YGOLANA|ANALOGY

A blog about analogies found on the web.

Editor is like Chef

Here is a very good post from Scott Adams:
 
There's no intellectual property protection for food recipes. And everyone has access to the same ingredients as their local restaurants, at least for the most part. You might think that the gap between great cooking and merely competent cooking would shrink over time, as the recipes and methods of the greatest chefs leak into the mainstream.  But that doesn't seem to be happening. There is enough art in cooking that you either have that skill or you don't. At the highest level, you're part psychologist, part visual artist, part explorer, and your sense of smell is freakish. Collectively, call it an x-factor.
 
A few years ago I went to an oddly named restaurant called The French Laundry. It's billed as one of the greatest restaurants in the world, and you need reservations months in advance. I'm no foodie, so I didn't expect much, frankly, beyond high prices. Instead, I experienced a euphoria that transcends words. There was something about the order and proximity of tastes that lit up my brain's pleasure centers in the most unexpected way. Calling whatever happened there "eating" would truly miss the point. The place is a mood enhancer masquerading as a restaurant. It borders on pharmacology.
 
I was thinking about this as an analogy to where the Internet is heading. Consider a web site like www.Newser.com that summarizes content from all over the Internet. They get away with it by quoting or rewording only the most interesting points from larger bodies of work, and providing a link if you'd like to see the rest. Apparently their business model conforms to copyright laws because they are still in business. Newser has borrowed from my blog, and that's okay with me because it drives traffic this way.
 
Consider that Newser has access to the same raw ingredients as anyone else. Newser's website design is little more than a grid of boxes. The photos - and this fascinates me - are nothing but stock photos that have at best a casual relationship to the story they are summarizing. I mention this site because I am psychologically addicted to it. I feel a need to check it twenty times a day. WTF?
 
Newser's business reminds me of cooking in the sense that there is no barrier to entry. Everyone has access to the same ingredients, which in this case is content from the Internet. Anyone can summarize that content and put it in little boxes on a website. Anyone can buy stock photos. But there's something else going on.
 
Editors are the chefs of the Internet. Newser works, I believe, because somewhere in their back kitchen is an editor who has an uncommon feel for what stories to highlight, how to summarize them in a folksy voice, and in what order and combination they should appear. There's some genius happening there. When I read news from other places, I often come away feeling deflated. When I read Newser, I always leave in a good mood. That's why I return so often. It's a mood enhancer masquerading as some sort of news site.
 
And that's your future of the Internet. The cost of content, such as this blog, and my comic strip, will continue to approach zero. The art will happen with the editing. Others have made the obvious point that editing will be important for the future of the Internet. All I'm adding is the notion that most editors have skill, but few are artists. The world of print publishing is driven by editors who are exceptionally skilled. But they aren't artists. Newser is edited by an artist. He or she isn't giving me information; he's adjusting my mood. That's art. That's the future.
 
I know my readers, and you're going to piss all over poor Newser for being simplistic in design, having annoying ads, dumbing down the news, and stretching the limits of copyright. We can agree on all of those points. I'm just saying the editor is an artist.
 
Source: dilbert.com 
 

Entity Resolution is like Grapes

Entity resolution, (aka identity resolution) is is an operational intelligence process, typically powered by an identity resolution engine or middleware stack, whereby organizations can connect disparate data sources with a view to understanding possible identity matches and non-obvious relationships across multiple data silos. It analyzes all of the information relating to individuals and/or entities from multiple sources of data, and then applies likelihood and probability scoring to determine which identities are a match and what, if any, non-obvious relationships exist between those identities.

If you could not follow above, read this analogy:
Say you want to learn about Cabernet grapes using Google.  When you search on 'Cabernet' you get millions of links spanning multiple websites.  As you start clicking and reading you find you are reading the same text copied over and over again or worst you waste time reading about something like red wine, which isn't what you wanted. You get frustrated and you quit after learning just a little...but what if the thing you really wanted to know was a combination of what was on three websites, two of which you never bothered to get to? Instead of one big list, wouldn't it be better if those websites were studied and then grouped in a way you didn't have to painstakingly click multiple places to learn a little bit more each time? You wouldn't have to read the exact same text over and over because something else picked the bits and pieces of unique text about Cabernet grapes from the websites and put it in one place for you to read.If you wanted to, you  see the actual websites containing the text about Cabernet grapes to assess their validity. Even better, you see the relationship of your subject (Cabernet grapes) to something similar (Cabernet grape vines).The system already pulled together everything about Cabernet grape vines together into one place like it did for Cabernet grapes, so it is easy to read. Maybe you really wanted to learn how to grow the vine itself. If you could study your subject this way, you would save a lot of time and you wouldn't miss anything important about Cabernet grapes that you would likely miss the other way.We do that not for websites, but for files and records inside a business or across multiple businesses. Customers save loads of time, offer better service because they know everything they need to, or find what they are really looking for like a terrorist or criminal by having our software make sense out of the massive piles of data around them.

