I've been right to be afraid of statistics

Alias on 2010-03-18T05:26:08

Under most circumstances, it's my habit to take something I've learned that I find useful and I'm fairly sure I've learned right, find an useful encapsulation boundary, and push that thing I've learned onto CPAN so I don't have to remember the details of how to do it right later.

But doing this with statistics has largely eluded me, except for the some of the most primitive mechanisms to joining data producers to statistics consumers.

Statistics are deeply confusing, and even thought I know they are confusing I still find it hard to make them fit in my head (because implications are often not even predictably confusing to me).

Fortunately, I can console myself that I'm not the only person for which this is the case, but at least I'm avoiding the use of them correctly.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/57091/title/Odds_Are,_Its_Wrong


Yep

singingfish on 2010-03-18T07:50:28

Yes, I spotted this when we chatted at the book launch last year. I kind of gave up when you couldn't coherently explain your research questions to me I'm afraid.

I on the other hand am afraid of programming, which is why 90% of the programming work I do involves gluing other people's work from CPAN into some jury-rigged thing that mostly seems to work.