In the process of becoming a citizen there was one document, with a wonderful snippet, that continues to be deeply inspiring for me. It reflects the promise of America.

The document was the United States Declaration of Independence [text here], and these words. . . .

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That last part forms for me the essence of what it means to be truly free.

It is a commitment, to you and to me and to us, of the opportunity that we are blessed with. An opportunity to make choices that you and I would like to as we live our humble lives.

One of those choices you and I can make is the choice of who we can marry.

It is in support of that choice that I request you to consider voting No on prop 8.

I have profound respect for the choice you make in whom to marry. I am asking that my right to marry the person of my choice be preserved.

And the right of my friends. And my neighbours. And my fellow citizens.

For Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Thank you.

Update: Nov 5th 2008, 1400 hrs.

I am deeply disappointed that Prop 8 passed. That we have now institutionalized and legalized civil discrimination against our own citizens in California.

But.

At the turn of the last century dogs and a specific race were asked to stay out public establishments.

Less than a hundred years ago one human gender could not even vote.

Less than fifty years ago one race in this country was asked to ride at the back of the bus, we still believed in "separate but equal".

Just eight years ago an American University ended a ban on interracial dating (something that would have prevented my beloved wife and I from ever being a couple).

I am confident that in my lifetime this nation will allow any person who wants to marry to marry, and marry the one they choose to marry.

I leave you with words that inspire me:

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope.


-"I Have a Dream", Martin Luther King.

Update: Aug 4th 2010, 1400 hrs.

Today is a happy day.

Judge Vaughn Walker has found that it is unconstitutional to discriminate against same sex couples.

There is a sense of jubilation all around (not surprising given where I live). My tweet.

A small battle has been won.

It is hard to know the result of the war. I fear that there is no way Chief Justice John Roberts's court would uphold this ruling (even if it is upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals).

But that is a worry for another day. Today we pause and we celebrate a victory for humanity and equality for each person in the United States of America (just as our founding fathers would have wanted).

Life, Liberty And The Pursuit Of Happiness is a post from: Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Having grown up in India my sports roots are in Cricket and Soccer. But I have grown to love American Football in my years of living here in the US (probably has something to do with going to Ohio State for MBA school and OSU having such a strong college football team). 

My MBA internship was at Delco (General Motors) in Kokomo, Indiana and since then I have followed the Colts and like the rest of their fans have grown used to hopes raising through the regular season only to be bitterly dashed during the NFL playoffs. Not this year!

I am happy for Peyton and his coach, without a doubt two of the most deserving winners. It was truly team work that triumphed with every part of the team delivering the goods when push came to shove (not just today but through the playoffs as well).

I want to touch on one aspect of all this. If nothing else Indy’s win today proves that you can be nice and win. There is no humbler person than Coach Dungy, he does not bark, he does not scowl, he does not swear at the officials, he is not aggressive. He is calm, he is focussed, he inspires his team, he is very competitive, he wants to win.

Nice guys can win, being nice and competitive can work together, life is not a zero sum game.

PS: This is a web analytics blog and this is a rare off-topic post.

But if you are visiting for web analytics content, here are the top five posts on this blog in the last eight months of its existence (measured simply by number of page views):

# 1: Seven Steps to Creating a Data Driven Decision Making Culture.

# 2: The 10 / 90 Rule for Magnificent Web Analytics Success.

# 3: How to Choose a Web Analytics Tool: A Radical Alternative.

# 4: Top Ten: Signs You Are A Great Analyst.

# 5: Data Quality Sucks, Let’s Just Get Over It.

As always please share your feedback via comments.

Redemption for the Indianapolis Colts at Super Bowl XLI is a post from: Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

This is our beautiful daughter Damini…..

Damini turned five recently. Tomorrow she goes for the third major surgery of her young life. She was born with a congenital nevi (nevus) that covered most of her right forehead area through to her eye lid. She has had two surgeries and a skin graft to remove the nevi over the course of the last 18 months. Thanks to those we don’t have to worry about any life threatening impacts from the nevi.

My little Damini is the bravest person I know. Amazingly she never complains about pain after her surgeries and never cries, even though stitches cover most of her forehead area and recovery is tough. Her strength and resilience is a source of deep inspiration for me. She is also the source of the passion I have for work, life, and beyond.

As a human, and a father, dealing with this on behalf of my daughter is the hardest thing I have done in my life. I only wish that I could be as resilient as she is in dealing with all this.

I’ll be off the blog for the next week.

My Little Damini is a post from: Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

(Important: If you have not already read my posting and methodology used please read it first, click here. Then before your read any further please read Eric’s perspective: Okay, you're gonna think I'm a jerk for saying this …. I know this sounds cumbersome but I promise you it will be worth it. If you don’t think it was worth it please email me and I will paypal you a small US dollar amount for your efforts. :~) I would have posted excerpts from Eric’s post here but I did not want to insert any bias that excerpts always somehow end up doing.)

I am a novice blogger and I really am feeling my way out in this new space. I would love to get your comments and thoughts and advice for me. Reporting and analysis is really hard and it is all about making choices, and each one of us will make different choices.  My comment on Eric’s post is below (remember to read his post first). What do you think about it? Did I strike the right balance? Did I express my point of view clearly? Would you have reacted differently?

I was even toying with not writing this post (my blog is going to be different, it focuses on learning and sharing). Is this post a distraction? I am really new and want to learn and I will deeply appreciate your perspective.

I'll be the first to comment Eric. I don't like the title of your blog. You are not a jerk. Respectful healthy debate is good and your post is exactly that and if you were "attacking" me, I welcome that. In fact it is an honor to be attacked by such a well respected authority in our field such as yourself.

My post was both a primer in making choices and a quick lesson in reporting and how hard it is to good reporting. You have added to that debate by providing some great flaws of my methodology (in addition to the ones I had pointed to in my blog post) which is great.

I had six tips, which I used for my list:

1. Global standards and benchmarks are great because people buy into them more easily
2. Simplicity always wins over complexity, because what people understand better they are more likely to action
3. Judgment should be applied with a lot of careful consideration because reasonable people might disagree with someone they don't know
4. In any report context is king, provide the right context
5. Be aware of hidden agendas, your's and those of others
6. Be open and up front with your assumptions

Of all of the above, and after digesting your feedback, I would still do exactly what I did and stress #1, #3 and #5.

I think the criteria you are suggested are great, but since no one on earth knows I exist I was going for credibility and my hypothesis was that independence (from my opinions) would earn me the attention of my dear readers. That's it.

Also it was my bet that my criteria would drive quality over time, everyone wants to be loved and on the list. I noticed yesterday that three sites who did not make it to my list because they were not coded right (including yours) would be now on the list because they have fixed Technorati tags, which is fabulous because it means you'll be on my list in July.

It would have been easy for me to create a list where I showed up first, and I would, but that was not the point. : ) I was also aware of all the blogs you list as missing because they are on my blogroll.

Thanks again for the opportunity to engage in respectful healthy debate Eric.

-Avinash.
PS: I will disagree with you on one small point: Marshall (WebMetricsGuru) is very much a relevant web analytics blogger. And he is web analytics. Every single post he makes is somehow connected to numbers and, as I mentioned in one of my posts, he makes it fun by running hitwise numbers on Angelina's baby or teaching about measuring search demand by using the Stanley Cup example. Besides there are no "pure play" web analytics bloggers, we all have our indulgences and we are off topic so much (self included).

Please post your comments and feedback.

Top Ranked Web Analytics Blogs – Redux is a post from: Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Hello world indeed.

Cheers.

Hello world! is a post from: Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik