Learning statistics is like learning anything else. Kids who want to make a video game are often dismayed when they realise how much they'd have to learn. If th

Learning statistics is like learning anything else. Kids who want to make a video game are often dismayed when they realise how much they'd have to learn. If they ask how you put a walking character controlled by the mouse and keyboard on the screen, you'd have to explain about 3d graphics, the game loop, input devices. For 3d graphics you need vectors, transformation matrices, etc. Eventually you get down to basic programming constructs like loops. Like with statistics it can seem like an infinite fractally expanding amount of knowledge. A simple question such as how you draw a moving character or how you calculate whether the difference is statistically significant, has a complicated answer. The knowledge required isn't infinite or tautological or circular. With statistics it eventually bottoms out, but to really understand a t test you need at least probability theory and calculus. College students spend a year studying that.