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Highlights

Though the result of the coin toss would clearly affect the outcome of the game, there isn’t much practical difference between which coin they choose to flip (View Highlight)

Flipping the favored coin over the course of the entire season, however, can make a big difference (View Highlight)

As Amazon distinguished scientist Garrett van Ryzin put it, “when a project we work on succeeds, we don’t need statistics to know it. (View Highlight)

Data helps on the edges. It give us a slightly more promising coin when it’s fourth and three on your opponent’s 35-yard line; when you have to choose between recommending The Waterboy or Billy Madison; when you’re deciding between taking the Lincoln Tunnel or the Holland Tunnel; and when you’re excited about an investment but have a couple lingering concerns. That’s the entire point, in most cases—for data to make visible the small differences we can’t see on our own.⁵ (View Highlight)

Instead of analyzing how we can improve infrequent, high-leverage decisions, we should try to figure out how we can make the frequent, low-leverage onesbetter.Be like a high-frequency trader, chasing small bits of mechanical alpha in every trade (View Highlight)

look exclusively for places where you can create a durable advantage through frequent, small—and in the aggregate, predictable—bets that you’ve tilted in your favor. (View Highlight)

Even small improvements are hard to find. (View Highlight)

It’s possible, though, to invert the problem. Rather than trying to make frequent decisions better, we probably should try to make good decisions more frequent. Don’t use data to get good at something we do a lot; use data to figure out what we’re good at, and then do it more often. Make data a StrengthsFinder©. (View Highlight)

you’ll never create a durable advantage by constantly betting the house. Those advantages come from the boring compounding of small biases. (View Highlight)

We can find the things we’re a little bit better at than most, figure out how to run that play over and over and over, and let them multiply in an eternal regular season. (View Highlight)