the.com/statistic
A number with the confidence of a fact and the honesty of a salesman.
means A single number calculated from data that's meant to summarize or represent something larger, messier, and harder to capture.
from From German Statistik, coined in the 18th century from Neo-Latin statisticus, meaning 'of the state' — ultimately from Latin status, 'state' or 'condition.' It originally meant the systematic study of facts about a state: population, trade, resources — the numbers rulers needed to govern. Only later did 'statistics' narrow from 'facts about states' to the math of collecting, crunching, and summarizing any data at all.
- origin
- from 'state' — literally invented to tax and conscript you
- abuse rate
- used more often to end arguments than start research
- average trap
- one person with ten pies means you statistically had five
- cherry picking
- any dataset confesses if tortured long enough