Data Science Metrics Explained With Strawberries 🍓

Accuracy, precision, and recall explained through strawberries and agritourism

A selfie of the author. With a green hat and red shirt, I look like a strawberry. Source: Todd Lewandowski

Last weekend I went to Tanaka Farms to pick strawberries. It was very fun and I really enjoyed it (not a paid endorsement btw). I picked one box of strawberries and one bag of carrots. Both were very delicious.

Strawberry Picking Tours - Tanaka Farms

While out in the beautiful Southern California weather, I realized that picking strawberries is a great metaphor for classifier algorithms from data science and in particular the success metrics.

I always forget the exact meanings of accuracy, precision, and recall. So why not explain with strawberries? It’s a fun example that really brings these ideas to life. It also forms a strong emotional memory — who doesn’t love strawberries—that makes the concepts easy to remember.

Metrics Recap

Here’s a quick recap of the important classifier metrics: