Numbers are the product of counting. Quantities are the product of measurement. This means that numbers can conceivably be accurate because there is a discontinuity between each integer and the next.
Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise.
All exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation.
Any librarian or scholar will tell you: Close is not the same as accurate.
Whenever I see a forecast written out to two decimal places, I cannot help but wonder if there is a misunderstanding of the limitations of the data, and an illusion of precision.
I don't know that I could draw one that's perfect. But I'd rather by approximately right than precisely wrong, and it would be precisely wrong to turn it down.
