Correlations

A good engineer analyzes and correlates... that's what we do. And when we do, funny things come up.

When engineers discuss correlation, we ask how alike are two things or variables. In a plot of two variables like age and wisdom, we expect positive correlation. For other variables, like beauty and niceness, we expect no or negative correlation (as example, look at movie actors and actresses and their behavior).

Somewhat unfortunately (1) every thing or variable is related to every other thing or variable... not just one or two, and (2) emotions and biases mess up our analysis.

It is truly wonderful to find kind and nice people. I know a few of them... just ran into one of them. They are exceptional. They make the world right for me. What is even better is that they are also athletes... for whatever reason, athletes seem to be correlated to beauty and niceness. Or maybe it's me... I do not tolerate fools, I do not really like fat people, and I think sweat is the best makeup.

- text © 2013 by Willy