Scott,
Your question reminds me of a scene from the movie "Something about Mary" where the idea is to replace "8 - minute abs" with the "7 minute abs' workout. Thank you for the invitation to write about the 5MA.
To answer your first question: Five minutes just seemed right. When I sit down to read or write, time is discretized into 5 minute blocks, so even if it took 3 minutes to write, it would still be the 5 minute analyst. But in actuality, I didn't brainstorm the name; it was the first thing that I wrote as a title, and it stuck. I didn't think to stylize it as 5MA until well over a year of writing.
Now, to answer your real question: I have two goals in writing the column. First is to provide myself a light outlet for the myrad of things that I see or find interesting every day, but never have the time to study properly. I really enjoy writing it. The important part is to encourage readers to think about applying some light analytic thought to the problems they see every day. Five minutes is the time it takes to read. The second goal is to encourage folks to think analytically, and that not all analysis has to be 'rocket science'.
I believe that the most important thing in analysis is the Problem. For example, I spent a long time teaching myself some basics on time-series analysis, which I've never had a formal course in, for analyzing the run patterns in the Army Navy football game (November '13). The problem was important (at least to me) and it led me to the method.
At this moment, July's column is going to be about a large parking lot in DC. This parking lot is free to park at, but you have to press a button on the meter in front of your car that will give you 60 minutes; therefore, the time remaining for any car is bounded on [0,60]. I think it will be interesting to walk through at a busy time and determine the distribution of parked times, which should be similar to the waiting times in a infinite-server queue where the time parked is the service time. But I might change my mind between now and then.
I will continue to write them as long as you continue to read them and Peter continues to publish!
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Harrison Schramm
Commander
Navy Headquarters Staff
Arlington VA
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-16-2014 07:24
From: Scott Nestler
Subject: Five Minute Analyst
Harrison,
So why is it the "Five Minute" Analyst? What if you only have two or three minutes to consider a problem? Or, what if you have months to conduct a deliberate study?
Was there a reason you picked this amount of time (or was it just because it sounded better than "Seven Minute Analytst" or something else)? This may have been in your first column, but perhaps you have some thoughts to share with the community on this after wearing this persona for a couple of years.
Scott
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Scott Nestler
Chief, Force Strategy Division
Center for Army Analysis
Alexandria VA
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-11-2014 07:57
From: Harrison Schramm
Subject: Five Minute Analyst
I'm putting up a link to the most recent Five Minute Analyst, because, well, why not?
http://www.analytics-magazine.org/may-june-2014/1036-five-minute-analyst-buffets-billion-dollar-basketball-bracket-bet
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Harrison Schramm
Commander
Navy Headquarters Staff
Arlington VA
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