Quotes About Data

The two most trusted medical journals in the United States had published incorrect, manufacturer-biased reports about major drugs. The FDA knew that both articles had misrepresented the data but did not correct the misleading information.

What we call the past is built on bits.

Link by link, click by click, search is building possibly the most lasting, ponderous, and significant cultural artifact in the history of humankind: the Database of Intentions.

Fortunately for the historian, the court to which his evidence is submitted has no fixed term; interesting cases can be argued before it indefinitely. The jury can remain out for as long as it takes to gather the requisite data and come to a sound decision... the historian can watch with delight or consternation as the case is tried and retried by others, who may prove his hunches right or wrong." The Kindness of Strangers

Freud only rarely draws on the data of direct observation, one or two of the occasions when he does so are key ones. Instances are the cotton-reel incident on which he bases much of his argument in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (S.E., 18, pp. 14–16), and the agonising reappraisal of the theory of anxiety that he undertakes in Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety (1926).

Now there is nothing unscientific in utilising, for the interpretation of data, any model that seems promising; and there is therefore nothing unscientific either in Freud's introduction of his model or in his own or others' employment of it. Nevertheless, the question arises whether there may by now be an alternative better suited for the purpose in hand.

The most important scientific concept is that an assertion is often an empirical question, settled by collecting evidence. The plural of anecdote is not data, and the plural of opinion is not facts. Quality peer-reviewed scientific evidence accumulates into knowledge. People's stories are stories, and fiction keeps us going. But science should settle policy.

Information is a measure of uncertainty reduced.

It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming It is a scam. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an illusion of rapid global warming.

Any string of symbols that can be given an abbreviated representation is called algorithmically compressible.

My dad was an agent for Met Life. In the '50s, I remember the mortality rate was something like - you had - 58 was the average age. Then it was moved up to 62, and then 65, 68.

Imagine if you had access to data that allowed you to rank on a scale of overall happiness which people in your life made you the happiest. … Would you make more time for those people?

Phone networks can capture life on our planet.

Department of Energy data confirms that New York State's per capita energy consumption is next to last in the country, which largely reflects public transit use in New York City.

if you want an economic chart that stops you from sleeping you should start with the elephant.

Uncannily accurate intuition, coupled with a tendency to overlook the obvious and ignore major data.

The time was right for our project because the necessary high-quality databases and the powerful new computers with which to explore them were just becoming affordable. By luck, one of our researchers almost immediately found the basic idea behind statistical arbitrage.

What about confusing clutter? Information overload? Doesn't data have to be "boiled down" and "simplified"? These common questions miss the point, for the quantity of detail is an issue completely separate from the difficulty of reading. Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information .

Above all else show the data.

Graphical excellence is that which gives to the viewer the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time with the least ink in the smallest space.

To clarify, *add* data.

Small, noncomparative, highly labeled data sets usually belong in tables.

If the statistics are boring, then you've got the wrong numbers.

Cosmetic decoration, which frequently distorts the data, will never salvage an underlying lack of content.