Re: st: RE: RE: The Future of Statistical Computing

[Diego Navarro <the.electric.me@gmail.com>]

> > The business manager merely needs to choose the graph that he  
> > understands, that he can communicate to whoever he needs to. He  
> > doesn't need to care whether the assumptions of the analyses are  
> > correct.
>
> Wow! That's really radical!
>
> If you don't care whether the assumptions are correct (and hence  
> whether the analyses are valid), why do you need any analyses or  
> data in the first place? Just make up any good looking graph that  
> you like and go with it.
>
> (You = your hypothetical manager)


My manager is constantly handling that tension. He's really good.  
Anyway, in the mind of a good manager, there's an error function to be  
minimized -- between what his wonks will tell him and what he knows  
other businesspeople can grok. (Of course, my manager has a PhD by  
Cornell, so this is harder for people with PHBs).

The bottom line is that you need to produce evidence for a number of  
scenarios, some of which might not be theoretically sound. Much can be  
accomplished by line graphs with two axes.

---
Diego Navarro
(21) 2559-5620

"The infinite possibilities each day holds should stagger the mind.  
The sheer number of experiences I could have is uncountable,  
breathtaking, and I'm sitting here refreshing my inbox. We live  
trapped in loops, reliving a few days over and over. And we envision  
only a handful of paths laid out ahead of us. We see the same things  
each day, we respond the same way, we thing the same thoughts, each  
day a slight variation on the last, every moment smoothly following  
the gentle curves of societal norms. We act like if we just get  
through today, tomorrow our dreams will come back to us. And no, I  
don't have all the answers. I don't know how to jolt myself into  
seeing what each moment could become. But I do know one thing: the  
solution doesn't involve watering down my every little idea and  
creative impulse for the sake of some day easing my fit into a mold.  
It doesn't involve tempering my life to better fit someone's  
expectations. It doesn't involve constantly holding back for fear of  
shaking things up." (xkcd #13)

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