STORY TELLING WITH STATISTICS

 

As fascinating as numbers are to some people, they appear as nightmares to many . Before a mathematics or statistics exam or before presenting something with statistical analysis we often become anxious which makes it all messed up for us, messing all our hard work and preparations.

But are numbers really that scary? Is statistics that scary? Or is statistics just scary numbers?

Let me tell you what, statistics is not just numbers but ‘story telling numbers.’ This is the magical power that statistics possess. Numbers by themselves are just numbers that we have already learnt in our prep days, but statistics provides voice to those numbers so that they can tell their own stories.

  We are all well acquainted with the story that we often make fun of while exaggerating them a bit- Our fathers' famous tale about how they have climbed mountains, swam across oceans, walked through deserts to reach their schools. As over overexaggerated those stories are they are something we remember and love. Stories are something we all love to listen and leave a lasting effect on our mind.

Most of the stories begin with ‘once upon a time’, like in those fairy tales, or ‘in our times’, like in our fathers’ stories. That is, they all begin with past, like history. As we may narrate our journey during the pandemic to the next generation. But stories often lose its authenticity during narration. People often exaggerate those experiences. But stories told using statistical data would be more authentic on an average than the normal narrative ones.

But what to do with historical data, how can one connect with that. I mean you know, your father travelled miles to get education or worked very hard in his life. For that you might respect and value him but what is the use of that information?

The information is useful when we can relate it with present scenario. The second step of statistical analysis. Your father worked hard for education or earning money, which enabled him to make your life better than his, or to make a better living for himself. 

And from there comes the third step- the moral of the story or the takeaway, that is you should also work hard and educate yourself if you wish for a better future.

      Now, let’s tell a similar story with statistics-

First phase- A so and so jewelry company have faced huge demand during Diwali last few years (say,500-600 more customers than usual days)  but due to less production, their supply couldn’t meet the demand.

Second phase- The Diwali is knocking at the door and there is the same number of craftsmen and supply amount as last year.

Third phase-  Analyzing the past years' trend, the company should employ more craftsmen and increase the production( for additional around 500-600 customers) and be prepared for the peak season.

This is  a story with statistics using the same three phases.1st phase of story telling with statistics deals with statistical analysis of past data. 2nd phase depends on statistical analysis with present data and the third phase is a cumulation of 1st phase, 2nd phase and experience.

Story books without pictures seem quite boring so here comes the role of data visualization. It makes stories interesting, understandable and leave a lasting effect just like the pictures in children story books does.

The below is a graph showing sale of a certain product over years and the table shows the month that the corresponding number denotes. Can you point out before which month the seller needs to increase his production? Yes? Then can you tell a story with it to your supplier of raw materials to let them know what needs to be done? I hope yes.

                                          Note: the graph has been drawn from real sales dataset 

                                        obtained from Kaggle.

 I hope now we shall all be able to enjoy our story time with statistics without having the urge to run away. Statistics is not our enemy but friend which helps us to analyze things rationally, prove our points to others, offer valuable suggestions and check the authenticity of others’ claim just through story telling. Only showing data could be boring and won't really hold the attention of people for long but add a story to it and see the change.

-Jags