
Programmers Need to Learn Statistics or I Will Kill Them All - signa11
https://zedshaw.com/archive/programmers-need-to-learn-statistics-or-i-will-kill-them-all/
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galdosdi
A good example of this problem can be found in every article currently
floating around HN about Uber's manslaughter of a pedestrian named Elaine.

You constantly see morons saying that since only one person has been killed,
"the sample size is 1" even though any doofus with half a brain who thinks
about it for half a minute will realize that obviously, one has more
information if 1 pedestrian is killed after a billion miles than if 1
pedestrian is killed after a thousand miles. Gee.

Couldn't agree more with Zed. I'm fucking sick of having to work with these
shitheads. It's not the ignorance that bothers me, that's totally okay and not
something anyone should ever feel bad about. It's the goddammned hubris,
thinking they know everything because they can wrap their tiny brains around
an if, an else, and a while.

edit: Getting lots of comments that don't get that I'm humorously imitating
Zed's tone, which is also meant humorously. Since there's several of them I
assume that's on me. Sorry. Well, now with this edit you should know what I
mean :)

~~~
justinjlynn
A little less contempt and a bit more patience for what is likely to be
unintentional ignorance would do you much good. Zed Shaw has to act like a
toxic asshole to get their opinions heard - you don't have to, and if that
derision leaks into your interactions, it's not surprising you find yourself
surrounded by morons. Only a moron would continue to knowingly work with a
toxic asshole.

~~~
galdosdi
I am sorry. TBQH you're kinda right that my tone is too acidic. That's what
happens when you post on HN at 2am :) / :( My point, independent of its tone,
still stands.

I do believe I made it clear I'm NOT referring to unintentional ignorance. I'm
complaining about people who act like they know everything, not people who
genuinely don't know some things and have the humility and common sense to not
hide it.

I do have incredible contempt for people with this level of hubris and it
hasn't been a problem for me so far and I don't intend to change. Since it has
not been a problem in my career, I guess I come off pretty well in IRL social
situations but we're just having a text-based misunderstanding or whatever.

I have absolutely no contempt for anyone who is willing to admit they don't
know everything, and have spent plenty of time working on teams where everyone
was great partly because they had that kind of humility.

FWIW, most people are decent like that. I'm just sick of even having to deal
with that small egotistical minority. So is everyone else.

The specific thing I'm most sick of is people who think knowing how to program
is some kind of genius level skill, so if you have it, you get to accordingly
act like you are an expert at all manner of unrelated things too. News flash:
programming is easy, it only seems hard for temporary social/historical
reasons. Literacy also used to be a very, very special skill. Times change.

~~~
some_account
If learning statistics means hanging around your kind of personality, then no
thank you. Hope you understand this with your giant brain. :)

