Make sense of tables and charts, and avoid the classic data traps.
Data is everywhere, and STEM careers live and die by reading it honestly.
- Tables and charts show patterns the raw numbers hide. Always read the axis labels and units first.
- Averages summarize, but they can mislead. One billionaire walking into a room changes the average income but not the typical income (the median).
- Correlation is not causation. Two things rising together doesn't mean one caused the other. Ice cream sales and drowning both rise in summer — because of heat, not because ice cream causes drowning.
When someone shows you a chart, ask: what's being measured, compared to what, and what's left out?