[HN Gopher] How to Read a Log Scale
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       How to Read a Log Scale
        
       Author : Solstinox
       Score  : 58 points
       Date   : 2020-08-30 18:19 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (blog.datawrapper.de)
 (TXT) w3m dump (blog.datawrapper.de)
        
       | NicolasGorden wrote:
       | I often think that one of the biggest changes that could come
       | would be the mass adoption of through statistical analysis
       | classes as part of graduate programs.
       | 
       | There's far, far too many people I've know who just don't
       | understand it.
       | 
       | I also see many forces working against it. For one, it'd show up
       | the ignorance of a lot of the academic world.
       | 
       | I've known high level people, like a MD, who simply didn't fully
       | grasp some basic concepts of statistical analysis (like P-value
       | hacking, questioning sample size, comparisons between raw
       | numbers, etc)
        
         | detaro wrote:
         | Statistics should be part of pretty much every step of
         | education IMHO. Even in elementary school you can teach useful
         | things about reading statistics, high-school math allows more,
         | and universities should cover it too (again with different
         | focus depending on subject and depth of math classes). It's
         | among the most universally useful in life parts of mathematics.
        
         | sukilot wrote:
         | Everyone in these industries takes statistics in college and
         | maybe grad school tool. The problem is (1) that statistics is
         | hard math and these people aren't math majors (2) if you do
         | statistics correctly you can never say anything bold with
         | confidence, which kills your career in any field except
         | statistics itself
        
           | tuatoru wrote:
           | Stats courses for non-statisticians should focus on teaching
           | people how to tell when they need to call in an expert.
           | (Which is most of the time, of course. And that is not unique
           | to statistics.)
           | 
           | And academic journals in medicine etc. need to require that
           | research involving the use of statistics has been reviewed
           | and okayed by specialist statisticians, and prioritise
           | publishing null results. The last would save future
           | researchers a lot of time.
        
         | CharlesW wrote:
         | > _I often think that one of the biggest changes that could
         | come would be the mass adoption of through statistical analysis
         | classes as part of graduate programs._
         | 
         | Can anyone recommend a good introductory course, ideally with a
         | path to more advanced courses?
        
         | MaxBarraclough wrote:
         | > comparisons between raw numbers
         | 
         | What do you mean by this one?
        
           | necheffa wrote:
           | Sometimes you cannot directly compare two numbers because
           | they are on two different scales. It is basically like saying
           | 10cm is bigger than 5in because there are 10, ignoring the
           | fact that if you normalized the values, 5in would be a larger
           | distance.
           | 
           | Of course, it is usually never as obvious to the casual
           | observer as using inconsistent units of linear distance.
        
           | selectodude wrote:
           | A popular one is comparing the violence in cities by their
           | raw numbers instead of per-capita.
        
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