November 9, 2011

Stop me if you heard this one before ...

A theoretical physicist and a mathematical psychologist walk into a bar. Sorry, I don't have an actual joke. Just an observation:

Math is elegant. That elegance has a dark side and seduces people people away from the real world of data. Math can unequivocally prove their results, whereas real world data never proves anything. At its best, data can falsify a theory. More often data is consistent with several theories. However, messy real world data can be far more valuable than the fragile perfection of math.

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