- Messages
- 3,352
- Reactions
- 4,958
1) The odds are that you will never have to use your gun for self defense. The odds are that you won't ever NEED the seatbelt in your car. The odds are that you will never need catastrophic health insurance.
True dat. We must remember the stakes are even more important than the odds, especially when it's your life on the line.
2) "I'm truly starting to believe that all stats are just plain bullcrap."
There is an excellent little book called How to Lie with Statistics. Even a cretin who moves his/her lips when they read can finish it in an afternoon - or about 2 hours for the actually literate. Once you read it you will never blindly trust statistical chicanery again.
3) "Statistically, among folks with no training in statistics, that makes you average."
Uhh, would that mode, median, or mean average?
4) (a)If I knew ahead of time that trouble would find me while out and about I would stay home and watch Oprah and miss out on it entirely. If I could see the future I would win the lottery and buy a Veyron. If I knew trouble was coming for me at home I would be armed with a lot more than just a handgun. Since I am not psychic I just have to carry a sidearm (long guns being inconvenient for all day carry) and hope I don't need it.
(b) I have had enough statistically improbable stuff happen to me that I know better than to blindly trust the averages when it's my life at stake.
True dat. We must remember the stakes are even more important than the odds, especially when it's your life on the line.
2) "I'm truly starting to believe that all stats are just plain bullcrap."
There is an excellent little book called How to Lie with Statistics. Even a cretin who moves his/her lips when they read can finish it in an afternoon - or about 2 hours for the actually literate. Once you read it you will never blindly trust statistical chicanery again.
3) "Statistically, among folks with no training in statistics, that makes you average."
Uhh, would that mode, median, or mean average?
4) (a)If I knew ahead of time that trouble would find me while out and about I would stay home and watch Oprah and miss out on it entirely. If I could see the future I would win the lottery and buy a Veyron. If I knew trouble was coming for me at home I would be armed with a lot more than just a handgun. Since I am not psychic I just have to carry a sidearm (long guns being inconvenient for all day carry) and hope I don't need it.
(b) I have had enough statistically improbable stuff happen to me that I know better than to blindly trust the averages when it's my life at stake.
