An Open Letter to Cara If you care to comment, you can now do so below the blog! Please retweet with the fancy button if you like what you see.

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Hi Sweebus, I know you're feeling a bit stressed and see this as an easy out, but being able to manipulate your own data AND understand what other scientists have done with theirs is vitally important. I will illustrate with an example: when I was at PC I was deeply enamored with some socialist ideas during that Honduras class I took. I read a number of books by Immanuel Wallerstein as Dr. McKelvey was a big fan of his world systems perspective. However, while reading his book on Cuba, I decided to compare the raw numbers to the averages used to underpin Wallerstein's arguments. Many of the statistics were bogus, that is, either there were errors in calculation or deliberate misinformation. As the "errors" only seemed to fall toward supporting the books positive arguments about Cuba, my opinion of Wallerstein's honesty was understandably marred. I spent a good deal of the rest of the semester arguing for a more mathematical approach in the class and even got McKelvey to read James Gleick's book on Chaos. I've emailed him a number of times since leaving PC, but he's never emailed back. To avoid the sophistry of your peers is reason enough to take Statistics, but in industry it will also be important. It is very likely that on a scientific job interview you will find yourself asked about your experience in Statistics. Mathematics is the very language of science and Statistics is how we express our data in that language. To leave yourself dumb in this realm would be unwise. Don't underestimate your abilities and don't overestimate the difficulty of the subject, especially when your grades so far are exemplary. I love you. luv, hubbers