“He’s a great statistician, he just comes to all the wrong conclusions with the statistics.”
I had a conversation with one of my friends a few weeks ago, and the above sentence is one of the things he said. He probably didn’t think it was too profound, and I didn’t either at the time, but as I look back on it, it’s actually quite remarkable.
I know enough smart people have existed, so I know he also was not the first person who ever said it. There are millions of people every day who have all of the same information and make different decisions with that information. You might be the smartest man in the world in terms of the knowledge that you have, but believe it or not, you’d have people who might know exactly the same amount as you in a certain area, and they’d come to a different conclusion to you.
It’s an important reminder. Even with all the right ingredients, there’s always the chance to make something that tastes terrible. You can assemble the right information int eh wrong way.
Let’s pursue truth!