Not the topic, but here's my favorite Larry Summers story.
A while ago Summers was president of Harvard. During a speech he put forth a theory about why there seems to be more geniuses among men, in spite of the well-established fact that male and female IQs are equal across the board.
It turns out that, even though male and female IQs are equal at the median, if male IQs have a larger standard deviation than female IQs, that would explain the discrepancy. If true it would mean there are more men at the tail ends of the distribution -- some dumber, some smarter. More geniuses at the high end, more criminals and morons at the low end, but with the same median value. Perfectly valid reasoning, if true.
People who didn't understand the statistical reasoning objected to Summers' presentation, things went sideways, and Summers was forced out of the Harvard presidency.
I suppose in hindsight Summers could have asked himself, not whether the theory was reasonable, but whether people without technical training would understand it.
lutusp•7mo ago
A while ago Summers was president of Harvard. During a speech he put forth a theory about why there seems to be more geniuses among men, in spite of the well-established fact that male and female IQs are equal across the board.
It turns out that, even though male and female IQs are equal at the median, if male IQs have a larger standard deviation than female IQs, that would explain the discrepancy. If true it would mean there are more men at the tail ends of the distribution -- some dumber, some smarter. More geniuses at the high end, more criminals and morons at the low end, but with the same median value. Perfectly valid reasoning, if true.
People who didn't understand the statistical reasoning objected to Summers' presentation, things went sideways, and Summers was forced out of the Harvard presidency.
I suppose in hindsight Summers could have asked himself, not whether the theory was reasonable, but whether people without technical training would understand it.