Mahesh's Fourth Law - Adjectives
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
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
Comments