Why you should love statistics | Alan Smith

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  • čas přidán 16. 06. 2024
  • 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.
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Komentáře • 314

  • @KnowArt
    @KnowArt Před 7 lety +695

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

    • @KnowArt
      @KnowArt Před 7 lety +50

      Unless you only count the ages of people when they die. Hmm... Maybe more complex than I thought.

    • @muralin239
      @muralin239 Před 7 lety +98

      That's why you should consider at median not mean(average).

    • @RrockCj
      @RrockCj Před 7 lety +5

      If that was a pun towards the stupif believing in staristics, then it's a damn clever comment

    • @nielshoogeveen3767
      @nielshoogeveen3767 Před 6 lety

      You have read The Black Swan :D ?

    • @simonvv1002
      @simonvv1002 Před 5 lety +21

      That's an outlier though, they may not be representable for the whole population

  • @atreyakoirala2951
    @atreyakoirala2951 Před 4 lety +51

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

  • @vertex1933
    @vertex1933 Před 7 lety +296

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

  • @polliv7691
    @polliv7691 Před 7 lety +15

    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..)

  • @ireneontiveros3611
    @ireneontiveros3611 Před 3 lety +23

    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
    @ImLeoIsing Před 3 lety +37

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

  • @_dadas
    @_dadas Před 7 lety +210

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

    • @boburzod
      @boburzod Před 2 lety +1

      lol absolutely

    • @yoo69
      @yoo69 Před 2 lety +1

      Hello, can you please tell me about your course?

    • @6kbps
      @6kbps Před rokem

      why would you study a useless major 😭😭

    • @notofuse8549
      @notofuse8549 Před rokem

      @@6kbps I'm not sure what part of psychology you think is useless, but you're a fool for believing any of it is.

    • @amyx.2626
      @amyx.2626 Před rokem +6

      @@6kbps psychology isn't a useless major lol what makes you say that?

  • @email16v
    @email16v Před 3 lety +12

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

  • @vulcanfeline
    @vulcanfeline Před 7 lety +300

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

    • @lucyseverine9907
      @lucyseverine9907 Před 7 lety +18

      vulcanfeline And those who didn't expect this to be a ternary joke.

    • @SuperBhavanishankar
      @SuperBhavanishankar Před 3 lety +5

      subcomments made sure that he is not making any nonsense. and then i got the joke that i starting laughing in binary

    • @jirony7283
      @jirony7283 Před 3 lety

      Noice

    • @bellyh2842
      @bellyh2842 Před 3 lety

      brilliant

  • @Daipeter
    @Daipeter Před 6 lety

    Delightful is exactly the right word; lovely talk! Alan, thank you for delivering.

  • @VK-pd7gd
    @VK-pd7gd Před 7 lety +10

    I'm totally inspired! Thank you for the presentation

  • @Weatherman1214
    @Weatherman1214 Před 3 lety +11

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

  • @jakepiekarski2075
    @jakepiekarski2075 Před 3 lety +9

    This video was very well informing and communicative. I greatly relate to this video and had taken away so much I really thank you for releasing his video and teaching me he importance, value and meaning of statistics. My favorite example ad eye-opening moment was the u16 video at 9:10 where the survey contents were described. Thank you again!!

  • @christinevakas92
    @christinevakas92 Před 3 lety +2

    Thank you - inspiring. Goes to show, anyone can do anything, if they want to and if they find it has a purpose in their lives and in the lives of others

  • @MrCattlehunter
    @MrCattlehunter Před 7 lety +57

    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.

    • @brendarua01
      @brendarua01 Před 7 lety +1

      I agree with you here. The talk is mislabeled. More accurate would be something like "How the average of peoples' uninformed guesses about things compare to undocumented surveys." There probably are several interesting things about that, but numeric literacy isn't one of them.

  • @geraldmerkowitz4360
    @geraldmerkowitz4360 Před 7 lety +91

    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

    • @byduhlusional
      @byduhlusional Před 7 lety +10

      Archibald Belanus That's because a majority of people don't have a high IQ so they look to argue right away instead of learning.

    • @LuxiBelle
      @LuxiBelle Před 7 lety +1

      Learning? I thought TED is where self-aggrandized geniuses go to jerk themselves off.

    • @61shirley
      @61shirley Před 7 lety

      Archibald Belanus what's wrong with that?

    • @vaibhavgupta20
      @vaibhavgupta20 Před 7 lety +1

      made*

    • @geraldmerkowitz4360
      @geraldmerkowitz4360 Před 7 lety +1

      Vaibhav Gupta
      Jesus Christ this must be the 100th time I make that mistake and I still can't correct it !!

