John Tukey Quotes

John Wilder Tukey was an American mathematician best known for development of the Fast Fourier Transform algorithm and box plot. The Tukey range test, the Tukey lambda distribution, the Tukey test of additivity, and the Teichmüller–Tukey lemma all bear his name. He is also credited with coining the term 'bit'. Wikipedia

✵ 16. June 1915 – 26. July 2000

Works

The Technical Tools of Statistics

John Tukey

John Tukey: 3 quotes 0 likes

Famous John Tukey Quotes

“Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise.”

John Tukey

The future of data analysis. Annals of Mathematical Statistics 33 (1), (1962), page 13.
Variant: "An approximate answer to the right question is worth a great deal more than a precise answer to the wrong question." "as the renowned statistician John Tukey once reportedly said," according to Super Freakonomics page 224.

“The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of data.”

John Tukey

Sunset salvo. The American Statistician 40 (1). Online at http://www.jstor.org/pss/2683137

“The tool that is so dull that you cannot cut yourself on it is not likely to be sharp enough to be either useful or helpful.”

John Tukey The Technical Tools of Statistics

The Technical Tools of Statistics. The American Statistician 34 (1). Online at https://www.jstor.org/stable/2682374

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