General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Contrary to popular opinion, DU is supposed to be for politically *liberal* people. Either that or [View all]bemildred
(90,061 posts)I can assure you I understand statistics. The normal distribution is not normal in the real world, their are humps and valleys and gaps in things, reality is not smooth, it is lumpy, discrete. You also have to assume randomness, which is at best problematical both theoretically and pragmatically, people often do not get it right.
What it is is a convenient hypothesis that is way over-used with little to support it. People in the physical sciences generally use statistics properly and understand what they are doing. Elsewhere, generally they are used as marketing tools or flashy mumbo-jumbo to advance ones career, it is a litany of unfalsifiable twaddle, constantly having to correct itself, because it is used to project opinions and control debate rather than establish facts.