The Power of the Unseen

And the awesomeness of overcoming survivorship bias.

Distribution of bullet holes on planes returning from war in World War II.

During World War II, the American military enlisted the help of the Statistical Research Group (SRG) — a consortium of the best American statisticians in the world at the time — to analyze wartime data and make recommendations for how best to armor their planes. Since armor protects planes from gunfire but simultaneously weighs them…