Last week's "This American Life" show was called "Numbers". It was all about applying numbers and statistics to things that should never be reduced to numbers.
Two of the best segments were Act 2: Paint by Numbers and Act 4: The Salesman.
In act two, a couple of guys surveyed people in a number of countries to find out what they like most to see in a painting. And then they set about painting the most appealing painting and the least appealing painting for each country - statistically speaking.
The paintings are found here. If you root around in their site, you will probably find more info on the how's and why's of their survey and its results.
Even funnier, the same guys applied their approach to music and came up with the world's Most Wanted Song (a musical work that will be unavoidably and uncontrollably “liked” by 72 ± 12% of listeners) and the world's Least Wanted Song (fewer than 200 individuals of the world’s total population will enjoy this).
You can actually find the songs on ITunes of you are so inclined . . .
In Act 4: The Salesman, a corporate branding executive applies the principles of branding to his own marriage and sets out to market himself to his wife. The results are actually quite touching.
The show is worth a listen though I didn't much care for the first and last segment (Acts 1 and 5).
1 comment:
Segment four was quite good. A numbers guy way get at the important issues.
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