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My (Very) Mini Rant

I learnt (again!) this morning that you shouldn't try and argue statistics with someone that doesn't understand them. You just end up wasting your time.

Just had to get that off of my chest. :)

Olaf the Stout
 

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Mycanid said:
Very true!

For the record though ... you don't mean rpg pc stats, do you? :p

No, this had nothing to do with RPG's. It was actually to do with sport but I have had stats arguements with people that don't understand stats on a whole range of different topics.

Olaf the Stout
 

I learnt (again!) this morning that you shouldn't try and argue statistics with someone that doesn't understand them. You just end up wasting your time.

60% of the time, that's true, but 64% of the time, it is false.
 


OakwoodDM said:
Did you know that 88.2% of statistics are made up on the spot?
It has been shown that anytime somebody begins a discussion of statistics, this joke comes up in 81.75% of the discussions. In the 18.25% of the discussions where this joke is not spoken, 100% of the participants are statisticians.
 




Olaf the Stout said:
I learnt (again!) this morning that you shouldn't try and argue statistics with someone that doesn't understand them. You just end up wasting your time.

Just had to get that off of my chest. :)

Olaf the Stout
Heh heh heh. Try that with the Greenies :) It is hilarious when you counter their memorised stats with a simple question: "What is the baseline?" A typical conversation goes something like this:

Greenie: You shouldn't do that! It makes you xxxxxx% more likely to die from yyyy.
Me: xxxxxx% of what?
Greenie: Wha-?
Me: What is the xxxxx% of? I mean, if it is xxxxx% of 0.00000000000001%, then xxxxx% isn't all that much for a lifetime of happiness, isn't it?
Greenie: But you'll die!
Me: We all die. Do you want to live a single second longer than me, but be miserable your entire life? I don't.
Greenie: But you're hurting yourself.
Me: Am I? I am having *fun*! I ain't hurting anyone, so why not?
Greenie: You'll die sooner!
Me: By one second. I don't think that really matters in the grand scheme of things?
Greenie: But-
Me: You don't know the baseline, do you?
Greenie: I don't need to know! All I need to know is that it is bad for you!
Me: Uh-huh. Good luck with that. I'm off to enjoy myself.


The funny thing is, you can have the exact same conversation with *different* people. I wonder if they go to the same training school or something :)
 

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