Data, Data, Everywhere, but Not a Thought to Think.
We live in a data-rich, analysis-poor world.
What do I mean by that?
TEDtalk-type folks tell us we create more data every moment than we know what to do with, that the data created in just the last 10 years overwhelms the data generated in the previous millennia of human existence.
The goal of thinking people, therefore, is not data-creation or even data-collection, but rather data-analysis. How do we separate the signal from the noise? How do we discover and connect disparate pieces of data to form a coherent narrative? We have all this information, but what does it all mean?
Information, and revenue, collected by Bankers-Anonymous.com
You probably don’t know this already, so let me blow the lid off of a rich vein of data currently being collected by Bankers Anonymous, largely under the radar.
For your convenience, I’ve linked all my book reviews – positive and negative – to pages where you can buy those books on Amazon.com.
At the same time, when you do buy something from Amazon.com after clicking through Bankers-Anonymous, I receive a small percentage of the sales revenue as an advertising affiliate of Amazon.com.
In the past year Bankers Anonymous readers have purchased 160 items with a total retail value of $2,403.72. As a result, in the past year of running Bankers Anonymous, I have earned $145.28 from referral fees.[1]
This information is not meant as disclosure – although you might as well know – and not even to encourage you to buy things on Amazon.com via Bankers Anonymous as a way of showing your appreciation for my attempts to amuse and inform – although you might as well do that too.
Instead, this means that after a year of tracking Bankers Anonymous readers’ purchases online, I can now definitively describe the profile of a B$A reader.
The Bankers Anonymous reader profile, based on your purchases
Based on my analysis of the rich vein of Amazon data, I’ll tell you what kind of person you are: Bald and nerdy.
Only one reader made a beauty product purchase in the past year. That beauty need? Baldness.
Amazon data shows a B$A reader purchased a 3-month supply of easy-to-use foam Rogaine for Men, Hair Regrowth Treatment, 5% Minoxidil Topical Aerosol.
So with that one purchase – 100% of the beauty purchases over the past year – I can definitively say that baldness is the silent aesthetic tragedy that stalks Bankers-Anonymous readers.
How do I deduce the nerdy part?
By far the biggest set of purchases made by readers are finance books, including a book on math for science and business that I reviewed last month.
The nerdiness doesn’t end there but is amplified by other purchases, such as one for doing magic tricks with math, interpreting financial statements, and how to do Jiu-Jitsu. Seriously, a book on Jiu-Jitsu?
[2] Are you getting the picture here?[3]
But that’s not the final set of data; the sartorial choices of Bankers Anonymous readers seals the deal.
One reader bought a pair of men’s Dockers, flat front pant. Another reader (maybe the same one?) purchased Calvin Klein 3-Pack Boxer Briefs. Most importantly, I’ve collected referral fees for three separate purchases of Gold Toe Men’s Canterbury Over the Calf Dress Sock, Navy, 3-Pack, Sock size 10-13
It turns out my Bankers Anonymous readers are exactly like me, but somehow out there in the world. I can’t express how comforting this is.
Anyway, here’s my promise to you, the Amazon.com-purchasing readers of Bankers Anonymous. If you keep clicking through and buying stuff to generate the data, I will continue to analyze the data and reflect back who you are, exactly, in the months and years to come.[4]
[1] Yeah, that’s right ladies, $145.28 – but sorry, I’m married. And fellas, don’t hate on me because I stack mad chips. You don’t think this Hyundai pays for itself do you?
[2] I don’t know where to begin. But first of all, in The Matrix, Neo learns Kung Fu, first.
[3] Upon seeing that particular data point I couldn’t shake the image of John Cusack in Better Off Dead, meeting his in-laws. “Kick-boxing? It’s a new sport, but it’s got a great future.”
[4] I was slightly disappointed to find no purchases of the Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer
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