Reid,
My Twain quote was not to be taken seriously, just as Twain did not mean it literally. I had hoped to elicit a smile. But, much to my frequent dismay, I guess one of my downfalls has always been misjudging what the crowd would bear........
I too am very quantitatively oriented, but realize that statistics does not equal "objective truth," and in the end tends to be an ill-fated attempt to perform the impossible: transcend subjectivity, the fundamental and inescapable fact of the human condition. As long as one realizes this and its ramifications, then statistics is immensely useful, and I use statistical analysis daily both at work and in other areas of my life, including stocks. The key, IMHO, is to always maintain in clear sight the uncertainty which cannot be escaped. So, I tend to be skeptical, though some might say more of a smart a**.
But, as in so many other areas where we concern ourselves, the fundamental orientation we must take to reality---we invent it, "majority rule" agreement among subjective beings notwithstanding---clouds and confuses, results in misperceptions and misapprehensions, which in turn drive misguided deeds.
But, expressed much more lyrically and eloquently:
I could be bounded in a nutshell
and count myself a king of infinite space,
were it not that I have bad dreams.
---Hamlet
G'day, mite
Terry |