Oldboy is like Chocolate

I have just watched Oldboy and although I think it is really difficult to impress me, this movie is simply fantastic! Normally I forget what was the movie about before it even finishes, but in this case I am still thinking about it, even if it was already three days since I watched it. There is a very nice review on imdb.com and I think the analogy is quite a good one:

After going through the comments, i must say i'm impressed how many people out there don't have a slightest clue of beauty or intelligent screenplays. there are so many comments from people that totally disliked the movie. which is plain and simple not possible, if you got an open mind and a open heart (and are not drunk). I would compare it to chocolate. You may find it too sweet and prefer bitter chocolate. or you like white chocolate more. Or you got diabetes and can only sometimes eat one. But people that totally dislike chocolate scare me to death. Same goes for Oldboy, you gotta admit some of the genius art-form it contains. Its everything in there. Its heartwarming , disgusting, intelligent, beautiful and lead with outstanding performance of any actor . You HAVE to like something, cause it wont get much better. Its chocolate. If you disliked the movie so much and on a constant basis, why even bother to write a comment? My guess is you just could not follow the movie at all. which is my only guess actually. well enough rambling.

Proton is like Blueberry Muffin


The proton is a subatomic particle with an electric charge of +1 elementary charge. It is found in the nucleus of each atom, along withneutrons, but is also stable by itself and has a second identity as the hydrogen ion, H+. It is composed of three fundamental particles: twoup quarks and one down quark.

And here is blueberry muffin analogy:

So, you can think of a proton as something like a blueberry muffin: The two u's and the d are like the blueberries, the blueness that stains the dough around them is like the pairs of additional quarks and anti-quarks that pop out, and the dough itself is the cloud of gluons that holds the whole thing together. Unlike a muffin, however, this sea of particles isn't static. It is constantly bubbling and rolling as new quark/anti-quark pairs are created and annihilated, emitting and absorbing gluons and pushing the extra u's and d all around inside. Of course, we can only see this when you look really close, which is what our accelerators let us do.

Lupus is like Spoon

Here is a beautiful post using spoon analogy for lupus:

I explained that the difference in being sick and being healthy is having to make choices or to consciously think about things when the rest of the world doesn’t have to. The healthy have the luxury of a life without choices, a gift most people take for granted.
Most people start the day with unlimited amount of possibilities, and energy to do whatever they desire, especially young people. For the most part, they do not need to worry about the effects of their actions. So for my explanation, I used spoons to convey this point. I wanted something for her to actually hold, for me to then take away, since most people who get sick feel a “loss” of a life they once knew. If I was in control of taking away the spoons, then she would know what it feels like to have someone or something else, in this case Lupus, being in control.


The excerpt does not do it a justice so make sure you read the full post.

SEO is like Cooking

SEO is all about making Google to show our site on the first page because let's face it, how often do people click on next pages when searching for something? This is of course oversimplification so if you want to know more about what is SEO all about, you may read dry Wikipedia text or this excellent cooking analogy. I cannot possibly summarize it, just read the full article and enjoy it. 
Buon appetito!

Flag is like Food

(download)

Source: Flavorwire.com

If you don't know which flag/meal belongs to which country, here is the hint. Countries covered are (in alphabetic order): Australia, Brazil, France, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Vietnam.

Bon Apetit!

Dating is like Big Mac Combo

 
McDonalds analogy why guys don't want to be just friends when girls break up with them:
 
I know a girl who broke up with a guy and she told him she wanted to “still be friends.” He said, “No thanks.” She wondered why he couldn’t fall back to being just friends after they had a romantic relationship. I came up with the “McDonalds Analogy” to try and explain it in a simple way that would help all women understand this tough question.

