I was watching the late night news when a program that is shown at an earlier time The 7pm Project came on. I usually don’t watch at that time as I am watching the ABC news. This was on the Friday, 4th December.
Dr Karl was being interviewed about his science. There was an item regarding how all of mankind had originated from the east coast of Africa. At the end they were discussing the analysis of the data. Out of blue Dr Karl says, “Statisticians are the sluts of the maths world” as quoted by Adam Spencer. I have gone back to the original clip online but the segment has been cut out. I wonder why?
So there I was sitting, thinking I am a slut of the maths world. Hmmm. My sister would be laughing her head off if she heard anybody call me a slut! Something I cannot imagine, I don’t think anybody can. Making love with maths. 
What is a slut? A floozy. I remember when I was young, being crazy in nightclubs and friends calling me a floozy, “go on, flitter away”. What was I doing? Going around and saying “hello” to all my friends in all areas of the club. Nothing wrong with that, I had a wide variety of friends with all different backgrounds.
If this is the case, that I can take my maths where ever I like, where people from all different disciplines know that I will understand them, know what they are trying to do with the numbers and they will understand my analysis. Then I don’t mind being called a slut of the maths world, not many people can say that they can understand maths which ever way you look at it.
So Adam, you are just jealous that I can take my maths to any discipline, whether corporate or research and any industry. Yes, I am a slut of the maths world but I am proud of being able to understand the numbers, interpret so people can understand and use the analysis in the manner required. 
Tags: Business Analyst, Data Analytics, Statistics
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Dear Colleen,
Hit him harder !!!
Take care and have a nice weekend.
Cheers, Philipp
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I am a statistician-to-be (an undergraduate studying to become a statistician) and cannot believe that someone would ever insult statisticians! Why are they sluts when the work they do is incredibly important?
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Might it be that if the statistician gathers data that proves things to be contrary to what person A wants everyone to believe that instead of rethinking their position, person A attacks the credibility of the messenger? This is clearly being seen in another controversy in the news where the press and specific people make it clear they feel it is just fine and even proper to lie and alter data as long as in doing so you help to prove their point.
Thus I would have to assume that if the statistician is honest and their findings are not slanted to back their beliefs or the beliefs of those paying them, tht whoever calls them names, does not like the truth.
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This posting doesn’t dignify a reponse, either to the mathematician who did the denigrating, or to the statistician who did the pandering.
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But you did… so who is pandering???
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people are always jealous for what they see in others and what they dont have.
Be proud to be universal. any TEXT can not be complete without you. you are always needed for the needs and not the wants.MANAGERS cannot measure PERFORMANCE without you, otherwise nobody can earn, not even MANAGERS.
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I may comment that Stats can make more generalisations, reducing a problem into its basic elements/variables, and trying to “ignore” the rest. It is well known that Stats can “massage” the data, adding and subtracting elements. Thus the credibility of the Stats process is important. Stats can also logically argue something untrue (e.g. the world starfish population is directly correlated to the amount of mail Santa gets). It is less feasible for pure mathematics to do this. Persumably Adam is connecting this with cultural generalisations regarding female sexuality, availability of it, and ability for it to be used to ge something desired. Basically, that quote was deleted for a reason. Best to ignore.
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I love stat! I run my business by opposites. Give me a statistic, and I look at the opposite. Same as my business philosophy:
I have a breast screening company in Australia. Our opposites:
Younger rather than older women (all women are young)
Safe rather than invasive
Comfortable rather than painful
Health rather than
Prevention rather than treatment
Early, preclinical clues rather than late evidence
etc.Shows up in the stats:
In Australia, 63% of women diagnosed are over 50 (the target screening population. 27% are under 50!
30% of diagnoses are found through the screening program. 70% are not.I love statistics!
Jo
Safe Breast Imaging-
This is why statistics is so important, it helps us measure and compare, re: Data Analytics?!!
Early detection is a must, not just using breast screens. I have been very fortunate or not, I had a benign tumour removed from my breast in my early 30’s and only because my sister had found a malignant tumour in her 20’s. She was lucky to have detected it early not to have the cancer spread into her lymph nodes, now she has 3 beautiful children. And we all have our regular screenings when the breast clinic van is in town.
Thank you Jo for adding your very important statement.
Statistics is a necessity for human curiosity to learn and prevent. Maybe the politicians should think about that while they are all in Copenhagen!
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I think that you are missing the point: statistics can be considered ‘slutty’ because of the tendency of certain analysts to ‘massage the data to get the desired results.’ That is not being intellectually honest, it is being … well, slutty!
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Zvi,
You made me laugh.
Recently there was a posting in one of my groups. It asked the business analyst whether you believed the glass was half full or half empty. My reply, “as a statistician, I can always work the numbers to make the glass look full”.
There are always some that will always try to work the numbers so that they will suit them. Not only statisticians will do this but I believe the worst offenders are the creative accountants. Erron springs to mind.
The statement is a biased view on statistician. We do such good work for research in so many industries. There are definitely more slutty numbers’ people out there than statisticians. It is the statistician that measure and compare built on sound theory and logic.
Poor choice of words by Adam.
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Colleen,
I have recently been catching up on your blog and got to this post. I like Adam Spencer and Dr Karl, and a lot of what they say is designed to appeal to a very specific audience, the type of audience that can relate to calling a discipline like statistics “slutty”. Anyway, Adam Spencer’s comment reminds of a quote popularised by Mark Twain, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” I think what he meant is that statistics can be put to use proving different sides of the same argument. See more in the Wikipedia link below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies,_damned_lies,_and_statistics
Enjoying your blog and you overcoming your challenges.
Cheers,
Peter
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