Anecdotal aphorisms
The experience led Bezos to coin an aphorism: "When the data and the anecdotes disagree, the anecdotes are usually right."This runs counter to conventional wisdom among those who consider themselves hard-headed realists, whether finance directors or political analysts. We're meant to put our faith in the data, and ignore those silly, soft-headed anecdotes. And yet one of the most famously hard-headed - in every sense - men in business takes them very seriously. Jeff Bezos built Amazon on data, but he doesn't entirely trust it. [...]
In a podcast interview [Jeff Bezos: Amazon and Blue Origin | Lex Fridman Podcast #405], Bezos explains that his aphorism doesn't mean anecdotes should always trump data. It means that when you have customers complaining about something your metrics say they shouldn't be complaining about, you should question the metrics before dismissing the complaints. It's not that the data is badly collected or poorly analysed, it's that it's directing your attention to the wrong problem.