but I don't speak an inch of French. For some strange reason, some of them are very rude to people that don't know French, that opinion is from my own personal experiences.
I'll agree with that.
I've travelled extensively teaching. (I always got the assignments where English wasn't the first language!) I always made an effort to learn at least a few words of the local language, and I do speak a fair bit of French, if schoolboy style! France (and the French) was the only place I had trouble with. Right from entering the country, and even when just passing through CDG airport to catch a connecting flight.
I'm certainly no fan of the French, but I do admire the fact that they are prepared to take direct action against things they don't like.
Now retired, but used to teach Mathematics and General Managerial/Quality Systems - Typically lean and six sigma, plus the associated paraphernalia. Statistics featured heavily on my workload.
Statistics are a powerful tool for decision making, but at the same time, numbers can be generated to confuse and mislead the timid.
This is often done deliberately. The level of numeracy in most countries is surprisingly poor. I always found that if I announced I was going to run a statistics module people would either put "the shutters" up or just not attend. I got round it by referring to using "basic mathematical principles to achieve and verify our objectives."
RebootRage said :
Is it true that 62% of all quoted statistics are fake, and most people would accept them, rather then look up the real numbers?
Possibly. Who would know where to go and how to interpret the figures. There is always more than one way of analysing figures, and very few people cite their sources. (Even the six sigma movement was guilty of that!) We used to joke that 76% of all statistics were made up on the spot, and if you added a decimal figure that would rise to 76.4%
RebootRage said :
I personally think governments should be allocating resources and making decisions based on statistics, and not based on emotions that are manipulated with media.
But peace never made anyone money, and if they did as you suggest it would water down their control over us. Remember CCTV was introduced for our own good, it was to prevent crime. We were so scared of crime, because it was fueled by media exposure, rather than the hard cold facts that the average person had next to no chance of fearing it. Rather like the AIDS scare. To quote a friend at the time, "If you're a normal hetro bloke, your chance of catching AIDS is 4/5th of fuck-all!"
RebootRage said :
Terrorism is statistically a small threat compared to many other commonly ignored issues.
It most certainly is.
RebootRage said :
I really do wish people ( including me ) had a greater grasp on statistics and the odds of things happening
You can learn an awful lot by yourself. Statistics is all about probability, and much comes from the gambling fraternity. Whilst I wouldn't encourage you to gamble, there's plenty of books out there that explain things but aren't "dry statistical" texts. Perhaps take a look at books on roulette as a start. - BTW you can't (in the long run) beat a straight roulette table, but you can exploit short term weaknesses such as imbalance and wear.
RebootRage said :
Were you teaching the lean and six sigma method to businesses or in a school environment?
I taught in Universities, Colleges, Industry and even to learned societies. I taught across all industries (some were more receptive than others!) and in the UK, Europe and Middle East.
RebootRage said :
What kind of errors where you trying to clean with such a method?
Typically, I'd be showing people how to reduce cycle times, reduce waste and make their product/service more repeatable.
Lean is all about minimising waste and improving flow, whilst six sigma is about reducing variation. Statistics would come into the measuring (how good was the measure, was it repeatable?) the analysis (SPC and control charts) and the final appraisal (Have we actually made a difference, or is it just down to random chance?)
Obviously there is a little more to it than I've put together here. :)
As usual, just the ramblings of a daft old fart....
People can learn a lot from the ramblings of a self proclaimed daft old fart.
True. When I was younger I always preferred the company of older people, purely because they had so much life behind them that they could draw on for experience. I'm currently putting together a magazine article about life on the canals when they hauled freight. I've found an old boatman (over 75) willing to tell me all about the life and how it really was. Believe me, what he tells you won't find in the history books.
RebootRage said :
Did you enjoy teaching, or was it just a job?
I loved it. I started by "moonlighting" whilst I was still employed by rather a large car manufacturer. The opportunity for redundancy came up, and at my 3rd attempt I was successful. I left at the end of November and started teaching the beginning of the following January. By the March of that year I think I'd been in 6 different countries!
RebootRage said :
By the way, my "62% of all quoted statistics are fake" statistic was made up on the spot, but I felt it matched the point. The 76%, improved to 76.4% thing is even better.
Sadly, that's the way life is. It can be very difficult to challenge "facts", unless you actually have a "different fact" ready to hand. But what usually works in these cases is to challenge the technicality of the fact. Ask if the sample was independent, how it was arrived at and if it was truly representative; ask what the uncertainty levels are; ask the source. Once people start foundering, you soon see that they know you know.... If they're smart at that point they'll leave off. Remember, no statistic is exact!
You wouldn't believe how similar some of the terms you use are to concepts in the world of programming.
Perl has built in garbage collection, that's why it's one of the most pleasurable languages to work with.
We code to minimise waste memory and to maximise throughput of the information like it's liquid in pipes.
Interestingly enough, the software writers were very resistant to what we were teaching. They claimed that they couldn't possibly use it! I worked at a mobile phone manufacturer and it had been agreed that the company as a whole would take on the methods of lean and six sigma. All readily embraced it, except the software guys. - Guess where that company now has most problems and most customer complaints?
