved
  • Dependency on cash is more or less removed. After demonetization, I have reduced my cash dependency completely, and I am loving it.
  • Whereas, its great to have a car and a driver handy to do on random jaunts like drop the kids to school, go for shopping, et al … however, an on the spot Uber is almost as good

Indians would treat the car as a status symbol, perhaps in the interiors they still do – however, with parking space coming at a premium (last I checked, a parking space in Nariman point as expensive as a 15 Lakh INR) taking an Uber is just more convenient.