2.4 345 Stress (good or bad)? [?][!]

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SETH GODIN Significant digits

Even though it’s possible to design an oral thermometer that measures body temperature to a hundredth of a degree, there’s no reason to do so. In fact, 98.6 is overkill. 98 is enough information.

More digits don’t give us more information, they simply distract or confuse us.

The same is true for time. Knowing what happened in a one-second snapshot interval is useful for judging a horse race, but hardly interesting if we’re measuring interest in a new Broadway show.

Just because we can add more digits doesn’t mean that it’s significant. We can intentionally ask for less.

October 16, 2025