Imagine if you went to McDonalds a lot and ordered a Big Mac Combo meal. A Big Mac, Large Fries and a Coke. You really like this meal. One day, you pull up to the drivethrough and order the Big Mac Combo meal and the girl tells you, “I’m sorry – you can have the Big Mac and the Coke, but you can’t get fries with that anymore.” You think about this for a moment, and sure – the Big Mac is the centerpiece of the meal, but McDonalds has some really good fries and you like their fries with your meal. So you say, “I’ve been able to get fries with that before, why can’t I have fries with my Big Mac combo anymore?” The girls says, “Well, I just think it is better if you only have the Big Mac and the Coke from here on out.”

At this point, a lot of guys are going to go to Wendy’s or BK and see if they can get fries with their combo at that drivethrough window. But there are some guys who REALLY like McDonalds Big Macs and they might think, “If I keep coming here and ordering the Big Mac and Coke, maybe she’ll change her mind and give me some fries with that later.” So they will keep on getting the combo without the fries until the deal breaker happens: One day that guy is going to order the Big Mac and Coke and then he’s going to pull up a little bit to pay, and someone else is going to pull up to the drivethrough speaker and order the “Big Mac Combo” and he is going to hear the girl say, “Would you like fries with that?”

That’s why guys don’t like to be friends with a girl who breaks up with them.

Belgian Voting System is like Cookie

Beautifully written explanation why Flemish and Walloons in Belgium are divided and why their voting system does not help to bring them together using the analogy of a marriage couple arguing over minor thing. Here is a peek:

She hates it when he dips his cookie in the coffee. He does it over and over again. She doesn’t understand why he doesn’t stop doing that. He argues that dipping cookies is not mentioned in the wedding contract. She says – we had an agreement, you promised me not to dip your cookie in the coffee anymore! He says - no that was not what we agreed; we agreed that I would drink my coffee with more manners. I think dipping a cookie in a cup is well mannered. And on top of that it is delicious. She’ll say – you always turn words in your favor, there is no way to make an agreement with you. After a while they start yelling at each other. She yells if he thinks dipping a cookie is more important than the relationship, well what is this relationship worth then?  He yells back that if she really loved him, she would love him as he is with the cookie dipping.Normally the fight will end in a long lasting silence, and after a while, they laugh and she’ll say – how stupid, we were almost divorced over a cookie. Yes, he’ll say,  how stupid was that. He’ll laugh, and dip his cookie in the coffee. And she’ll say, if it is so stupid, then why are you doing it again? He’ll say, are you starting all over again? She’ll argue, no you started, you dipped your cookie. And they’ll be off for a new episode in their unsolvable problem.

Any outsider would say, now that is easy to solve. And it is true. But does the couple want to solve it? Maybe the cooking has a function in the relationship? 

Read the full article, it is worth it!
 

Master Data Management is like Restaurant

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Picture: dvice.com

According to Wikipedia, Master Data Management (MDM) comprises a set of processes and tools that consistently defines and manages the non-transactional data entities of an organization (which may include reference data). MDM has the objective of providing processes for collecting, aggregating, matching, consolidating, quality-assuring, persisting and distributing such data throughout an organization to ensure consistency and control in the ongoing maintenance and application use of this information.comprises a set of processes and tools that consistently defines and manages the non-transactional data entities of an organization. MDM has the objective of providing processes for collecting, aggregating, matching, consolidating, quality-assuring, persisting and distributing such data throughout an organization to ensure consistency and control in the ongoing maintenance and application use of this information.

Luckily, there is also a simple analogy for MDM that helps to understand it:

”Under new management” is a common sign in the window of a restaurant. The purpose of the sign is to tell: Yes, we know: Really bad food was served in a really bad way here. But from now on we have a new management dedicated to serve really good food in a really good way.

By the way: Restaurants are one of the more challenging business entities to handle in Party Master Data Management:

  • They do change owner more often than most other business entities making them a new legal entity each time which is important for some business contexts like credit risk.
  • On the other hand it’s the same address despite a new owner, which makes it being the same entity in the eyes of other business contexts like logistics.
  • In many cases you may have a name (trade style) of the restaurant and another official name of the business – a variant of this is when the restaurant is franchised.