  • @JosefFurg1611
    @JosefFurg1611 Před 7 lety +34

    I've always loved statistics.

  • @user-zb7fm6hj2g
    @user-zb7fm6hj2g Před 2 lety +7

    Watching this to stay motivated for my stats class

  • @teacul
    @teacul Před 7 lety +32

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

  • @grahampalmer
    @grahampalmer Před 7 lety +12

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

  • @jsrathi17
    @jsrathi17 Před 3 lety

    Such an insightful talk. Thank you :)

  • @ariah5093
    @ariah5093 Před 2 lety +6

    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.

  • @ADDodger
    @ADDodger Před 7 lety +41

    Jesus this comment section is a cesspool
    Great presentation!

  • @FranoKiso
    @FranoKiso Před 7 lety +12

    Great talk!

  • @Paul_LV
    @Paul_LV Před 7 lety +2

    amazing, very inspiring talk!

  • @trevorpope1913
    @trevorpope1913 Před rokem +2

    Great talk. What program is used to show the percentage graphic?

  • @mcough
    @mcough Před 7 lety +25

    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...

    • @josephmargaryan
      @josephmargaryan Před 7 lety +8

      Do some statistics and find out what the odds are :P

  • @cinnsuamongar
    @cinnsuamongar Před 7 lety +4

    Wow. Great talk.

  • @Iojan85
    @Iojan85 Před 5 lety +2

    Great presentation.

  • @edsgerdijkstra2335
    @edsgerdijkstra2335 Před 5 lety +1

    Great talk, thanks.

  • @MrC0MPUT3R
    @MrC0MPUT3R Před 7 lety +29

    Given the comments on this video you'd think this was RT's video.

  • @ZadieBear
    @ZadieBear Před 7 lety +21

    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.

  • @TenzDenz
    @TenzDenz Před rokem +1

    Beautifully explained

  • @piubnuh4395
    @piubnuh4395 Před rokem +1

    A wonderful speech!
    Succinct but unforgettable!

  • @somethingaboutstatistics5537

    Excellent presentaion respected sir. Recive ⚘

  • @CiranoTondi
    @CiranoTondi Před 3 lety

    What's the software used for the creation of the quiz? it looks amazing. Does anyone know the name of it?

  • @muhammad5132
    @muhammad5132 Před 3 lety +1

    I'm becoming a Statistician. You made me love it all over again.

  • @gasser5001
    @gasser5001 Před 7 lety +11

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

  • @himangiagarwal9266
    @himangiagarwal9266 Před 2 lety

    This was very refreshing!!

  • @lisettefigueroa7668
    @lisettefigueroa7668 Před 9 měsíci +1

    this was great!!! ive been avoiding starting my statistics homework but this is encouraging me to do it! heh

  • @lantern0483
    @lantern0483 Před 3 lety +1

    I am studying Geoinformatics but I've never been a fan of statistics. This might help me get started, thanks!

  • @jmfriedman7
    @jmfriedman7 Před 7 lety +3

    In the Japanese survey, urban versus rural is a vague distinction. In the US, I once moved from New York City to Philadelphia, another large American city. My cousin, who lived in New York City his whole life, asked if you needed to boil the water out of the tap in order to drink it, apparently thinking that Philadelphia and Pennsylvania must be a back-woods area with unreliable public utilities. Some people in NYC tend to look at the densely populated areas of New Jersey (one of the most densely populated US states) as being "the countryside" and I think that a similar vague distinction between urban and rural may be true of the people who live in the larger cities of Japan.

  • @ciosproductions1919
    @ciosproductions1919 Před 7 lety +34

    I start to understand why ted blocks the comment section sommetimes

  • @sweetjourneyofseason
    @sweetjourneyofseason Před 3 lety

    Great presentation 😇

  • @mattiasblomberg5109
    @mattiasblomberg5109 Před 7 lety +2

    Is the site back up? If so, can anyone link it? Thanks😄

  • @bern2632
    @bern2632 Před 3 lety

    Good presentation, thank you. If you have suggestions for me on other Ted Talks on subjects in the same area, could you please comment under this .

  • @melaniearce4390
    @melaniearce4390 Před 4 lety +1

    It’s growing on me! I really like it!

  • @qwerty11111122
    @qwerty11111122 Před 7 lety +5

    The first few stats in the lecture, where were their median counterparts? He said they were averages, and those things can be skewed. I'm curious to see what those graphs would tell

  • @DrewRueDoo
    @DrewRueDoo Před 3 lety

    I am watching this to help motivate me to study for my statistics class.

