Averages are Boring

The Charms of Statistics.�It is difficult to understand why statisticians commonly limit their inquiries to Averages, and do not revel in more comprehensive views. Their souls seem as dull to the charm of variety as that of the native of one of our flat English counties, whose retrospect of Switzerland was that, if its mountains could be thrown into its lakes, two nuisances would be got rid of at once. An Average is but a solitary fact, whereas if a single other fact be added to it, an entire Normal Scheme, which nearly corresponds to the observed one, starts potentially into existence. Some people hate the very name of statistics, but I find them full of beauty and interest. Whenever they are not brutalised, but delicately handled by the higher methods, and are warily interpreted, their power of dealing with complicated phenomena is extraordinary. They are the only tools by which an opening can be cut through the formidable thicket of difficulties that bars the path of those who pursue the Science of man.

Notes:

Statisticians should be interested in more complex and beautiful things.

Folksonomies: statistics

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/law, govt and politics (0.101534)

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Entities:
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Natural inheritance

Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Galton , Sir Francis (1889), Natural inheritance, Retrieved on 2012-05-18

Source Material [books.google.com]