What Is Simpson’s Paradox?

 My high-school stats teacher once explained, during a lecture on how to lie with statistics, that Simpson’s Paradox is a statistical phenomenon where the data seems to prove the reverse of the truth. Simpson’s Paradox is how Gryffindor can lose to Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw and still get the Quidditch cup. It basically means that sometimes when you divide data in groups, it looks different from viewing it as a whole.

Anyway, I chose this name because I thought it was an appropriate metaphor for expat life. Seeing the whole picture and seeing tiny parts are quite different,  plus sometimes I really, really though my data was going one way, and something entirely different happened. Expat life is like that. I set up this site when I was living in Beijing in 2008, and my Blogspot blog kept getting blocked (along with plenty of other sites, I mean, I wasn’t doing anything particularly edgy) by the Great Firewall.

Sometimes I read articles or hear advice from blog experts that suggest maybe I should rebrand, because honestly, how much name recognition am I going to get if I call my site after a random mathematical term that I happen to find interesting? I bet no one says that to Google.

When I’m not having second-language struggles and expat adventures, I work in video games, including Next Island, Lakoo’s Empire Online, Verge Games’ Grumpy Goats, and many others. You can see the whole list here. Obviously, this is my own blog and not representative of any of my employers or clients. (This is a personal blog, and not a great place to get tech support or game hints. I’m looking at you, Entropia players.)

I wouldn’t call my blog “PR friendly” but I do run the occasional sponsored post here, usually a book or a game that I’ve been asked to review. These are always my honest opinion (I like free games, but I like being snarky even more) and they will always be identified as sponsored. It’s cool that my blog generates enough income to pay my hosting fees, but this is my hobby before it’s an income stream (trickle), so I’m only looking for advertisers related to my interests. If you have a fun game or book, or something else awesome, and would like to talk about sidebar adverts or sponsored posts, please do get in touch! Unless your idea was to do a search of female-authored blogs and massmail a mommyblog pitch about sippy cups, because, man, I get that pitch about once a month. I don’t have kids, I seriously don’t need a diaper bag.