“I never made a mistake in my life. I thought I did once, but I was wrong” Preview KEW Episode 96: Type II Error

How do you feel about math? How about statistics?

If you are like most people, you don’t really care too much about math OR stats. I, myself, did not really like either – until I needed them.

As a budding scientist I was really into field work, collecting data, hypothesizing, and playing in streams. But I wasn’t too keen on the writing and data analysis and stuff.

Eventually I realized that you are only as good as your weakest link.

In other words, to be a good scientist, I had to be good at all the parts of the scientific method.

I had to learn statistics. Because that’s how I would analyze all the data I had collected.

So with beginners mind and a growth mindset, made possible by the realization that this was a necessary step along my path, I fully embraced and ingested math, stats, modeling, hell even computer programming. Mostly as a means to an end, but with tons of theory thrown in.

This is how I came to understand Type I and Type II error, probability, and the idea that proof doesn’t really exist.

I’m excited to share this episode this week. Coming this Friday.

BTW, the title quote is from Charles M. Schulz of Peanuts fame.