I wish there were more Cosma Shalizis in the world. Somehow, statistics has beco... | Hacker News

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MichaelSalib on Feb 12, 2011 | parent | context | favorite | on: General factor of intelligence g, a Statistical My...

I wish there were more Cosma Shalizis in the world. Somehow, statistics has become the ultimate in cargo cult mathematics. We need more statisticians who can write clearly to set fire to our thatched airplanes.

brent on Feb 12, 2011 [–]

Pardon my naivety, but what do you mean by "thatched airplanes"?

Nogwater on Feb 12, 2011 | | [–]

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult

"Thatched airplanes" being an imitation of the real thing.

MichaelSalib on Feb 12, 2011 | | [–]

Nogwater nails it below.

Specifically, I'm think of things like http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/weblog/491.html and http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/weblog/656.html

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