> ... reduced to the simplest form, statistics are used to predict things Inferential statistics is not the simplest kind of statistics. Descriptive statistics

> ... reduced to the simplest form, statistics are used to predict things Inferential statistics is not the simplest kind of statistics. Descriptive statistics are both simpler and foundational for inference. P.S. I should say that I am a bit of a stickler regarding discussions along the lines of e.g. "these things are related". Yes, many things are related, but it is really nice when we can clearly tease things apart and specify what depends on what.