Howard Wainer > Quotes

“Looking at the number of Google hits on travel and entertainment websites from people who lived in PS 116’s district would be data, but not evidence; and their evidentiary value would not improve even if there were millions of hits.”
― Howard Wainer, Truth or Truthiness: Distinguishing Fact from Fiction by Learning to Think Like a Data Scientist

“It is too easy for the sheer mass of big data to overwhelm the sorts of healthy skepticism that is required to defeat deception. And now, with so much of our lives being tied up with giant electronic memory systems, it is almost trivial for terabytes of data to accumulate on almost any topic.”
― Howard Wainer, Truth or Truthiness: Distinguishing Fact from Fiction by Learning to Think Like a Data Scientist

“It also makes clear why an observational study needs to collect lots of ancillary information about each participant so that the kind of balancing required can be attempted. In a true experiment, with random assignment, such information is (in theory) not required. Here enters Paul Holland, whose observations about the inevitability of missing data will further illuminate our journey.”
― Howard Wainer, Truth or Truthiness: Distinguishing Fact from Fiction by Learning to Think Like a Data Scientist

“In the past a theory could get by on its beauty; in the modern world a successful theory has to work for a living.”
― Howard Wainer, Truth or Truthiness: Distinguishing Fact from Fiction by Learning to Think Like a Data Scientist

“Evidence may not buy happiness, but it sure does steady the nerves.”
― Howard Wainer, Truth or Truthiness: Distinguishing Fact from Fiction by Learning to Think Like a Data Scientist