Hello (New World!), 

My name is Edwin, I’m a 22 year-old French student in applied mathematics. In particular, I study probability, statistics and risk theory. We learn interesting things but there is still one question I feel stupid about: Is statistics, actually, useful? I mean not theoretically but in the real life. Many friends of mine asked me this, and I vainly struggle in answering with understandable and cogent examples. I can’t get rid of the stereotypes such as the over optimistic forecasts of GDP gross given by government neither of the very easy statistics which are about collecting data rather than proper data analyses.

This question is the reason of this blog, I would like to explain by examples how statistics and probability could offer a useful perception of our environment. Indeed, according to the Oxford Dictionary, perception is the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses, or in a second meaning, the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted. This is how probability and statistics are useful. They give a perception of our environment, which might be wrong, as well as our sight can suffer from an optical illusion, but the perception may help us to understand and become aware of phenomena of our environment.