It's not hard, but you have to learn the foundation to use it. Do that before criticizing how we use it. Here's the crux of the problem: we disagree on your

It's not hard, but you have to learn the foundation to use it. Do that before criticizing how we use it. Here's the crux of the problem: we disagree on your first phrase here! I think statistics is hard to learn. I (clearly) don't have the foundation to use it. I'm not criticizing how you use it, I'm criticizing my inability to do so. Sounds like a personal problem, dunnit? What's frustrating is that I do "consider myself analytically-minded". I have a Bachelor's in CS; I took two (?) stat classes in college. And it's still like pounding my head against a wall. I find opportunities to use statistics to solve business problems, but finding resources to help me solve those problems with statistics is challenging without, in effect, going "back to school". (Incidentally, this is how I learn: concepts through examples.) I find that answers to what I think should—should—be simple questions to involve academic digressions into, in effect, the "different kind of thinking" you mention. I find them academic because they don't help me solve my immediate problem. That's not anti-intellectual: but by virtue of statistics being intellectual, it's exclusionary. I don't think I'm alone in that. From observation, I'm ahead of the curve in even trying. Maybe what I'm asking for is impossible. I hope not, because it the alternative is continued non-use of statistics. I'm bullish because I see opportunity for software to bridge the gap. Software may not be mature enough to do all the heavy lifting required of the user today, but it'll get there.