I HATE Statistics!!!!!!!!!!!

This is me everyone, with a video rant, it says it all
Warning: language in one moment

reply to post by HomerinNC


"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

ETA:
Statistics are a very useful tool to quantify and measure the world around us, it allows our limited brain to grasp vast concepts of numbers.

That being said, OUR limited brain is still doing the interpreting and god damn do people miss understand statistics.

reply to post by HomerinNC


7 out of 3 people are bad at statistics.

reply to post by HomerinNC


You tell 'em Homer...

Des

reply to post by HomerinNC


To add to your rant:

Why is it that we have accepted teachers handing out assignments as their job, instead of what their job should really be - which is to teach.

I mean, you paid him/her to teach you statistics, so tell his ass to give you what you paid for?

You didn't pay for assignments, you paid to be taught, right?

/rant

Without statistics modern science, including things like quantum mechanics, would not exist. I understand that people who do not or can not understand statistics are suspicious of it, but "hating" statistics is like saying you "hate" science or you "hate" oxygen. It's like saying you've been "duped" when you've been told 2 + 2 = 4 and that mathematics is a lie!

Statistics is part of the structure of reality. The proper use of it can do amazing things. Of course, if you steep yourself in hatred of statistics and convince yourself it is a "lie," then you'll never understand and stay in perpetual ignorance. That's your problem and ensures your understanding is no more than the masses of ignorant uneducated people in the world perpetuating your delusions on everyone else. When you say "statistics is a lie" you are showing your ignorance.

Statistics is not a lie. Get over it.

It's not hard. It may be beyond your interest level, but it isn't difficult to understand. As my statistics teacher (an old old professor named Robert E. Lee Farris) gently said, "The longer a formula is, the more work it does for you." He then proceeded to teach us the basics by using National League baseball batting averages to compute standard deviations. And by using statistics properly there is no doubt, scientifically, that you can say "X is related to Y with a 95% probability, period." and be exactly right 95 times out of 100. Or, you can say 99 times out of 100. Both work; the latter just takes more data so it's more costly.

Naïve guys like this who misuse and misunderstand statistics run the hate on statistics by pointing out where other naïve people are misusing statistics and think they are being profound.

They aren't. They're just showing how ignorant they are. And if you are going to come on here and agree with this guy and proclaim statistics is a fraud, then there is a 100% chance you are naïve and ignorant.

reply to post by HomerinNC


If you hate statistics, try watching an election coverage. That would be hell for you.

I watched an election coverage once, the highlight of the night was when they brought out the pie chart. Gripping television at it's best.

The only problem with statistics is the people creating them!
Most statistics that filter down to us mortals are so distorted they are not worth a toss.

reply to post by HomerinNC


Programmers eat sleep and breathe numbers, charts and statistics. The kind of programming that goes on in computer games requires it. You mentioned business, too. Being able to compile stats and make charts to assign decision making paths or whatever they call it…

Right now sounds like you are in the prerequisites class for that. Wait till you get into the meat of programming.

Is there a class on Waterboarding?

Why yah…

reply to post by HomerinNC


I had exactly the same reaction in my fist official statistics class. Nothing made sense and actually came out of the class knowing less than when I went into it. The problem actually was the class and the professor, not the subject. I was talked into taking stats by a math professor, who was a statistician, from the math department and it all made sense. What a huge difference! I ended up loving statistics and got the rest of my degrees in statistics.

reply to post by HomerinNC


LOL HomerNC it is funny you mention this as Homer Simpson hinted at it too...kind of...


I agree with you both:



Statistics are fake and manipulated to forward various agendas in my opinion.

Does that make me a statistic?

Math makes my brain hurt too I see equations like that and it is as if I am looking at a blank piece of paper. I guess i would use observational statistics ( if that is such a thing) . Personally I find people can blow smoke all they want but after watching the action a for awhile usually give a a different picture of what is being portrayed. Kinda like how the government and corporations give us these stats and they do not coincide with what is actually going on .

on the science side I do not understand the math doesn't make it less important it is vital to keep records and form statistics and really is just a natural by product of science .

Ps you should of done the rant in the alien mask lol that would of been awesome

50% of all statistics are wrong half of the time.

reply to post by schuyler


As always, its not the Tool we should hate.

Just the person wielding it.

;p

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. PATIENCE YOU MUST HAVE my young padawan. Feel the force!” - Yoda

Accept calm instruction, from Jedi Master Khan.

reply to post by HomerinNC


Homer, my deepest, deepest of condolences. I had a lot of classmates that struggled with statistics just like you are currently. It is really pretty convoluted seeming, totally get that. I felt confused most of the time but still manage to ace both classes. I still question those grades. I dunno, maybe my prof thought I was cute or something.

Anyways, I wish I still had my Stats book but I quickly sold that back to the school after I was done with the thing. Don't have any of my excel (or excel right now for that matter) or else I'd see what I could pull together for you. However, excel does have statistics functions capability in it. I'm not sure if it's an add on that you need to download. If it is, it's around the Windows icon, named something like addons and it'll be called statistics.

For that ugly standard deviation formula:

x sub 1 = that's your data unit for the first in the sample
bar x = that's the mean
N = sample size so if you asked 20 people a question, your sample size is 20.
Sigma in this case means sum it all up. That means doing the (x1 - barx)^2 for each bit of data from your sample of 20.
Then divide it by N-1. In our example, that'd be 19.
Then take that number and get the square root of it.

I really hope that helps. Statistics is really scary looking because they replace so much with different greek letters and wingdings. Just figure out what each of those represent and it's just a matter of plugging it in.

Hang in there. Like I said, you have my deepest of condolences.

The important thing to remember is that the numbers, themselves, can't lie. The lie is in how the numbers were derived, and by that I don't mean the math, but in how they got the initial numbers.

The first lesson in my media stats class was that if you knew how to write the question and whom to ask, you could basically generate a number that would say whatever you want. The number isn't lying, but what you might be asking could be disingenuous, and if you've ever taken a political survey over the phone, you know it's an exercise in frustration because you might be aware of just how badly the questions are written to reflect what the people behind the survey want and not what your actual opinion is.

Let add this to my rant:
I get online tutoring, and pretty much in the middle of things the tutor logged off, saying his shift was over, leaving me as lost as before!!!

Before you say get another tutor, you get put in a queue when you want tutoring, and if waited close to 2 hours for this guy!

you are 100% right on that

but 50% will disagree with you

25% will not care

"where are the numbers, where are the freaking numbers?" Hahahahah! That's what I say! I can't even comprehend what letters have to do with math! Looking at just one of those statistic thingies make my head hurt. I cannot fathom how anyone can understand such things. Then again, I'm lucky I graduated high school. That was enough for me.

I do sympathize my friend. I know how hard you have worked on this and for how long. I can completely understand your frustrations. I would express my concerns about the lack of help you're really getting when you need it the most.