> Your point about the numbers being fudged makes intuitive sense, and almost feels obvious, however...
I can confirm that point on a small scale; it's something I repeatedly mentioned on HN for years. I used to work literally next desk to a small social media marketing agency, that spun out of the company I was employed by. I knew the people running that agency, I got to see how they work, even read and commented on the reports they sent to customers.
It was as GP described, with a twist - the people working in said agency weren't exactly good with numbers. They understood, however, the idea that a graph going up and to the right is good. Despite the numbers having little connection to reality, they wrote reports that highlighted how successful their campaigns were. Those reports were read by customers equally proficient in mathematics, and similarly good at tracking sales on their own side. Bottomline: money changed hands, both sides were happy, the whole thing was still completely untethered from reality.
I can confirm that point on a small scale; it's something I repeatedly mentioned on HN for years. I used to work literally next desk to a small social media marketing agency, that spun out of the company I was employed by. I knew the people running that agency, I got to see how they work, even read and commented on the reports they sent to customers.
It was as GP described, with a twist - the people working in said agency weren't exactly good with numbers. They understood, however, the idea that a graph going up and to the right is good. Despite the numbers having little connection to reality, they wrote reports that highlighted how successful their campaigns were. Those reports were read by customers equally proficient in mathematics, and similarly good at tracking sales on their own side. Bottomline: money changed hands, both sides were happy, the whole thing was still completely untethered from reality.