Daniel Parris uses Notion and a voice recorder to write his essays for ‘Stat Significant’

Today's episode is sponsored by Rev, the productivity powerhouse for content creators, journalists, market researchers, and more. Capture audio from anywhere, get AI-powered summaries and quotes, and leave security worries behind with Rev. Whether you're on the go or in the office, Rev's got you covered. Discover more at rev.com. I'm Kendall Kelton, and I'm your host today on The Rough Draft, featuring honest conversations with folks from across the creative industry. The Rough Draft explores the creative process, tools, and resources used by some of the best in the business. From journalists to content creators and business leaders, we shed light on what it looks like to break into the industry, make mistakes, collaborate with others, and also the essential tools that help us along the way. This week I'm super excited to be talking with Daniel Paris, the brain behind the popular newsletter Stat Significant. Daniel's got a unique gig. He's a data scientist who blends numbers with pop culture. So if you've ever wondered about the statistical side of why you can't stop watching true crime documentaries or what makes Star Wars fans so dedicated, Daniel's your guy. And on today's episode, Daniel breaks down the tools he relies on the most to bring his essays to life.

Okay, so shifting gears a bit, uh, I'd like to focus, um, on how you turn raw data into these captivating essays. So you're a one-person show. We've talked about that on the last episode. Um, so how do you keep all of your data and ideas organized? I, I believe you're a fan of Notion, right?

Yes, I am a big fan of Notion. I have basically, I organize it into sort of like a Kanban board. So I'll have things that are in the pipeline. I'll have things that I basically have moved into a column that is effectively like contemplation. So trying to flesh out and develop those ideas. And then I'll have a column that's actively writing or researching. And then within those, I will keep notes.. So within Notion, within these tiles, you can click into them and they effectively become a Word doc. And so I will typically compile either research or ideas. This morning I was working, I was thinking through an article on pop punk and I just got so inspired that I like wrote, I think, and I was at the gym of course. So I wrote like the intro and the final thoughts. I don't have the data yet, but I was just like, I will figure out a way to write about pop punk. Yeah, so that's what I use for organization, for note-taking, and then also for at least like my first drafts in writing.

Got it.

And then when you are, you had mentioned this a bit in the last episode because it takes you about 15 to 20 hours to actually like write and compile everything, but you will sometimes use a voice recorder when you're walking, which, you know, what voice recorder do you use? Why do you use that one? I think people, you know, if they are looking for a way to remove themselves from their phone, it'd be good to link to?

Yeah, I really can't tell you the exact name. It is a very small Sony voice recorder. I've recently read Cal Norton's Deep Work, and I realized that whenever I brought my phone along, it was a distraction. And ultimately, I found that my mindset was fragmented and I wasn't able to come up with ideas as easily. So I was just like, what if I brought out a voice recorder and whenever an idea came up, I would just dictate it? It's really nice to walk around my neighborhood and feel like I'm both outside in nature and effectively writing an article. It's kind of like a weird thing to balance, but it's actually quite a nice experience.

I mean, it's whatever gives you creative joy, right? It's whatever kind of like sparks that willingness to sit down and write. So I'm here for it. So for those of us who aren't data scientists like myself, finding the right like datasets can feel daunting. I do a lot of writing, a lot of different types of writing, but when I'm trying to find things to source or to back up my own claims or ideas, there are a plethora of AI tools available today to help synthesize information and it can be overwhelming for people who don't quite understand intimately data. So how do you source data for your, for your essays? Like, what are your go-to, go-to tools?

Yeah, so my number one go-to is a site called Kaggle, which is a site for people who are interested in upscaling their data science and machine learning skills. They just have this giant repository of datasets. And they're fair use datasets as well. And so for me, I've been able to grab, you know, there's a dataset of 7 million records of movie grosses and budgets and actors and actresses. And it's this extremely robust dataset that I've been able to use in a bunch of different analyses. There's stuff on TV, there's stuff related to music and Spotify. So that's usually my first, Step, and that's where I get about 80 to 90% of my datasets. And then other than that, I subscribe to a listserv called Data Is Plural, where each week I get sent 5 unique datasets. And so I found some really unique datasets. And oftentimes, like, as an example, there's a dataset compiled by a bunch of economists that's basically every notable, quote-unquote notable, person, like historical figure who's lived since I forget, it was like 3500 AD— not AD, BC. And it's like a super helpful dataset because if you— I wrote an article on like, how has celebrity changed over time? And so it's really whenever I can get something that's truly unique, that's always a treat. And so those are really actually my main like go-tos.

And then you also feature when you're trying to bring these to life, some pretty cool visualizations.

So graphs.

Sometimes you throw in some memes and GIFs, but I think you, you rely on one particular tool maybe for, for those. Do you mind sharing that?

Yeah, of course. Yeah. So I do my data analysis. So that's like transforming the data, aggregating the data, joining together datasets. I do that in Jupyter Notebook, which is kind of like the go-to data science manipulation tool. And then after I've like basically transform the data to the point where it's ready to be graphed. I'll then put that in a tool called Flourish. Flourish is a free graphing tool that I think was purchased by Canva a few years ago. So it also integrates with Canva. So you can very easily take something out of Flourish, put it into Canva, and then actually continue to do design on or design around the graphic.

Are there any other tools off the top of your mind that you wanna share that you also like just have an affection for?

Yeah, I write in Grammarly, which has been extremely helpful. I, my biggest mental block to starting a newsletter was I don't wanna look stupid on the internet. And I think my like biggest fear was having just like a stupid, it's kind of like those, those anxiety dreams you have about. Showing up to school and not knowing that there's a test. Before I published my first Stat Significant, I had these anxiety dreams that I was gonna have like a major typo and everyone on the internet was gonna be like, look at this idiot. And so Grammarly is at least a good way to de-risk, make sure that you don't make some pretty like basic day one mistakes. And to be honest, I still have made big mistakes and it's been fine. I just edit it and it all turns out great.

In our next episode, we're going to focus on one of your standout essays, "Why Do People Hate Nickelback So Much?" It's a fascinating photograph— there's a pun there— that brings all of these tools that you've walked through and processes together. So we'll talk a little bit more about that in our next one. Well, that's it for today's episode of The Rough Draft. Be sure to rate and subscribe in order to stay up to date with the latest episodes and visit rev.com/podcast for even more content. Thank you for listening, and we look forward to seeing you again on the next episode of The Rev Draft.