Statistics, More Statistics and The Meaning of Life

I have always known that data is the key to mastering the world around us. Somewhere, somehow, I always thought, there are numbers that will tell me everything there is to know, past present and future.

Sometimes I positively felt that I have them within reach, like when I dealt with differential equations for the first time. I thought: here is the perfect way to include all dynamic dimensions within the differentials, to algebraically link these differentials and include them in a family, perhaps a matrix, to solve it all! ALL!

But alas, things weren't as simple (of course not!) There was a lack of initial state. And then the fact that you rarely have an equation to start out with in the first place. Okay, so projectile motion could be described by a quadratic. But what about discrete numbers? What about observing, say, the stock market, or the trends in a mass of people? What about sheer numbers that do not have bounds in the first place? No amount of curve-fitting can tell me anything about such phenomena.

So now I have adopted statistics and quantitative methods as my Bible and Koran. Hoping that between these sigmas and myus there lies the key to the future =)