Let me guess that statistics wasn’t exactly your favorite subject in school? And let me also guess that the reason for that was the perplexing probability calculus (with all the “fancy” formulas and equations) that drove you crazy once in a while or perhaps all the time, honestly speaking. But the good news is that statistics isn’t just about the formulas and equations. A big part of it is about understanding the underlying concepts (e.g. randomness, independence/dependence, statistical control, causality, sampling/selection and bias associated with it, Bayesian theory and many more) and being able to think and reason statistically or probabilistically as some might say.

Statistical thinking is also a great way to view real-life situations from a truly analytical standpoint, test your ideas and build valuable knowledge to support your decision-making, without even coming closer to the computation of p-values and formal significance testing. After all, good decisions are based on good analysis and statistical thinking is a powerful way to hone your analytical skills.

There’s a whole lot published about this topic both in paper form and electronically. So, I won’t bore you with my own version of the story. But if you have some time for an evening reading I’d recommend you look for Thinking Statistically by Uri Bram, a 70 page paperback that explains some of the most important statistical concepts in an easy-to-understand and entertaining way. Hungry for more reading on the very same topic? Then I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading Darrell Huff’s How to Lie With Statistics, a classic reference since the middle 1950s about interpreting numbers and graphs presented by media and businesses.