Why you should love statistics | Alan Smith

Think you're good at guessing stats? Guess again. Whether we consider ourselves math people or not, our ability to understand and work with numbers is terribly limited, says data visualization expert Alan Smith. In this delightful talk, Smith explores the mismatch between what we know and what we think we know.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more.

[KnowArt]

If one human on earth would be immortal. The average lifespan of everyone would be forever.

[vertex]

Accordion to statistics, most people do not notice when you replace random words with musical instruments...

[atreyakoirala]

This guy deserves massive respect, the way he put that together and the effort I saw was mad.

[resurrectionkratos]

This makes me feel so much better about having to learn Stats as part of a psychology course :) Helpful

[ireneontiveros]

Takeaways: 1) there is great misconception by the public 2) the disjoint between what people perceive and what is reality shows that statistics is a very important subject

[ImLeoIsing]

Who else is watching this with their introduction to statistics college course lol

[vulcanfeline]

there are 10 kinds of people - those who understand binary and those who don't

[emailv]

I needed a little bit of statistics inspiration as I work on my statistics assignment- thanks!

[MrCattlehunter]

This didn't have much with people's ability to "understand and work with numbers", though, at least not as he presented it. People weren't wrong about the stats because they didn't understand the stats. They were wrong about the stats because... they didn't know them. They were just guessing based on observations they had made in every day life. That's not being bad at stats, that's lacking information or making poor observations.

[geraldmerkowitz]

There is something wrong with the TED community. Even when a dude talks about an online thingy he made about statistics, the comments get political in a matter of seconds

[teacul]

4:36 lol "what could possibly be causing that misperception?" *ahem* media *ahem*

[Weatherman]

I’ve never thought about any part of mathematics like Mr. Smith just did. “Statistics is the silence of us.”

[ADDodger]

Jesus this comment section is a cesspool

Great presentation!

[polliv]

Loved the talk! I also noted that this was by far one of the most clean and well thought out presentations in a long time. (Clear, but well supporting slides, getting the message across, etc..)

[mcough]

Studying for my Stats mock tomorrow... watching this because it's 'relevant' (yeah procrastination ok) and it's in my town too! What are the odds...

[zbfmhjg]

Watching this to stay motivated for my stats class

[ZadieBear]

I have a degree in Math & Economics and I hated statistics in college, so much so I had to take it over. However, one of my favorite books in my 20's was a book on quantifying statistics in a meaningful way. Go figure.

[grahampalmer]

Just done the quiz for my area. Got 109%. Never knew I was so good with numbers ;-)

[ariah]

As an individual who only then realized I was good at numbers AFTER I got out of highschool. I believe it to be an educational issue.

[gasser]

was this posted to the TED channel by accident and not the TEDx channel?