Cynical statistician is cynical

[lederhosen]

Back when I was a postgrad student, my reaction to a high R² value* was "Yay, it works!" Now it's more like "It's a trick. Get an axe."

(Seriously, I am pleasantly surprised when admin data shows any sort of correlation to theory at all. Predicting admin data with R²=0.85 from a simple rule of thumb? That's just unsettling.)

*Translation: the data follows a nice straight line.

Comments

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

> the data follows a nice straight line

And we all know that a straight line usually precedes a bad joke.