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161 " But the significance test that scientists use doesn’t measure importance. "
― Jordan Ellenberg , How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking
162 " There is real danger that, by strengthening our abilities to analyze some questions mathematically, we acquire a general confidence in our beliefs, which extends unjustifiably to those things we’re still wrong about. We become like those pious people who, over time, accumulate a sense of their own virtuousness so powerful as to make them believe the bad things they do are virtuous too. I’ll do my best to resist that temptation. But watch me carefully. "
163 " The cult of the genius also tends to undervalue hard work. When I was starting out, I thought "hardworking" was a kind of veiled insult-something to say about a student when you can't honestly say they're smart. But the ability to work hard-to keep one's whole attention and energy focused on a problem, systematically turning it over and over and pushing at everything that looks like a crack, despite the lack of outward signs of progress-is not a skill everybody has. Psychologists nowadays call it "grit," and it's impossible to do math without it. It's easy to lose sight of the importance of work, because mathematical inspiration, when it finally does come, can feel effortless and instant. "
164 " It’s an unflattering portrait of the American public. Either we are babies, unable to grasp that budget cuts will inevitably reduce funding to programs we support; or we are mulish, irrational children, who understand the math but refuse to accept it. "
165 " The average American thinks there are plenty of non-worthwhile federal programs that are wasting our money and is ready and willing to put them on the chopping block to make ends meet. The problem is, there’s no consensus on which programs are the worthless ones. "
166 " One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture "
167 " I was elected to lead—not to watch the polls. "
168 " ....when you're working hard on a theorem you should try to prove it by day and disprove it by night. "
169 " statistically noticeable” or “statistically detectable” instead of “statistically significant”! That would be truer to the meaning of the method, "