Do read Neil Postman’s entertaining ourselves to death. Wow! Written before the internet! He did an experiment of saying nonsense, saying nonsense with made-up statistics, and the same but attributed to fictitious studies. He quit because the results depressed him.
He would say stuff like “A Stanford study recently demonstrated that 15% of young adults could, with guided meditation, learn to levitate at least 1 meter.” His audience was smart colleagues. They didn’t laugh. They looked intrigued. He was amused for a while, then shocked. Good research, Neil.
This is a nice reminder of the slight of hand that's often present when statistics are mentioned, particularly if those statistics are mentioned by a dishonest media.
Why I always say (and it'll be on my gravestone) always Be Aware or Beware
First day in Statistics class…”if u get one thing from this class it’s Statistics can be manipulated”.
Absolutely! Liars figure, and figures lie.
Do read Neil Postman’s entertaining ourselves to death. Wow! Written before the internet! He did an experiment of saying nonsense, saying nonsense with made-up statistics, and the same but attributed to fictitious studies. He quit because the results depressed him.
Thanks, Steve! I will. Best, Jeff
He would say stuff like “A Stanford study recently demonstrated that 15% of young adults could, with guided meditation, learn to levitate at least 1 meter.” His audience was smart colleagues. They didn’t laugh. They looked intrigued. He was amused for a while, then shocked. Good research, Neil.
Walter, you are spot on, as usual!
This is a nice reminder of the slight of hand that's often present when statistics are mentioned, particularly if those statistics are mentioned by a dishonest media.