Statistical Thinking

It is difficult enough to be bamboozled by statistics and left empty headed by statistical process, without realizing that the real value of statistics is to think statistically.   Before I can even begin to think mathematically, I need to pursue how it is I am going to learn how to think statistically.   In the name of statistics numbers are used to fit arguments and it is only if our mindset can think statistically can we determine what is statistical fluff from stat facts.

This goes back to the old adage

there are lies, damn lies and statistics
Credited to Mark Twain

My focus on numeral intelligence is not simply one focused on statistics but this is one area that is taught at night school and in the fall I will make the investment.  However there is no point in enrolling into a 14 week night school program and know that I will hit the wall - and so preparing the ground for that course will be the order of the day.   A six week prep before deciding whether this is the right time would be a diligent thing to do.  Even with the prep, mathematics, finance and statistics is the very thing I have spent a lifetime running from - and now I am turning around to finally face subjects which will test my desire to learn them. 

Getting an "A" at the end of a statistics course is no guarantee that I will have learned to think statistically.  That is a very different mindset and it is the mindset which I need to study first.

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