A Brief Aside

I’m currently reading The Victory Lab, a book about the (mostly modern) history of using data analytics, behavioural psychology, and field experiments in political campaigning.  That may not sound very interesting to you.  But I came across one particular quote that I thought was rather amusing in light of the way that discussions about using advanced statistics in hockey often turn out:

“Those smart guys speak that smart language.  They collect smart theories to properly arrange their smart facts.  Then they publish smart papers to make sure people know they are real smart,” says Tom Lindenfeld, a former Democratic National Committee campaign director and one of the party’s leading field tacticians.  “The rest of us just know what works.”