The Lighted Path

"The Lighted Path – Why we look for answers where it is easiest not best" explores the "Streetlight Effect" (or the Drunkard's Search). The joke goes: A drunk man searches for his keys under a streetlight. A cop asks, "Did you lose them here?" The man replies, "No, I lost them in the park, but the light is better here."



Data scientist David Ray explains how this observational bias corrupts modern science, business, and medicine. We research topics where data is easy to find, rather than topics that are actually important. We measure GDP because it's countable, ignoring well-being because it's vague.



"The Lighted Path" challenges readers to step into the dark. It is a guide to asking the hard questions that don't have easy metrics, arguing that a rough answer to the right question is valuable, while a precise answer to the wrong question is useless.