What have you changed your mind about

Steve Simon

2008-01-18

This page is currently being updated from the earlier version of my website. Sorry that it is not yet fully available.

A group called The Edge (www.edge.org) asks a question each year of prominent scientists and a few select non-scientists. This group represents from a broad range of backgrounds and disciplines and provides an interesting variety of responses. Questions asked in the past include:

Just recently, this group published responses to the 2008 question: What have you changed your mind about? Why? Several of the responses touch directly or indirectly on Statistics.

I might as well put my thoughts in as well. I no longer believe that statisticians are the gatekeepers to scientific integrity and that we need to impose certain restrictions on how data should be analyzed (e.g., only allow parametric tests when there is evidence that the assumptions of normality are met). I believe that scientists are sophisticated enough to understand rules of evidence and to apply them fairly in the absence of statistical input.

You can find an earlier version of this page on my original website.

Also see this page.