Re: On Method and S -> PN

Karen Pitts (karen_pitts@maca.sarnoff.com)
28 Jul 1997 07:57:41 -0400

George Box, a famous statistician, has this to say about models and modeling.

"All models are wrong; some are useful".

He would also agree that model fitting is an iterative process of forming
hypeotheses, gathering data, analyzing data, and revising the hypotheses.

I think that's a healthy attitude toward modeling. Models are approximations.
You can never perfectly model reality; you may be able to model it well
enough to use if for something, but you should never forget that the model
does not equal reality.

My $.02 worth.

Karen Pitts
kpitts@sarnoff.com
Hopewell Presbyterian Church, Hopewell, NJ, teacher of NT Greek
Sarnoff Corporation, Princeton, NJ, statistician