J Tukey Quotes & Sayings

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

Why would they lie to us?"
"Because deep down, we're all afraid of having peace. Because deep down we know we're all poisoned. We're more afraid of ourselves than we are of others. In that thinking, we deny ourselves the very power that we could have. In that thinking, we put liars on pedestals. Then, when the time is right they proclaim their lies as truth and revel in it as if they did something truly righteous and people will fall to their knees because we never learn if our mistakes are never admitted and cataloged. What better way to destroy a person than to make them realize that everything they ever believed was wrong? — Celia Mcmahon

It's better to solve the right problem approximately than to solve the wrong problem exactly. — John Tukey

To be able to say that "if we change our point of view in the following way ... things are simpler" is always a gain. — John Tukey

In a world in which the price of calculation continues to decrease rapidly, but the price of theorem proving continues to hold steady or increase, elementary economics indicates that we ought to spend a larger and larger fraction of our time on calculation. — John Tukey

An approximate answer to the right problem is worth a good deal more than an exact answer to an approximate problem. — John Tukey

I mumbled something about how it was easy to calculate e to any power using that series (you just substitute the power for x). "Oh yeah?" they said, "Well, then, what's e to the 3.3?" said some joker - I think it was Tukey. I say, "That's easy. It's 27.11." Tukey knows it isn't so easy to compute all that in your head. "Hey! How'd you do that?" Another guy says, "You know Feynman, he's just faking it. It's not really right." They go to get a table, and while they're doing that, I put on a few more figures: "27.1126," I say. They find it in the table. "It's right! But how'd you do it!" "I just summed the series." "Nobody can sum the series that fast. You must just happen to know that one. How about e to the 3?" "Look," I say. "It's hard work! Only one a day!" "Hah! It's a fake!" they say, happily. "All right," I say, "It's 20.085. — Richard Feynman

But what we all have to learn is that we can't do everything ourselves. — Vint Cerf

If we are going to make a mark (key 21), it might as well be a meaningful one. — John Tukey

Your mind is a constant traffic of thoughts, and it is always rush hour, day in, day out. Meditation means to watch the movement of thoughts in the mind. — Rajneesh

Visualization is often used for evil - twisting insignificant data changes and making them look meaningful. Don't do that crap if you want to be my friend. Present results clearly and honestly. If something isn't working - those reviewing results need to know. — John Tukey

The studios mostly threw away the negatives of the classic films. They had no interest in their legacy. — William Friedkin

I know of no person or group that is taking nearly adequate advantage of the graphical potentialities of the computer. — John Tukey

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

The whole of salvation history is the story of God looking for us: he offers us love and welcomes us with tenderness. — Pope Francis

On man when he came into life the Father conferred the seeds of all kinds and the germs of every way of life. — Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola

In a single sentence the moral is: admit that complexity always increases, first from the model you fit to the data, thence to the model you use to think about and plan about the experiment and its analysis, and thence to the true situation. — John Tukey

I want to do my hard dives really well, I want to see what my true potential in this sport really is. I want to grasp that. — Laura Wilkinson

If are in a situation with too many people in your life and you want to go into higher attention, look in the mirror. You are being blocked. Do something about it. It might be hard. — Frederick Lenz

The best thing about being a statistician is that you get to play in everyone's backyard. — John Tukey

History is written by the rich, and so the poor get blamed for everything. — Jeffrey D. Sachs

Be approximately right rather than exactly wrong. — John Tukey

The voice is something very mysterious. It's difficult to say what is inside a voice that moves people. — Andrea Bocelli

When communicating results to non-technical types there is nothing better than a clear visualization to make your point. — John Tukey

This is my favorite part about analytics: Taking boring flat data and bringing it to life through visualization. — John Tukey

All we know about the world teaches us that the effects of A and B are always different-in some decimal place-for any A and B. Thus asking "are the effects different?" is foolish. — John Tukey

There is no data that can be displayed in a pie chart, that cannot be displayed BETTER in some other type of chart. — John Tukey