The first time my statistics teacher turned an arbitrarily squiggly line into a beautifully smooth curve I realized the class was more closely related to rhetoric than mathematics.
I work in a regulated industry, and I'll never forget what one of the very senior engineers told me early in my career:
The purpose of the reports you're writing is to tell a story, and the moral of the story is whatever conclusion you want an auditor who isn't familiar with your work to draw. You don't lie, and you don't fudge data; but you also don't want to throw in a lot of superfluous data and analysis into the report that could cause the auditor to draw conclusions other than the ones you want them to draw. If all you know about a problem is the contents of the report, the conclusions should be self-evident.
No doubt policy papers and recommendations are written the same way.
I'd believe it. The engineer who taught me that had to learn it from someone.
Dilbert also had a plot line where Wally just made a bunch of data up because "all business studies are marketing studies, and marketing doesn't care if what you do has a basis in reality; so why bother trying to legitimize it?" Which is an argument I understand and even kinda agree with but can't quite bring myself to actually apply.
Wish I could find the strip, if anyone else remembers it.
The first time my statistics teacher turned an arbitrarily squiggly line into a beautifully smooth curve I realized the class was more closely related to rhetoric than mathematics.
I work in a regulated industry, and I'll never forget what one of the very senior engineers told me early in my career:
No doubt policy papers and recommendations are written the same way.
This is how every scientific model and economic model works - you have so many variables you can show whatever your boss wants to see.
Fun fact - in most scientific papers the source code behind the model is never even published.
Peers approve the paper as long as it agrees with the narrative that gets your industry the most funding.
This is why climate change models have to be hysterical. But are never checked.
Sounds like the sort of stuff I'm learning with legal writing. It's all about how you frame things
It sure the hell is (framing is everything; former paralegal here).
This quote was literally a plot line in Dilbert.
I'd believe it. The engineer who taught me that had to learn it from someone.
Dilbert also had a plot line where Wally just made a bunch of data up because "all business studies are marketing studies, and marketing doesn't care if what you do has a basis in reality; so why bother trying to legitimize it?" Which is an argument I understand and even kinda agree with but can't quite bring myself to actually apply.
Wish I could find the strip, if anyone else remembers it.
There's lies, damn lies, and statistics.
My first day in college stats was: "I'm here to teach you how to lie with numbers!"
I think you assumed a bit much there.
Statistics is not "rhetorical math"