Statistical Analysis has historically played a role in
mathematics, but it also has had wide
applications in varied academic disciplines. Mortality
rates, birth rates, and marriage activities for governmental census purposes
have been the traditional application outside of academic fields. However,
recent demographic studies have demanded more from statistics than just factual
numbers.
John Naisbitt,
author of MegaTrends, MegaTrends 2000 and MegaTrends 2010 has well-known for the last two decades for his
ability to study current trends and use those observations to draw strategic
conclusions for the business world. More recently, his use of statistics has
entered into another realm, that of planning future trends and creating
possible scenarios. These applications are widely accepted in the area of
business management and organizational leadership. According to Naisbitt, these
“pictures of the future are not speculation or a reach into the unknown. They
are based on an analysis of the present.”[1]
Malcolm
Gladwell, as a staff writer for The New
Yorker for the last 15 years, has documented the use of statistics in
epidemiology and how those same statistics can be applied in other disciplines
like business, marketing, and education. In his bestseller, The Tipping Point, Gladwell applies
epidemiological statistics to studies in the social sciences in order to posit
that “social epidemics work in exactly the same way” as communicable diseases
and infectious viruses.[2] The
amazing popularity of his applications for statistical analysis only reiterates
the fact that the science of statistics can bring validity to many other
scientific fields.
I highly recommend your reading both of these books, now staples in any study of statistical analysis.
[1]
John Naisbitt, Mind Set!: Reset Your
Thinking and See the Future (New
York : HarperCollins, 2006), xx.
[2]
Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How
Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (New York :
Back Bay Books, 2002), 21.
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