
What scientific term or concept ought to be more widely known? - terryauerbach
http://graphics.wsj.com/image-grid/year-end-science/
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yequalsx
The percent change is often a much more informative value than the absolute
change. Also, when something decreases by x% it requires more than an x%
increase to get back where you started. Political discourse would greatly
benefit from these two simple facts.

~~~
rabidrat
On the other hand, I came here to suggest that knowledge of Simpson's Paradox
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson's_paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson's_paradox))
could resolve a lot of political fights. And Simpson's paradox is only
applicable when data is presented as percentages, so the key to unraveling the
paradox is to show the absolute numbers and changes, instead of the
percentages.

The real problem is that percentages hide the size of the groups, and even if
you show the sizes of the groups separately, focusing on the percentages still
obscures the reality unless this is called out explicitly.

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sitkack
Medians.

Average is last and first statistical measure that most people learn and it
really isn't that useful. If we could just switch to medians and ban the
average I would be really happy (and so would the world).

~~~
Nomentatus
Median, mean, and mode are all types of averages. But yes, I was just reading
Nassim Taleb today scolding the multitude for not recognizing the difference
between median and mean.

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HaveCourage
Wrongful convictions:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosecutor's_fallacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosecutor's_fallacy)

Don't understand what your STD test really means:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_positive_paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_positive_paradox)

Correlation/causation conflation.

~~~
contravariant
Both are basically people not understanding Bayes' law. Or, equivalently, the
difference between (posterior) probability and likelihood.

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phamilton
Backpressure. (Includes modeling something as producer/consumer in order to
reason about it)

It boils down to learning how to say no, but in practice it smoothes out
demand spikes and makes life much more predictable.

It can be applied to personal fines (only consume "wants" as fast as you can
produce "surplus"), consulting (only consume "new clients" as fast as you
produce "working fine") to maintain a decent work life balance, as well as
many other areas.

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Vanit
Order of operations. Pains me how so much of the population can't do simple
maths.

~~~
contravariant
These two are not equivalent. A few missing parentheses isn't what causes
people to be unable to do simple maths.

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tessellated
The scientific method itself.

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earthly10x
The thought relates to going back and refining your original theory such that:

1\. You create a hypothesis

2\. Prove your theory

3\. Publish your theory (and maybe discovery)

Most of the time it ends here. It should continue this way:

4\. Practically apply your theory

5\. Create a product or widget founded on your theory

6\. Put this product into the hands of consumers

7\. Make observations and watch how customers/consumers use it in ways you
could never predict

8\. Use this data to go back and refine your original theory and start the
cycle over again.

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vmorgulis
Gravity (how it works with matter).

