Mahesh's Fourth Law - Adjectives

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Adjectives have no place in Data Analysis

The papers are always full of it. And whats worse, i am not referring to just the news-papers. Scientific Journals can be just as bad (sometimes).

"We are looking for a simple correlation between Poverty and Crime" - a nice statement to make, but the Simplicity is not up to you. You may (or may not!) be able to get a correlation between Poverty and Crime, but its Simplicity is going to be either present (if only in the eye of the beholder), or non-existent. All *you* can do is find the correlation - again, *if* it exists.

Statements like these - avec adjectives, tend to drive me up a wall. They are everywhere! Mind you, I'm fine with adjectives used appropriately - heck, I have used 'em all over the place here - and any conversation about food or wine would be a non-starter without 'em, but in Data Analysis?

So please, no more Simple Correlations!!!

By the way, if you think *I'm* annoyed by these adjectives, you should see their effect on my Father

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