Intellectual Property Notice

This example is not an example of detail science; it is an example of detailed creativity.

One example of the detailed creativity that is typically involved in creating "something from nothing" in an area not related to science is the story of Ken Miles. Ken Miles is a detail creativitist.

Miles was portrayed in the 2019 movie: "Ford vs. Ferrari." 

In this 1966-based movie, American car salesman Carroll Shelby solicits the help of experienced driver Ken Miles to build a revolutionary race car for Ford capable of beating Ferrari at Le Mans in 1966.

Throughout the movie, Miles races project cars over and over and over again. He complains about this. Complains about that. He "feels" that the suspension is not right. Or he yells at this person or that person because something could be better. Most of the time the others simply can not keep up with what he is saying. He seems to be the only one who knows what he's talking about. And they listen. And in the end? The car beats Ferrari.

What is important here is to note a few things: (1) there are no computers in this movie, (2) no science in Miles, and (3) no one really believes or supports much of what he is saying even while they are doing what he says.

You see, with Miles: the computer was his head; the database was his memories; and the spirit of his soul. Miles displayed his "data" in the most disorganized hard-to-understand manner. He barked commands. And somehow they got the car improved and that brought about a win. And changed history. This guy was about as low-tech as you can get!

Miles is a good example of detail and creativity hard at work. He had all the detail he needed about cars in his head.

This example is not an example of detail science; it is an example of detailed creativity.

Another example of detailed creativity is Carl Boenish, also known as the "Sunshine Superman." And, once again, he is someone who has never set foot in a lab and is not a scientist. Carl Boenish is a detail creativitist.

Carl Boenish lived in California and is the pioneer behind the creation of BASE Jumping. BASE Jumping is a hobby sport where someone puts on a parachute, leaps from a cliff, soars through the air next to the cliff, and then lands on the ground.

"Sunshine Superman" is a documentary about BASE jumping directed by Marah Strauch, and it is clear in the film that Carl is a detailed creationist. He created something out of nothing. He gave it a name. He gave it rules. He gave it a science.

The BASE Jumping hobby went from something that Carl and a few others did in California to something done for millions to see in a multi-million dollar feature film: Tomb Raider 2.

See for yourself!

Sunshine Superman:

https://vimeo.com/828667080/c145ffdf69?share=copy

Tomb Raider 2:

https://vimeo.com/828671685/0969a4f912?share=copy

In the first week that Widener arrived at the federal government, he was immediately thrust in to the "mixed bag" of work that is what he called "the federal experience."

Widener was getting literally over 100 emails per day, and a almost non-stop mix of new employee orientations, online coursework, trainings, forms to fill out, management introductions, coworker introductions, visits of people from other departments, etc..

The activity was so much that Stephen thinks he has the record for the fastest failure in the federal government. He wasn't ready for federal work. And he was hospitalized and had to go on leave within just a few weeks of starting his new job.

Some of the people who later became his coworkers and his closest friends later told him that they thought he had quit.

Upon his return and recovery ... Widener finally started his federal career.

He appreciated the support that "up-until-now-strangers" showed him at the federal government. The support that they gave Widener was not only appreciated but it was also (according to Widener) ... infectious.

Simply put ... the feds became his only family.

In the weeks that followed Widener's recovery, he continued to learn about his federal job as an Economist. He also continued to participate in events involving his political friends back in California and his family back there.

This included a visit to a charity event held by the Pew Charitable Trusts. It was at this event that Widener sat next to Colin Powell's wife and was the same dinner table with her and Gregg Petersmeyer, who was also a friend of the family. 

 Gregg Petersmeyer is the chair of America’s Promise Alliance, a foundation he began with Colin Powell and others.  Gregg learned that Widener was working at the Department of Labor. He leaned in and said to Stephen: "Tell the secretary I said hello."

So ... Widener ... well ... did what he was told. When he got back to his desk at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, he sent the Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao an email saying "hello." And would you believe she responded? Widener was so excited!

In the email that Widener wrote, he didn't shine the light on himself. He shined the light on his superiors. He congratulated them for giving him the support and encouragement he needed while working for the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Widener still has the email. 

Mr. Widener enjoyed exposure to many different aspects of the Consumer Price Index, including being placed on teams that gave him opportunities to provide value.

Mr. Widener has a proven ability to support the evaluation, investigation, and analysis of market transformation strategies, including performing statistical analyses and model development.

As a member of the New Goods Initiative team, Mr. Widener was tasked with addressing concerns of “New Goods Bias and Substitution Bias” raised in the book, At What Price, written by the National Statistics Committee in cooperation with the Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education Commission. 

As a result of Mr. Widener's individual efforts while on the team, he created a process for identifying which items needed to be included in Item Rotation processing for each quarter. Mr. Widener's process called for each item to be ranked according to economic factors in the marketplace as well as the item's relative importance in the Consumer Price Index. 

