Statistics: Your Chance for
Happiness (or Misery)
Xiao-Li Meng, Whipple V. n. Jones Professor of Statistics and
Department Chair, Harvard university
“I keep saying the sexy job in the next 10 years will be stat-
isticians. People think I’m joking, but who would’ve guessed
that computer engineers would’ve been the sexy job of the
1990s? The ability to take datat— o be able to understand it,
to process it, to extract value from it, to visualize it, to com-
municate itt— hat’s going to be a hugely important skill in the
next decades.” — Hal Varian, Google’s chief economist
A
s a professor of statistics, I, of course, cannot
agree more with Hal Varian. But, as a statisti-
cian, I am obligated to remind you that a
professor of any subject can find quotationst— ons
of them—to demonstrate the importance of his or
her beloved subject.
Wait! Does that reminder have anything to do
with being a statistician? Well, let’s label this ques-
tion as Puzzle One and read on. And while we are at
it, let me throw in another quote, this time from a
recruiter representing Wall Street—yes, they are still
hiringb— ut read this carefully:
Now more than ever, they are looking
for the best and brightest to help get
an understanding as to what caused the
housing bubble and how to properly
Editor’s Note: A version of this
forecast those prices based on all the
article was originally published
variables involved (e.g., interest rates,
as an op-ed for The Harvard
inventories, short sales, foreclosures,
Undergraduate Research Journal
delinquencies). I am actively seeking those
in April 2009.
individuals who have the background and
desire to apply their stat/analytical skills,
specifically in the real estate medium. …
The trend in these unique economic times
is that companies want the more scientific/
mathematical/engineering backgrounds
to help them back solve these very new
and volatile markets. My clients these
days are actually shying away from MBA
types because today’s equity markets have
much more to do with randomness and
psychology than business fundamentals.
42 AMSTAT NEwS SEPTEMbER 2009
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