Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data

by Charles Wheelan

writer Andrejs Dunkels: It’s easy to lie with statistics, but it’s hard to tell the truth without them.

after I paid 100 rupees for a pot of tea in India, my daughter wanted to know why everything in India was so expensive.)

He cites a questionnaire sent out by a former chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court to roughly one hundred lawyers asking them to rank ten law schools in order of quality. Penn State’s was one of the law schools on the list; the lawyers ranked it near the middle. At the time, Penn State did not have a law school.

Statisticians may not play football or date cheerleaders, but they can provide statistical guidance for football coaches.

Former treasury secretary Hank Paulson has explained that many firms assumed they could raise cash in a pinch by selling assets.4 But during a crisis, every other firm needs cash, too, so all are trying to sell the same kinds of assets. It’s the risk management equivalent of saying, “I don’t need to stock up on water because if there is a natural disaster, I’ll just go to the supermarket and buy some.” Of course, after an asteroid hits your town, fifty thousand other people are also trying to buy water; by the time you get to the supermarket, the windows are broken and the shelves are empty.

You can even put a little Post-it note on your computer monitor: “Do not kill people with your research.” Because some very smart people have inadvertently violated that rule.