There’s the saying that you shouldn’t miss the forest for the trees. Don’t get so caught up in all of the details that you miss the big picture. This works with data too. Don’t let noise distract from overall patterns, lest you want to make wishy-washy decisions.
However, it also works the other way around. Don’t miss the trees for the forest. Don’t let summary statistics like means and medians distract you from the individual data points. Don’t step so far away from the data that you miss the details that provide meaning to the overviews.
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