Day 216: Lost in Meaningless Data

2026-09-10Hello!I had an incoherent rant to do with statistics and over-optimization, but I realized no one but myself would actually give a crap. Also, I'm not going to become one of those self-help gurus who think they have the answer to life's common problems.Instead, I'd like to talk about the many books on my desk. I want to read them all! Hell, I applied for a new library card on a whim. It was denied, but still!One of the things I'm proud of on this website is how little analytics data I track. I used to track a lot more, but over time, controls have been turned off. More often than not, I find myself forgetting to log in to the databases and dashboards.A tool that I can't bring myself to disable is Google Alerts. I find them so useful to keep a pulse on my hobbies and interests online. Google Alerts can send a recurring email or an RSS update when it detects a new webpage published with a certain keyword I'm interested in.For example, I track my local region's news and…