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xkcd #3104: Tukey (imgs.xkcd.com)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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xkcd #3104: Tukey

Title text:

Numbers can be tricky. On the day of my 110th birthday, I'll be one day younger than John Tukey was on his.

Transcript:

[Text formatted as a block quote]

"Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise."

John W. Tukey
The Future of Data Analysis (1962)

Caption below the comic:
Happy approximate birthday to John Tukey, author of my favorite statistics quote, who was born 110.000 years ago sometime this week.

Source: https://xkcd.com/3104/

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Are you confused about the older language in the quote? It could be rewritten as:

I cannot even comprehend the kind of misunderstanding that could cause you to ask that question.