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Tweak Culture questions post: Add uncertainty's effect on decisions
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yanirs committed May 21, 2024
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Expand Up @@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ To help you, this post discusses the questions from the Culture section of [my D

**Q7: Do leaders at the company explicitly seek truthful data, even when the truth may expose their mistakes?** As with Q4, this may be best probed by asking leaders for examples of cases where they uncovered data that proved them wrong. Startups that harbour a culture of hiding from bad news are best avoided by excellent data people. In my experience and based on countless stories by friends, avoidance of bad news and truthful data becomes more common as companies grow. Great startup leaders care about the success of their business and know that hiding from the truth isn't going to make it disappear.

**Q8: How is uncertainty quantified and communicated?** Common sources of uncertainty include sampling biases and missing or wrong data. Marketers are especially notorious for ignoring uncertainty for the sake of memorability (_["nine out of ten doctors agree..."](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NineOutOfTenDoctorsAgree)_). But ignoring uncertainty has long been a way of [getting data driven off a cliff](https://yanirseroussi.com/2016/08/21/seven-ways-to-be-data-driven-off-a-cliff/). This is at the core of why I recommend [the Calling Bullshit book and course](https://callingbullshit.org/) to [any aspiring data professional](https://yanirseroussi.com/2017/10/15/advice-for-aspiring-data-scientists-and-other-faqs/). Don't work with startups that exhibit bullshit failure modes and ignore uncertainty – unless you have the mandate to shape the data culture for the better.
**Q8: How is uncertainty quantified and communicated? How does it affect decisions?** Common sources of uncertainty include sampling biases and missing or wrong data. Marketers are especially notorious for ignoring uncertainty for the sake of memorability (_["nine out of ten doctors agree..."](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NineOutOfTenDoctorsAgree)_). But ignoring uncertainty has long been a way of [getting data driven off a cliff](https://yanirseroussi.com/2016/08/21/seven-ways-to-be-data-driven-off-a-cliff/). This is at the core of why I recommend [the Calling Bullshit book and course](https://callingbullshit.org/) to [any aspiring data professional](https://yanirseroussi.com/2017/10/15/advice-for-aspiring-data-scientists-and-other-faqs/). Don't work with startups that exhibit bullshit failure modes and ignore uncertainty – unless you have the mandate to shape the data culture for the better.

## Data-to-AI health beyond culture

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