« Open and closed language in facilitation | Main | A new and improved company profile (we hope) »
| 31/01/06 | | All models are wrong... |
I am a regular reader of the AOK-Forum list hosted on Yahoo! A recent post had links to a series of fascinating diagrams. One of them had a list of features that one should consider in constructing a model and thus help us to make sense of the world. George Box, the industrial statistician, is credited with the quote ‘all models are wrong, some are useful’. The characteristics of a good model contained in the link should help us to make our models more useful.
Send this entry to:
Email this entry to a friend
View the Technorati Link Cosmos for this entry
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.anecdote.com.au/cgi-bin/mt-tback.cgi/271
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference All models are wrong...:
» List of features of models from Column Two
Idiagram has published an excellent list of features that all conceptual models should share. To quote: Broadly speaking we use the term 'model' to refer to any structured knowledge that accurately reflects and enables us to make sense of the... [Read More]
Tracked on January 31, 2006 10:56 AM
Comments
I am not sure whether it was George Box or W. Edwards Deming who should be qouted for "all models are wrong, some models are useful" as I have seen both qouted for this in various articles. Who does it belong to?
Posted by: Mads K. Dissing at February 3, 2006 1:29 AM
I thought it was Deming at first but did some searching and found that Box used it as a heading in a book chapter in 1979. Here is the citation:
Box, G.E.P., Robustness in the strategy of scientific model building, in Robustness in Statistics, R.L. Launer and G.N. Wilkinson, Editors. 1979, Academic Press: New York.
Posted by: Shawn Callahan ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.anecdote.com.au/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 3, 2006 6:55 AM
a great model on models above guys, now i wil have to go back and reflect on the one's i have drawn!
Posted by: dave williams at August 19, 2006 10:05 AM
I am confident this quote is Box's. See artilces by George Box, if you are interested. Also see some of my thoughts on Deming's ideas.
Posted by: John Hunter at February 19, 2007 2:29 PM
Regardless of who the quote belongs to, it is a classical example of making sense out of nonsense.
Posted by: Claude Farah at June 17, 2008 1:50 PM