How think about whether games affect thinking

Think video games make you smarter? Not so fast…

http://theinvisiblegorilla.com/blog/2011/09/13/think-video-games-make-you-smarter-not-so-fast/

Beware the spurious correlation…

Nice explanation of why you need stratification and how it works.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/05/bad-science-adjusting-figures

More generally, nice illustration of why, if you’re operating below a certain level of sophistication, you effectively just can’t  think about certain topics.   You’re out of your depth.

Cherry picking has its uses

“Ya know, perhaps it would be worthwhile taking a look at the presentations made to get funding for or sell stock in actual mining operations.

Do you suppose they would reveal similar misstatements, equally invisible to the mining industry people?”

http://tamino.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/bob-carter-does-his-business/

What Social Science Doesn’t Know

Interesting review of the epistomology of social science.  by Jim Manzi

“The experimental revolution is like a huge wave that has lost power as it has moved through topics of increasing complexity.”

Science’s Problems with Statistics

ODDS ARE, IT’S WRONG

Science fails to face the shortcomings of statistics

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/57091/title/Odds_are,_its_wrong

More analysis please

“The problems that we face today, both big ones in society like the current health care debate and smaller ones like strategic business decisions, do not exist because we lack information, but because we don’t understand it. They can be solved only by developing skills and tools to make sense of information that is often complex. In other words, the major obstacle to solving modern problems isn’t the lack of information, solved by acquiring it, but the lack of understanding, solved by analytics.”

Stephen Few, http://www.perceptualedge.com/blog/?p=621

Stand-out records

 

Source: What Are the Odds? – Happy Days Blog – NYTimes.com

Address : <http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/what-are-the-odds/?em>In fact, every stand-out record in any sport that has ever been analyzed has always been found to be consistent with the patterns produced by random fluctuations. 

In fact, every stand-out record in any sport that has ever been analyzed has always been found to be consistent with the patterns produced by random fluctuations. 

Source: What Are the Odds? - Happy Days Blog – NYTimes.com

Are “Great” Companies Just Lucky?

Mostly, yes. 

Are “Great” Companies Just Lucky?

Harvard Business Review April 2009

See also The Halo Effect

Parallel sets

Interesting new type of graphic for showing proportions

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7937382.stm

Statistically Significant Stupidity

Is Carl Doomed to be a C Student?

Statistically significant not equal to significant

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