Chapter 14
Ten Things You Ought to Know about Statistics
IN THIS CHAPTER
A description of descriptive statistics
Why averages aren’t as simple as they might seem
Some observations about observations
Making sense (to a point) of inferential statistics
Mercifully brief looks at probability distributions and confidence intervals
A big part of the “analysis” portion of “data analysis” involves things like counting, averaging, adding, and standard deviation-ing the data. In a word, much of data analysis involves statistics. Here’s the thing about statistics, though: After you get beyond the basics, it’s a subject that gets complicated in a hurry. Fortunately, you can leap gazelle-like over many of these early statistics hurdles by learning a few basics, and that’s what this chapter is all about.
And when I say “basics,” I mean basics. In the paragraphs that follow, you won’t see any mention of statistical esoterica such as chi-squared distributions and Fourier analysis. There are no Greek ...
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