> I think the right usage of statistics is to enlighten and confuse simultaneously, not to "answer". They should provide analytical depth to a decision, never a

> I think the right usage of statistics is to enlighten and confuse simultaneously, not to "answer". They should provide analytical depth to a decision, never an escape route. You're right, but I would go further. I would argue that when statistics are presented as "the answer," in many cases they are being abused. A good scientist recognizes the limits of his dataset. Like how a computer program can only do what it is written to do, statistics can only tell you what is in the data, they can't tell you what is _not_.