Paradoxically, as we move from calculators and excel sheets to machine learning and artificial intelligence, the ability to make quick sense of numbers and ensure they are reasonable is not just more rare but more required.Ĭompanies today seek more granular analysis that creates massive data cubes across business lines, geographies and channels all the way down to customer-level contribution margins. When they are – such as JPMorgan’s $6 billion London Whale loss – they are fairly hard to believe. based agency that helps blue-chip companies conduct financial modelling, highlighted how common and devastating spreadsheet mistakes can be in its report “ Capitalism’s Dirty Secret.” Mistakes are rarely documented. Managers who influence strategy and decisions must see through the numbers to prevent foolish and expensive mistakes. There’s little margin for error in the business world.
seems to be representative of most Western countries. Further, 13 percent of those 55 and older make mistakes while 22 percent of those younger than 45 make mistakes when performing random simple multiplication tasks (especially 11 times 11). More alarmingly, those ages 18 to 24 are almost three times as likely to use calculators for basic tasks compared with people 55 and older. Of those surveyed, 35 percent will use a calculator to add numbers that exceed 100. One out of every five adults in the UK struggles with basic mental arithmetic, according to a BAE System survey conducted by YouGov. March 6, 2017In Isaac Asimov’s futuristic science-fiction short story “The Feeling of Power,” computers have taken so much control that humans have lost the ability to count let alone process math.Īlmost 60 years after it was published, this dystopian tale doesn’t seem so far-fetched.
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