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johnmyleswhite/statistical_maxims.md

Created December 1, 2015 15:25
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Statistical Maxims
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statistical_maxims.md
  • Correlation is not causation (???)
  • No causation without manipulation. (Holland)
  • All models are wrong, some are useful. (Box)
  • Statistics is the science of uncertainty. (arguably Tukey)
  • Statistics is the science of learning from experience, especially experience that arrives a little bit at a time. (Efron)
@davidmanheim
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I didn't realize I can't issue a pull request for a gist. Here's my additions; https://gist.github.com/davidmanheim/890e6bc90bc7b8d6d226

@fpepin
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fpepin commented Dec 1, 2015

A nice list can be found at https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/726/famous-statistical-quotations.

I like this one: If you torture the data enough, nature will always confess. (Ronald Coase)

@jwmerrill
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  • Probabilities do not describe reality—only our information about reality. (Jaynes)

@ahupowerdns
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"99% of people have more legs than average"

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