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Archiver > TMG > 2005-08 > 1123282263


From: Dean Scribner <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Statistical Report - Part 2
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2005 15:51:03 -0700


John Davis writes:
>Interestingly, Huff's book was written tongue-in-cheek, especially the
title. It is actually a very good compendium of caveats to help the user
of statistics to avoid making errors with statistical data.<

Only Huff's style was tongue-in-cheek. The book was written with a dual
audience in mind:
1. The legitimate user as you have described, and
2. The potential victim of erroneous or deliberately misused statistical
data.
The rest of us need to understand that the results of statistical
analysis should not always be accepted at face value. Fortunately, TMG's
statistics are both useful and pretty reliable, as long as we respect
their natural limitations.

>Unfortunately for me, the one copy I had was purchased with company
money, so I had to leave it in my library for the next guy when I
retired.<

Mine suffered exactly the same fate for the same reason, but not before I
learned to be cautious. I have used Huff's principles myself for both
offense and defense. ;-) Another good book is "Business as a Game".
I've run into a number of "genealogists" who, I suspect, have studied
both books.

Dean

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