Statistical Analysis

I have a small confession to make: I have been indoctrinated by statisticians for too long, in both my academic years and again at work. So I am going to indulge the part-time amateur statistician in me by suggesting the following.

The results of the poll are in: 6 Rock Chicks and 17 Real Men.

It looks as though my prediction was right. There are more men reading this blog than women, and if my previously stated assumption stands, this translates to there being more male than female climbers. This of course assumes that it is only climbers who read this blog, that everyone who read this blog in the last week voted in the poll, and that those who did vote were honest with their votes and didn't change them (thanks for pointing that out, Tom!).

So, in the interests of fighting the statistical indoctrination (as part of my 15-years-too-late teenage rebellion), I should also say the following:

• I know that not everyone who reads this blog is a climber
• I know that not everyone who read this blog last week voted in the poll
• I have no way of knowing whether all votes were honest votes, or whether there are some people voting who are in complete denial of their gender.

I think the non-statistician wins this argument, and we should conclude that my poll proves nothing. I hesitate to say it was a waste of time, because clearly it has provided me with some entertainment (!) in thinking and writing about it, and you with some entertainment in reading it....if of course you've read this far. If you were completely disinterested, I doubt you would have reached this paragraph. Maybe it's even made you laugh (although what odd sense of humour you would need in order to find this funny, I have no idea) which would be a bonus, but highly unlikely.

On reflection, I should probably stick to climbing, yoga and making cake, and leave the statistics to the real liars :-)

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Benjamin Disraeli