Statistics

I've long had a love and hate relationship with statistics.

Our first encounter was painful - for me - and shameful - for it, since I suspect the books cried tears of helplessness in the face of my repetitive mistakes. But we both got over it. After a bit of a fight, I thought I reached the point where I can understand it.


Yes, you can laugh now. I did not have the wisdom to understand how stupid that sounded. Like any other science we know, statistics has it's precious depths and narrow niches, and for one to declare themselves an expert, well, I should say it takes more courage than I have.

But that is, ultimately, beside the point of this post. What statistics taught me, as an objective and rational human being, was not what to ask or what the answer is, but how to ask in order for the answer to be relevant to the matter at hand. I've learnt the meaning of a population, a sample, a standard deviation. I've learnt that those things are very important. That the result of that study so discussed in the media (and here you can fill in the blanks with any study) is only relevant if you know some key things about the data collected. It also taught me that the results can help you with calculating probability, not give you a definitive answer; it should help with having realistic expectations and taking calculated risks, not make you give up all hope or stay away from danger for a life time.

It ultimately taught me that, although the chance of winning an Olympic medal is 1 in 662,000, there are always people trying to do just that, dedicate their lives to that goal. And even when they don't succeed, I have yet to see one regretting their decision to follow that dream.

What I think statistics really does for those people is to make them aware of the odds without hindering their determination; on the contrary, it seems to strengthen their resolve. Because we are (just) human, our success is often reduced to comparing results - for what can be more satisfying at the end of the day than knowing you were better than anyone else in your field?