No More Bin Laden

[--Pete]

Hi,

Not sure if it matters, or whatever, but with the recent posting about it all, I felt inclined to say "something"

Perhaps, in one sense it doesn't matter. As has been said before, the plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'. But in a more important sense it matters a lot. It helps to keep it in our minds that the data is indeed an aggregate of the behavior of individuals, and that while there is a peak where most of the population lives, there are also the tails where the exceptions lie.

Accommodating those exceptions might well be more important than accommodating the mean, for the tails of the distribution is where you find your Mansons and your Einsteins.

--Pete