Two statistics

“Professor doesn’t understand business requirements. He is more interested in statistical rigour and exploration.”

The implication is that there are two statistics, one, the professor’s, the theoretical one, and the other the executive’s, the practical one.

Of course, practicality consists of agreeing that the data supports the executive’s haunch. Or throw up a miraculous solution - one that is bound to break down in real life, no matter how promising it looks on the computer - to the executive’s problem.

The parallel that immediately comes to mind is a little boy discovering that there are two kinds of cooking, his mother’s and the chatwalla uncle’s. Unfortunately, professor, paid by the executive, can’t play mummy.