Oddbean

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 @134318c2 I would be for swapping stats for calc if you also had to take classes on rhetoric and then swear a blood oath not to use anything you learned and to take up fishing or somesuch.

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 @5d5dab61 

I've seen business majors do things with statistics... thinking they knew it well since they took the "Statistics for Business" class (No calc required!) that made me blush and also become paranoid about reading contracts. 

They would use all kinds of distributions, and "methods" and it was just... vibes based.

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 @134318c2 @5d5dab61 statistics is ALL vibes base.  voodoo.

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 @f604b7a1 @5d5dab61 

I can understand why people think this... *crying* but it's just not true, OK?

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 @134318c2 @5d5dab61 
well statistics as taught in colleges.

i had to help someone taking a fairly sophisticated statistics class for i dont remember what major, at columbia u.

so many recipes.  when do you use which recipe for what?

who knows?  how do they function?  who knows?

also.. i now have few enough decades ahead of me that i will probly never be able to convince myself if most statistics makes sense.

i'm still think it's just a way to get rid of th INTERESTING patterns

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 @f604b7a1 @5d5dab61 

"who knows? "

I know... but nobody wants to listen to me explain it all. 

You can prove things about random variables and data sets that will always be true for all time and forever. 

It's just as solid as any other math. All the structure is there... and most stats classes just give recipes and rules of thumb that work "most of the time" and that's OK... but it also makes people think it's not real math.

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 @134318c2 @5d5dab61 
i'm sure there is some beautiful math in there.

it is also very hard.  i've learned some wacky math.  never been able to get very far in statistics.

hard to find a class or book that does it justice.

and all that reject the null hypothesis and roundabout double negative way of looking at things....WHY?  makes my head swim.