The parts, from the top down
| Part of the page | What it is for |
|---|---|
| The heading and opening lines | The claim of the page in a sentence or two. If the opening does not interest you, the page will not. |
| The big number and its unit | The value, and what it is a value of. A number with no unit is not a fact, which is the argument on the units page. |
| The chip | Counted or judged. The most informative thing on the page and the quickest to read. |
| The spec strip | Four rows. The value, the kind, where it came from or what was assumed, and what would change it. |
| The addresses | Printed above the article on every page because that is what most readers came for. Published as supplied and never tested. |
| The four sections | Where the number comes from, what it buys, what people get wrong about it, and what would move it. |
| The questions | The things people ask that do not fit the four sections, answered in one to three sentences. |
The four sections are independent of each other. Nothing in the third one depends on having read the first, and the internal links inside them go to other numbers rather than to earlier paragraphs. That is deliberate, because most people arrive at a page from a search rather than from the page before it.
The order to read them in when you are in a hurry
With thirty seconds available, read three things and skip everything else.
- The chip. Counted or judged tells you what kind of object you are holding before you read a word of the argument.
- The assumption row in the spec strip, whenever the chip said judged. A judged number without its assumption cannot be used, and the row is one line long.
- The section on what people get wrong. On most pages the useful part lives there, because the derivation is arithmetic and the misreading is the thing that costs people money.
The derivation section is the one to skip in a hurry and the one to read before quoting the number anywhere. It exists so the working can be checked rather than trusted, and checking always takes longer than reading.
The questions at the foot deserve a glance because they carry the practical corrections. They tend to catch the thing you were about to do rather than the thing the page was about.
Why the pages are the same shape
Repetition is the point. Anybody who has read two pages here knows where everything sits on the third, and that turns a page into a lookup rather than a reading task.
It constrains the writing as well. A section called what people get wrong has to be filled with something real, and if nothing goes wrong with a number then the number probably did not need a page. Several candidates were dropped for exactly that reason.
The method pages break the pattern on purpose, because an argument does not fit into a shape built to hold a value. The counted page and this one are essays and are laid out as essays.
What is deliberately missing
- No search box. The full index sits in the sidebar of every page, sorted by value, and the site is small enough to scan in a moment.
- No subscribe form, no newsletter and no account. There is nowhere on this site to type, so nothing you type here can go anywhere.
- No votes, no ratings and no comment section. A count of upvotes is not evidence about a market, and it would invite exactly the manipulation this subject is full of.
- No live figures, no status lights, no availability bar and no checking date. The zero page gives the reasoning and is honest about the cost.
- No advertising, no affiliate arrangements and no sponsored placement. Nothing on these pages is arranged to make you click something.
Together those absences mean the server does one thing, which is send a page. There is no database behind it, nothing to log into and no state that follows you from one page to the next. That is a privacy property first and the reason the site is fast second.
The one thing every page does carry is the address block above the article. It sits there because burying what most people came for would be a way of taking their attention rather than earning it, and it is printed with a plain statement that none of it has been tested.
Questions people ask
Where is the full list of numbers?
In the sidebar of every page, sorted by value, with a control that re sorts it by page. The same list repeats in the footer.
Do the sections have to be read in order?
No. The four are independent and the third is the one most people want. The fixed order exists so a page can be scanned rather than read from the top.
Why is the address block above the article?
Because most people arrive looking for it. Making them scroll past an essay first would be a way of extracting attention rather than earning it.