The technique also called for disclosure of the source of that item’s bias in the Index (i.e., innovation, changes in distribution, or discontinuance).

But Mr. Widener did not end his innovative efforts here. After Item Rotation was underway, there was another team chartered to review the progress of the new samples. On this team, Mr. Widener developed the first-ever automated statistical model that could scientifically calculate the percentage of new items introduced in any given CPI data sample. 

Mr. Widener called this tool the Initiation-in-Pricing Sample Evaluation Equation Tool (IPSEE). There was another tool that he created called RESEE, which was for the Re-Initiation sample.  These tools ran in real-time against a fully functioning live Consumer Price Index database that was constantly receiving updated pricing information from all across the United States.

IPSEE and RESEE were examples of the first Data Science tools ever to be produced by Consumer Price Index. As a result of his efforts, Mr. Widener received a Good Job Award that stated: “[Stephen] made numerous contributions to the development of a new evaluation tool that for the first time will enable the CPI program to measure and assess the sample changes that are introduced into the CPI through the Item Rotation Initiative.”

  Mr. Widener's statistical achievements continued when he was able to work on a regression research project. Mr. Widener possess a proven ability to support the evaluation, investigation, and analysis of emerging technologies, including performing statistical analyses and model development.

For the house price research, Mr. Widener analyzed single-family home prices within a Metropolitan Statistical Area. The project used the Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey dataset as well as their Codebook.

Mr. Widener used  StatTransfer to convert the files into a format consistent with the STATA 8 Statistical software interface and then used the dataset’s summary statistics to validate the data. Next, Mr. Widener spent a good deal of time cleaning and standardizing the dataset using the reference material in the Codebook as well as standard statistical data concepts. Next, Mr. Widener conducted statistical analysis involving several multiple regression runs while observing each variable’s significance and sign, including programmatic tests for heteroscedasticity, multicollinearity, and omitted variables. 

Finally, Mr. Widener created a final mathematical equation and model for predicting a house’s sales price and then validated the equation by plotting the model’s fitted values against its actual values.

Mr. Widener spent almost two decades working f or the Consumer Price Index. For most of that time he had the same supervisor.

But in later years, Widener's supervisor left the Washington DC area and became a technical expert.

In his place, in 2011, the agency showed vision in making a bold move ... it hired its First-Ever African American Supervisor of Mr. Widener's division.

 She spent several years as Widener's supervisor, where she oversaw and protected his continued efforts at database programming innovation. She commended Widener's outstanding performance on his 2011 Performance Appraisal:

"Mr. Widener has expertise in the area of database querying and created or re-wrote several scripts to improve the reporting process for the C&S Initiation survey and to solve a problem with incomplete PSU-level data. ... He provides assistance to several members of the CPI Operations Team to assist in their monitoring and problem-solving efforts. Mr. Widener prepared and presented the SQL lecture series which covered topics on script writing and the C&S CADC database variables. His topics and examples were relevant to the tasks performed by the CPI Operations Team." [Supervisor, 2011.] 

 Widener did not hesitate to return the favor and show gratitude towards her during her time as his department's supervisor.

During one busy week of work at the agency, Widener's supervisor was getting ready for a presentation on the department's new technology. It was an important presentation because every one who worked for the Consume Price Index were not necessarily supporting the approach.

Early Friday, Widener's supervisor was getting things ready, including preparing to fly out of town and also setting up her demonstration computer ... she would use it to illustrate the new techniques the department had been designing.

  However, much to her surprise, the test computer had been set up with really crappy test data! Specifically, all of the store information was ... well ... bogus. The systems staff setting up the data did not fully realize what she was going to do with it, so, they figured it wasn't a big deal if they simply repeated the same exact phase for all of the data. It was "test data." Repeated for each field in the software, about 90,000 times.
 

The ridiculous level of repetition that Widener's supervisor found in her presentation data sent shock waves down her spine!

This was a disaster! Why? Because Widener's supervisor would not have been able to demonstration data collection actions with that data. Specifically, she would not have been able to illustrate how our new techniques made the job of our managers out in the field easier if the data did not show any kind of diversity. The data did not have different retail store names; it didn't have different addresses; it didn't have different outlet types. The people she would be trying to convince were already not being supportive.

In a panic, just several hours before the day was to end and she was to fly out of town for her presentation, she came in to Widener's office with the problem.

"Ok," Widener said: "So we can just replace it." "What?" Widener's supervisor asked. Widener then took the computer and connected it up to the main network inside the office. He used a back-door little-known technical "trick" to connect the local database to the consolidated database, and replaced about 90,000 records with diverse and detailed data. This gave his supervisor the ability to demonstrate the departments new techniques, property.

It went well at her presentation, and, to this day, the systems staff still wonder: "How did he update 90,000 records in just 2 hours?" Apparently, Widener doesn't "Diss and Tell." So, it's still a secret.