I’ve thought about this post from I Quant NY at least once a month for the past decade. I finally found the link again over the weekend. Here it is:

Such a simple data analysis, essentially sorting a column in a spreadsheet, revealed a problem with how parking near bike lanes and hydrants are marked. This post led to real world changes (repainting this and other areas to make it clear not to park there.)

This post had an impact on my life.

I found it during a creative dry spell. It inspired me to pick up my interest in data analysis and visualization and start blogging again, which led to a post that ended up getting me a job at a startup:

Sortly after that is when I started experimenting with implementing Sol LeWitt wall drawings with D3.js. The I Quant NY post was the impetus I needed to break that dry spell.

It also reframed data science a bit for me. You can get real world insights just by asking simple questions and looking in places nobody else is looking. You don’t always need fancy models, sometimes you can just sort a spreadsheet in different ways.