The math is correct, the total is meaningless

A California town sign that adds population, elevation and year founded shows what AI can do to your data.

Road sign for New Cuyama listing population 562, feet above sea level 2150, established 1951, and a total of 4663

The math is correct. The total is meaningless.

The New Cuyama, California population sign is syntactically valid and semantically incoherent.

Tama Huang posted this image the other day in slack and it resonates so well with what AI will do to your data.

Ask any production agent to roll up "total portfolio exposure" or "total active deals" or "total square footage under management" across a real operating business. You will get a number. The number will be precise to two decimal places. The number will be wrong in the same way 4,663 is wrong.

What was your last "4,663" moment?

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

First posted on LinkedIn.