I know it seems pedantic, but I think it’s rise in use especially with stock prices has a large effect in people’s minds and has helped usher in the stock culture where numbers must always go up and any dip is death.
Like, you know those studies about how language shapes people’s minds and more communal languages lead to people who often think of others and prioritizes the group?
I think y axis graphs not starting at zero is leading to decades of financial analysts obsessed with the most minute changes and drastically over reacting to anything that happens, even if stepping back to a 0 Y graph the change wouldn’t even be noticeable.
Obviously I’m not mad you linked it, it gave me a chance to vent about this stupid graph.
I’m pissed CNBC is doing it, they have people that know better but this graph is more sensationalized so that’s what they ran with.
The thing is this shit has real life consequences and our economy is fundamentally built on people’s opinions. If people get scared of investing in general because of zoomed in graphs and panic sell, it could domino into an actual crash.
Like, you ever have one of those days where you think Nero was smart for just kicking back and watching the show and Cassandra was the crazy one because she never stopped trying to explain what she thought was obvious?
It looks like it because the Y axis doesn’t start at zero.
If it went to zero, then yes that would be a textbook example.
When we had to print stuff out it could be defended, but even then I’d like it to start at zero and show a break to jump up.
If being zoomed out to zero means it erases the change being shown, then that matters. Not zeroing the y axis can make anything look crazy.
I dunno, I’m a stats nerd, I’ll rant about it every time I see it.
*hats off
I’ll take any informative rants people want to give. Thanks for yours.
Congratulations on being the best kind of correct
I know it seems pedantic, but I think it’s rise in use especially with stock prices has a large effect in people’s minds and has helped usher in the stock culture where numbers must always go up and any dip is death.
Like, you know those studies about how language shapes people’s minds and more communal languages lead to people who often think of others and prioritizes the group?
I think y axis graphs not starting at zero is leading to decades of financial analysts obsessed with the most minute changes and drastically over reacting to anything that happens, even if stepping back to a 0 Y graph the change wouldn’t even be noticeable.
Obviously I’m not mad you linked it, it gave me a chance to vent about this stupid graph.
I’m pissed CNBC is doing it, they have people that know better but this graph is more sensationalized so that’s what they ran with.
The thing is this shit has real life consequences and our economy is fundamentally built on people’s opinions. If people get scared of investing in general because of zoomed in graphs and panic sell, it could domino into an actual crash.
Like, you ever have one of those days where you think Nero was smart for just kicking back and watching the show and Cassandra was the crazy one because she never stopped trying to explain what she thought was obvious?