Why?
We believe:
Truth and transparency matter
So, bring truth to life
For good.
Or, in value terms:
1. Honesty > 2. Unity > 3. Prosperity for all of New Zealand.
Feelings, opinions, and untested ideas are essential ingredients for human invention, resolution, and evolution, but they rarely get us on the all-important same 1st page.
Only by confronting the facts/stats/trends/truth/proof/evidence/history on an issue, without fear or favour, and with an open mind, can opposing views start to share some common ground.
And only once we both a) understand and b) stand together on issues, can we work together to improve them for the greater good of all of us – people and the planet.
This is what we believe, and why we exist.
But, more importantly,
- What do you believe?
and - What are you doing about it?
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
– John Adams. The first Vice President, second President, and a Founding Father of the United States. Lawyer, leader of the American Revolution, helped draft the Declaration of Independence and negotiate a peace treaty with Great Britain. The only President of the first five not to own slaves, and helped shape their Constitution.
(So… did a few good things with facts in his time).
“To fix anything in life, first, we must fact the facts.” – us,
which is similar to the well worn line “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”
that also comes with the warning “What gets measured, gets done.”
And “If you aim for nothing, you will hit it every time.”– Zig Ziglar.
When we’re unwell, health professionals check our 6 vital signs: level of consciousness, respiratory rate, oxygen levels, heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature.
When we’re at the top of our sporting game, stats such as metres run, time played, accuracy, assists, runs per over, PBs, records, and many more metrics, separate champion coaches and players from the rest.
Great businesses track their KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) each month, and sometimes weekly, daily, or even hourly when required.
At home, most of us know our incomes, bank balance, hours worked, mortgage, weight, and, hopefully, the kids’ school grades too.
And the same is true of our success as a society, except that there are hundreds, arguably thousands, of important metrics we must measure well to manage well.
No matter which piece of life’s puzzle we’re looking at, it’s very hard to make improvements if we’re numb to numbers. Similarly, it’s impossible to hold insightful and progressive discussions with others if we can’t confront the eleFacts in the room, no matter how unpleasant they might make us feel.
Facts help us go F.A.R. in life. Facts ⇒ Actions ⇒ Results.
(Actions include respectful and robust debate before decisions should be made and executed, of course.)
“We must be a government that is transparent, and open about the big challenges we must all tackle together.” – Rt Hon. Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, 31 January 2018
“You can be part of the problem, or part of the solution” – us and millions more
“Don’t let something affect you, unless you can effect change” – us
And “If nothing changes, nothing changes” – common sense
“We have two ears and one mouth” – biology
“There are none so blind as those who will not see” – unknown
“It’s easier to fool people than convince them that they’ve been fooled” – not Mark Twain (we fact-checked)
“It’s not a lie… if you believe it” – George Costanza, Seinfeld
“We cannot force someone to hear a message they are not ready to receive, but we must never underestimate the power of planting a seed” – unknown.
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt, the longest-serving first lady of the United States
We share the facts of today to help improve New Zealand tomorrow.
The why these issues exist and how to improve them are for all of us to solve, together.
Thank you to all of the Factors out there growing smarter with data, our volunteers, and the beneFactors who make this work possible.
We’ve only just begun and have even greater plans for future facts machines to help us all help New Zealand maximise its potential.
Other WHY Qs
Q. When did you start?
A. The seed of the idea was actually planted between 2014-2017 when economic reports were repeatedly only talking about GDP and not GDP per capita which is a better measure for comparison, productivity, and impact on households. This frustrated us as it’s easy to grow GDP at 2%… if your population is also growing at 2% (as it was for many years). The concept of a weekly facts platform then came to us in early 2020 when Covid hit, and it seemed like i) Covid cases and ii) deaths with Covid, were the only 2 KPIs in town (click here to read more). The idea generated great interest, but we just didn’t get the support we needed to get it off the ground that year. It only went live in November 2021 because Grant gave Geoff and Founder C a rocket and built a website. We then researched the first fact, put it live on TrueDay 9 November 2021, were interviewed by Heather du Plessis Allan on Newstalk ZB the next day, and then it took on a life of it’s own after that!
Q. How long will you keep this going?
A. We would love to continue providing this service for New Zealand as we believe it’s very important, but it all depends on the amount of support we get. As you can see from the finances page, a significant amount of personal time, money, and energy (and stress) has been given, and that is not sustainable without support from fellow Kiwis who share our mission.
Q. Where did the name come from?
A. We had a number of number name concepts, but founder C simply suggested using the term that Kiwis were using most often and cut to the core of the entire value proposition = getting theFacts. This was a far superior brand name to other options, and the .co.nz and .nz domain names were both available too.
Q. Will theFacts expand to other countries?
A. We believe it’s best for proud (and concerned) citizens to lead their own nations from within – with deep empathy, so, if you live in one of the other 194 countries on Earth (a contested figure in itself), why not set up a facts platform yourself? Feel free to contact us, and we’ll help you get started.
Q. Do you have other spin-off ventures planned?
A. Absolutely, but that all comes down to funding support, too. If you’re on our mailing list, we’ll share more once they get closer to reality
And, most importantly…
Q. Why do you write numbers <10 as numbers?
We’re not fans of the subjective convention to write numbers <10 as words, e.g. seven vs 7. It’s uneconomical, un-environmental (think of all that extra ink and paper), and just plain numdumb. It only makes sense because it’s what we’ve been conditioned to so you’ll only see number numbers in our work. It’ll catch on…