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I think he means there are way too many variables for such a claim to be taken seriously. I suspect the crowd at HN would be one exception... a large crowd of

• jacquesm 16y ago
  I think that HN actually has a higher average education level than most fora, and that people like you (and me) are the exception, not the rule. And I do have some understanding of statistics, not enough to read a typical stats paper but I know a median from an average (that seems to be the deciding factor ;) ). The graph to me indicates that there is some correlation between education and unemployment (especially given the fact that the graph is showing a continuous trend) but does nothing to explain that correlation in a way that you could conclude 'if you get a degree your chances of being unemployed are smaller'. That might be true, but is not a valid conclusion. Another thing that the graph does not tell you (but general statistics does) is that you can't say anything about individuals, only about populations. But it's an interesting graph nonetheless and I think that it would be good to take it in to account while researching this sort of thing further. A background in statistics is useful, even if you only get the basics, but I think that even that is not a requirement to understand what the graph says and which caveats you should be aware of.