Francis Galton Quotes
Whenever you can, count.
See {234968} for an earlier, similar view.
Francis Galton, 1822-1911, English Scientist, Motto, Quoted in J. R. Newman (ed.) The World of Mathematics
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
See {611311} for a later similar view.
This quotation or parts of it are sometimes erroneously attributed to Albert Einstein.
In governmental programs typically administrators, evaluators and often the media measure what is easiest to measure and use that to assess the benefit of the program or initiative. See {63458}.
There is a great tendency in politics and government operations to get extremely precise numbers because political opponents will always attack all numbers that do not support their positions. The result is that typically, so much time and money goes into trying to get precision, that by the time the numbers are good enough the opportunity to make the right policy decision will have passed. Much information that bears on an issue is never used because it is not precise enough while the precise information is not particularly relevant. See {619763} for a similar related quote.
- Born: February 16, 1822
- Died: January 17, 1911
- Nationality: British
- Profession:
Sir Francis Galton, FRS, was an English Victorian era polymath: a statistician, sociologist, psychologist, anthropologist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, psychometrician and a proponent of social Darwinism, eugenics and scientific racism. He was knighted in 1909.
