Coding with Fountain Pens

I have a problem with this saying.  I think it’s good and healthy to have a posture of skepticism when encountering any argument, especially one that is not backed up by evidence.  You could say this evidence is essentially data.  Data itself can easily be very unwieldy, and statistics is a tool with which a complex set of data can be summarized.  For an example of this power, see Hans Rosling.

That said, often this old chestnut is whipped out when the data is not on the side of the debater.  When I hear someone use this saying, it makes me want to examine the foundation of their argument more closely, because it is typically riven with cracks.

Really, at face value, “Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics” is saying that you can’t trust statistics, and by extension data, and hence nothing is really knowable.