The Seven Pillars of Statistical Wisdom

What gives statistics its unity as a science? Stephen Stigler sets forth the seven foundational ideas of statistics-a scientific discipline related to but distinct from mathematics and computer science.

Even the most basic idea-aggregation, exemplified by averaging-is counterintuitive. It allows one to gain information by discarding information, namely, the individuality of the observations. Stigler's second pillar, information measurement, challenges the importance of "big data" by noting t...