H. G. Wells Quotes

I think that a failure of statistical thinking is the major intellectual shortcoming of our universities, journalism and intellectual culture.

On average, people should be more skeptical when they see numbers. They should be more willing to play around with the data themselves.

Not enough of our society is trained how to understand and interpret quantitative information. This activity is a centerpiece of science literacy to which we should all strive-the future health, wealth, and security of our democracy depend on it. Until that is achieved, we are at risk of making under-informed decisions that affect ourselves, our communities, our country, and even the world.

But the indeterminate future is somehow one in which probability and statistics are the dominant modality for making sense of the world. Bell curves and random walks define what the future is going to look like. The standard pedagogical argument is that high schools should get rid of calculus and replace it with statistics, which is really important and actually useful. There has been a powerful shift toward the idea that statistical ways of thinking are going to drive the future.

Statistics are no substitute for judgment.

When you have mastered numbers, you will in fact no longer be reading numbers, any more than you read words when reading books You will be reading meanings.

Be able to analyze statistics, which can be used to support or undercut almost any argument.

Sometimes one must make extended conclusions from limited data.

The great body of physical science, a great deal of the essential fact of financial science, and endless social and political problems are only accessible and only thinkable to those who have had a sound training in mathematical analysis, and the time may not be very remote when it will be understood that for complete initiation as an efficient citizen of one of the new great complex worldwide States that are now developing, it is as necessary to be able to compute, to think in averages and maxima and minima, as it is now to be able to read and write.

You can use all the quantitative data you can get, but you still have to distrust it and use your own intelligence and judgment.

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.

Numeracy isn't a sign of geekiness, but a basic requirement for intelligent discussions of public policy.

Things like the financial markets - a proper grounding in mathematics could help the common man. I believe that if people are more familiar with mathematical concepts... it can help deal with modern life, which is increasingly complex.

But I don't think I have any particular talent for prediction, because when you have three or four elements in hand, you don't have to be a genius to reach certain conclusions.

I don't see the logic of rejecting data just because they seem incredible.

Statistics is the grammar of science.

It is the mark of a truly intelligent person to be moved by statistics.

In politics, information is superabundant—what is needed is judgement and selectivity in dealing with that information.

It is the mark of a greatly educated person to be deeply moved by statistics.

As an intelligence analyst you have to tell the president what you know, what you think you know and what you don’t know.

I'm always trying to calculate the mathematical probability of certain outcomes.

I was good with numbers.

It is my job to know the difference between information and intelligence.

I have never been a stats person.

Approximating involves making a series of educated guesses systematically by partitioning the problem into manageable chunks, identifying assumptions, and then using your general knowledge of the world to fill in the blanks.