
It is impossible and perhaps not useful to avoid selection bias.

Selection bias is everything


Getting the first step right seems to be the most important, yet iteration and adjustment can make every step carry similar value and flex. However, when retrospectively evaluating, it’s difficult to re-evaluate a narrative. Narratives are cohesive, while life and development is iterative and unpredictable. Much of the organizational strife between product and engineering is that narratives tend to sell better than big balls of uncertainty, and yet the engineers are responsible for taking the narrative and forging through the uncertainty to carve out the narrative.

Narrative vs Iteration


Monday night football - in order to be at the game, you’re one of two people: either you are local and this is what you do on Mondays, or you traveled to be there, meaning you have both the disposable income to travel and put it into a ticket, AND you have a job where you don’t have to work on a Monday. The result? A bunch of locals and white collar workers in face paint screaming together, and the blue collar class watching them from home or the break room at work. I wonder if the beer costs more in the stadium on a Monday night, and if the commercials cost less to buy than on a Sunday.

Jonathan Cutrell

Narrative vs Iteration