June 29, 2012 – William M. Briggs

Why Do Statisticians Answer Silly Questions That No One Ever Asks?

Julian Champkin, editor of Significance magazine somehow came across the percipient insights of yours truly and asked me to write l'article controversé. Which I did. And with gusto. Champkin, a…

Philosophy Statistics

Teaching Journal: Day 11—Rewrite, Red Wine, Hat Clips

We started by learning that probability is hard and not always quantifiable. For instance, I imagine many of you would have judged it more likely than not that the Supreme…

Briggs on The Ultimate IQ Test: Guessing the Author’s Mind and Escaping the Infinity of AnswersJune 10, 2026
JH, You are very rare. A lot of teachers are strict. Of course, we are all constrained by Nature's Author…
John Pate on The Ultimate IQ Test: Guessing the Author’s Mind and Escaping the Infinity of AnswersJune 9, 2026
Even the most die hard London School fundamentalist (like me) would acknowledge the many problems with IQ tests but you're…
JH on The Ultimate IQ Test: Guessing the Author’s Mind and Escaping the Infinity of AnswersJune 9, 2026
The right answer to any and all questions much always include this: the mind of the author of the questions.…
C-Marie on The Ultimate IQ Test: Guessing the Author’s Mind and Escaping the Infinity of AnswersJune 8, 2026
Very fun, Matt!! God bless, C-Marie
Philip Rogan on The Ultimate IQ Test: Guessing the Author’s Mind and Escaping the Infinity of AnswersJune 8, 2026
May be showing my lack of IQ: 2 + 2 = 4; 4 x 2 = 8. 5 + 5…