“Statisticians love large sample sizes. As they say, the n’s justify the means”
The proverb “the ends justify the means” sometimes is told in the statistics joke “the Ns justify the means.” “When do the ns justify the means? Clinical biostatistics gone astray” was the title of an article in Pediatrics in Aoril 1973. “And, as the old joke has it, that the data are sufficiently well-behaved so that the ‘n’s’ justify the ‘means’”’ was printed in Proceedings of the Statistical Computing Section, American Statistical Association in 1990.
“My stats professor told me that the larger the sample size the more trustworthy the data. The Ns justify the means” was posted on Reddit—Jokes on July 2, 2016.
Wiktionary: the end justifies the means
Etymology
Widely attributed to Machiavelli’s The Prince, which does reflect this philosophy but does not use the phrase in this wording. A possible source is Ovid’s Heroides (ca. 10 BC), which says exitus ācta probat (“the result justifies the deeds”).
Proverb
the end justifies the means
1. Morally wrong actions are sometimes necessary to achieve morally right outcomes; actions can only be considered morally right or wrong by virtue of the morality of the outcome.
OCLC WorldCat record
When do the ns justify the means? Clinical biostatistics gone astray.
Edition/Format: Article Article : English
Publication: Pediatrics, 1973 Apr; 51(4): 758-9
Google Books
Proceedings of the Statistical Computing Section
American Statistical Association
1990
Pg. 52:
(And, as the old joke has it, that the data are sufficiently well-behaved so that the “n’s” justify the “means”.)
Google Groups: sci.astro
sci.astro
Shannon R. Madsen
5/13/91
(...)
“The n’s justify the means.” —An unknown Machiavellian statistician
Google Groups: bit.listserv.edstat-l
Humor
John Wendell
10/24/92
Just got my Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics in the mail. On the back cover is a picture of John W. Tukey holding a copy of the journal. Just above the journal is a sign that reads “THE N’S JUSTIFY THE MEANS.” (I’m interpolating the second THE).
OCLC WorldCat record
Do the Ns justify the means? Null hypothesis testing applied to sex and other differences.
Author: Olga E Favreau
Edition/Format: Article Article : English
Publication: Canadian Psychology/Psychologie canadienne, v34 n1 (1993): 64-78
Google Groups: sci.stat.consult
Statistical Quotes
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
8/30/96
Samuel Buttrey listed several t-shirt quotes.
At this year’s Joint Stat Meetings, the winner (that is, the one that was sold out after two days) was:
“The Ns justify the means”
Twitter
Ant O’Fearghail
@aofarre
Replying to @JillKerby
@JillKerby Reminds me of an old stats lecturer of mine. Explaining the importance of sample size, he said, “The ‘n’s justify the Means!”
2:30 PM - 26 Jul 2011
Google Books
DOE Simplified:
Practical Tools for Effective Experimentation, Third Edition
By Mark J. Anderson and Patrick J. Whitcomb
Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press
2015
Pg. ?:
“The ns justify the means.”
(Slogan on shirt seen at an American Statistical Association meeting)
Reddit—Jokes
Why are statistics more believable with a larger sample size?
submitted October 27, 2015 by hPerks
The Ns justify the means.
Reddit—Jokes
My stats professor told me that the larger the sample size the more trustworthy the data.
submitted July 2, 2016 by JeffSachs
I guess the N’s justify the means.
Reddit—Dad Jokes
Statisticians love large sample sizes. (self.dadjokes)
submitted February 5, 2018 by porichoygupto
As they say, the n’s justify the means.
Reddit—Dad Jokes
My statistics professor told us that the larger the sample size, the more reliable are your averages. (self.dadjokes)
submitted September 30, 2018 by porichoygupto
The N’s justify the means.
Twitter
Medlife Crisis (Rohin)
@MedCrisis
Remember with increasing sample size, your averages become more reliable
The Ns justify the means
12:04 PM - 30 Sep 2018