  • @johnvasko6699
    @johnvasko6699 Před 3 lety +1

    Inspirational. Stays was my least favorite class in my entire math degree. Bit now relearning it for fun.

  • @Cryenelol
    @Cryenelol Před 7 lety

    This was a good one.

  • @eugenefrancisco8279
    @eugenefrancisco8279 Před 3 lety

    I relate to this on a whole different level

  • @poojaponnuri4811
    @poojaponnuri4811 Před 4 lety +1

    Please try to give subtitles

  • @NandishPatelV
    @NandishPatelV Před 6 lety

    Interesting . Thanks.

  • @chacmool2581
    @chacmool2581 Před 3 lety

    1:56 First thing you need to do when presenting graphs is to label the axes. What is the Y axis on that graph? Percentage of population or Millions?

  • @Donovanora
    @Donovanora Před 2 lety

    Great vid!

  • @safrudinilhami4720
    @safrudinilhami4720 Před 2 lety +1

    feeling need to curiousity is necessity of life!

  • @baslielalene4702
    @baslielalene4702 Před 2 lety +1

    Thank you.

  • @kirin2999
    @kirin2999 Před 7 lety

    Using ted app in 2 hour,and that is very good

  • @_About_Life_k
    @_About_Life_k Před 2 lety +1

    It's wonderful!!!

  • @zimmermanlandscape9287
    @zimmermanlandscape9287 Před 7 lety +2

    2:58 is this why statistics is my favorite part of math??

  • @ShankarSivarajan
    @ShankarSivarajan Před 7 lety

    2:01 Which Korea are you referring to?

  • @thestrayanstatistician7861

    Statistics give life to numbers and meaning to life

  • @livvielov
    @livvielov Před rokem +1

    Perfect! going to send this to my A level statisticians :D

  • @marlynsanchezh.2019
    @marlynsanchezh.2019 Před 2 lety

    I want to replicate that gamification of data in my own country! Statistics is definitely fascinating

  • @sadikshabasnet753
    @sadikshabasnet753 Před 2 lety

    Awesome!

  • @mdromiz776
    @mdromiz776 Před 4 lety

    Yeah new lesson i have learned, thanks

  • @wangilaemmanuel1531
    @wangilaemmanuel1531 Před 6 lety

    awesome.....

  • @arihdee
    @arihdee Před rokem +2

    1- 3:20
    2- 6:28
    3- 7:05

  • @bryantdelacruz6125
    @bryantdelacruz6125 Před 4 měsíci +1

    Hands down. Great spokesmen! But I still hate stats!! :)

  • @chacmool2581
    @chacmool2581 Před 3 lety +4

    3:41 Statistics comes from the German word 'stadt" which means not "state" or "community" in English but rather "city". It refers to the data taking of data about city populations in Germany.

    • @NeurosesGamer
      @NeurosesGamer Před rokem

      It's originally latin.

    • @chacmool2581
      @chacmool2581 Před rokem

      @@NeurosesGamer If so, please provide the etymology.

    • @NeurosesGamer
      @NeurosesGamer Před rokem

      @@chacmool2581 You can't Google?

    • @chacmool2581
      @chacmool2581 Před rokem

      @@NeurosesGamer You asserted something, it is not up to me to verify it or prove it. It is incumbent on you, not me.

    • @NeurosesGamer
      @NeurosesGamer Před rokem

      @@chacmool2581 it's not like your comment here is peer reviewed and verified either. just Google it and stop being weird or don't 😂

  • @mrmyorky5634
    @mrmyorky5634 Před 4 lety +3

    I was on holiday in a shopping mall in Denver and was asked if I would like to answer a few statistical questions? My answer was no thank you, can't be bothered, but more importantly, as an English tourist, my knowledge of American products and services is negligible.
    Doesn't matter, replied the beautiful young lady with the big smile and the pen, you get 10 dollars and it takes about 10 minutes. So I came away 10 dollars richer and the interviewer added one more successful set of statistics to her tally that day.
    Alan Smith describes statistics as a Science. 'The 'Science' of dealing with data' is what he calls it, and attempts to give it some credibility by aligning it with Mathematics.
    It mostly depends what you ask, and who you choose to ask, which makes it about as credible as astrology is to an astronomer.
    Come to think of it your daily Horoscope is probably more scientific.

  • @melissamybubbles6139
    @melissamybubbles6139 Před 6 lety

    What about people who know the area they came from better than the area in which they currently reside, or people who know an area relevant to their ethnic or religious culture better than they know their own residential areas?

  • @rohi9594
    @rohi9594 Před 5 lety +3

    Proud being a Korean:)

  • @dhajder9606
    @dhajder9606 Před 4 lety

    Great.

