Opening remarks
Nowadays, it has been the so-called digital and big data era for many years. The status of statistics has become more prominent and its uses have become more and more extensive, and the criticism or negative sentiment of it has become increasingly high.
For such a phenomenon, to use a saying often said in TV dramas---this matter involves a wide range of things, then this article will justify it.
The famous American writer Mark Twain once said: Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable. To
put it bluntly , if the facts are in front of you, then there is nothing to say, but if it is statistics, there is really much that can be played. To go.
Born from "doing numbers"
In the world of phenomena, because everything is different, things seem to be impermanent. For a variety of specific purposes, comparison and contrast are needed. Statistics appear in this context and are intended to provide deterministic guidance for people's lives .
Although statistics has played a huge positive role in the development of human society, when people mention statistics or statistics, they often have complicated meanings.
For example, when people talk about statistics on the Internet, they often make the following comments:
- Statistics are bad
- The statistics are lies
- Statistics are useless
- Statistics are not facts
- Statistics are fabricated
- Statistics is an excuse for the losers
Very interesting. What exactly happened? Why do many people hate a subject field so much.
Take a look at the definition of statistics in Webster's Dictionary, which is just "the branch of mathematics that deals with the collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of large amounts of digital data . "
From this point of view, this is clearly a tool discipline, but so many people have such a negative attitude towards this field. What is the reason?
Four major crimes
Why is it so difficult to learn
01 The first reason is too difficult.
For many people who are often exposed to statistics at work, study, or life, they often complain: even the most basic concepts in descriptive and inferential statistics are difficult to understand correctly. I always feel that something is wrong, let alone explain it to others.
Many confused college freshmen admit that preparing for each exam in statistics is really hard.
What's more troublesome is that even many industries and scientific households do not know exactly what the p-value is. When Xiaobai encountered statistics, he was basically like reading a book.
02 Experts often make mistakes
The second reason for having a big opinion on statistics and related work is that even so-called experts, under a rigorous work attitude, will misuse statistical tools and related techniques , and there are not a few, including the author. .
There are so many pitfalls in statistics that are hard to avoid.
When we see that experts often make incorrect decisions, we really want to overturn the table in front of us, especially when we need expert advice most.
And this will make people fall into the emotional dilemma of agnosticism.
03Statistics and scammers
The third reason behind statistical hatred is that people often hold a bunch of numbers to serve their own purposes, and there is not much to say about logical or de facto support relationships. This behavior actually constitutes lying .
As mentioned earlier, even people in the time of Mark Twain realized this.
There are some very popular guide books today, and the topic of writing is about how to use statistics to do deceit.
I have to say that this behavior is wicked.
04 Cold Blood Killer
Finally, the fourth reason is that statistical data is usually considered to be indifferent and ruthless . It sounds neutral and transcendent because many statistics are related to people in life, and these numbers often appear to be related to people. It doesn't matter.
Once a person is labelled with statistical numbers , such as age, score, or even face value, etc., it is like being cursed and uncomfortable in my heart.
No one wants to "become a statistic," because it would be tantamount to being a victim of an unfortunate situation, being hidden forever in anonymity by a single, no-name, no-face number. It's very cold to think of this.
Rectification of statistics
But despite the widespread condemnation of statistics or statistics, the field of statistics itself provides every data worker with important or necessary methods and tools to solve problems, and it has always played a role in the process of human civilization .
To a certain extent, if you reconsider the definition of the Weber dictionary cited above, you will find that everything that people do when processing data is actually just statistical data.
No matter what sexier names you want to give it, such as data analysis, analytics, data science-if it is interpreted literally, it is just a subset of statistics.
Statistics, like mathematics, engineering, and other natural subjects, is just a set of tools .
How to make use of the effectiveness of this set of tools, first of all, is to truly learn to correctly understand the relevant theories and use the corresponding practical methods.
But I have to say that statistics is indeed a difficult subject to learn. Many places are easily confusing, at a loss, and even at a loss. There are countless people who fall into the trap.
Conclusion
So, in order to save people’s views on statistics from purgatory and do something to restore their due reputation, these few texts will focus on introducing some common and frequently used statistical methods to readers and friends. Go in the pits.
