Meditations on Statistical Method

I should note, as a serial hobbyist, that this is the first hobby I’ve ever had that doesn’t involve the purchase and use of lots of gear. Mixed feelings.

Meditation on Statistical Method

By J. V. Cunningham

Plato, despair!
We prove by norms
How numbers bear
Empiric forms,

How random wrong
Will average right
If time be long
And error slight,

But in our hearts
Hyperbole
Curves and departs
To infinity.

Error is boundless.
Nor hope nor doubt,
Though both be groundless,
Will average out.