  • @grahammcdonald
    @grahammcdonald Před 7 lety

    IMO people in London get generally more media airtime/representation than the rest of the UK. So I think that swings what we see as average. London is extreme.

  • @cherryrachael4801
    @cherryrachael4801 Před 7 lety +1

    I JUST watched a Ted talk in my stats class today

  • @maxman97pm
    @maxman97pm Před 4 lety

    why do we need to know the percentage of households with mortgage? is that really matter?

  • @BeyondTheBath1
    @BeyondTheBath1 Před 7 lety +26

    'Love' Statistics? How about UNDERSTANDING and ACCURATELY applying Statistics instead?

  • @Treblaine
    @Treblaine Před 5 lety

    Saudi figures may be somewhat skewed by how a high proportion of the residents are "guest workers" who aren't counted as really being there. "Officially".

  • @mariameatouani6995
    @mariameatouani6995 Před 7 lety

    Unfortunately, the quizz is not available for the Arabic world

  • @cinnsuamongar
    @cinnsuamongar Před 7 lety

    I like that people started sending it to their politicians.

  • @LuxiBelle
    @LuxiBelle Před 7 lety +21

    Statistics only work when you didn't set out to prove your conclusion.

  • @LeonidasGGG
    @LeonidasGGG Před 7 lety +1

    Our perception is skew by the media which is influenced by politics... And vice-versa. Ence the problem is not the data, the problem is the way the World is presented to us.

  • @yulianaepianingsih
    @yulianaepianingsih Před 3 lety

    interesting!

  • @chacmool2581
    @chacmool2581 Před 3 lety +1

    This video is not about Statistics. It's about data collected and the public's ignorance.

  • @bragtime1052
    @bragtime1052 Před 7 lety +35

    Wait... *adjusts glasses* this guy isn't Vsauce!

  • @phy29
    @phy29 Před 3 lety

    What do you do to get the feve in a pie you learn where the patissier put it....

  • @shreyasharma7210
    @shreyasharma7210 Před 4 lety +1

    What possibly could I write an article on statistics? I got this assignment and I'm struggling with the topic

    • @TheMicnpark
      @TheMicnpark Před 4 lety

      How dangerous and missleading statistics can be, if not using it right or using it to lie. There are serious cases about statistics, like putting an innocent woman to jail because of "statistical proof" (which was wrong information).

  • @rickypbro3743
    @rickypbro3743 Před 7 lety +14

    My Stats Dont Lie
    Shakira

  • @AmanyEzzat
    @AmanyEzzat Před 4 lety

    Interesting

  • @jamesthomas1244
    @jamesthomas1244 Před 7 lety +15

    1:45 = The US is #1 yet again!

  • @kartikkamboj295
    @kartikkamboj295 Před 6 lety +1

    Statistics is not about uncertainty- In fact what most of the people fail to understand is that Statistics and Probability give us the 'MEASURE' of uncertainty, and hence giving a MEASURE of certainty. It quantifies the level of certainty and hesnce gives us a measure. It is one of the most important forms of Applied Mathematics.
    Especially useful in this age of data and artificial intelligence. #Beuatiful#MathematicsandStatistics

  • @Th3Sh1n1gam1
    @Th3Sh1n1gam1 Před 7 lety +6

    So this is why Koreans are so good at Video Games.

    • @user-ke6ty5cz8l
      @user-ke6ty5cz8l Před 6 lety

      Th3Sh1n1gam1 lol That can be a reason but I think enthusiasm of Korean played a big role, too!

  • @ShankarSivarajan
    @ShankarSivarajan Před 7 lety +2

    My favorite illustration of a misuse of statistics: The average person has (approx.) one testicle.

    • @mrmyorky5634
      @mrmyorky5634 Před 4 lety

      You may not like the above illustration, but you have to admit that it's a true statistic, which then further suggests that it's all a load of bollocks.

  • @VinnieG-
    @VinnieG- Před měsícem

    the account for 5/100 but make trouble for 25/100. Pretty straightforward

  • @dezaraefreise6499
    @dezaraefreise6499 Před 7 lety

    Does anyone else get static at 7:20 and through the video?

  • @SendPie94
    @SendPie94 Před 4 lety

    I have an obsession now, thanks alot 2020 🤪

  • @ruedaarthurr
    @ruedaarthurr Před 3 lety

    Good

  • @bobcitizen1149
    @bobcitizen1149 Před 3 lety

    I'm lost- why should I love statistics? I don't think he answered the question- he merely pointed out that people aren't good at guessing (several times). I do like statistics, 6-sigma process control, and such.