Day 67 of 1000

Andrew does it again. Here is a quote from an article for which Andrew sent me a link this morning:

Asked whether he thought computer science should start being introduced very early in kids’ educations, Gates said he actually would start with statistics.

“There’s certainly a level of complex, symbolic thinking that is valuable to be exposed to. Personally, I might put statistics in instead of geometry. I’d put statistics in before calculus,” Gates said. “Where computer science belongs in that hierarchy I don’t know.”

Kelly decided to try to get a degree in statistics about a year ago.  We have wondered whether or not that is the right decision, but time after time, we run into stuff like Gates quote.  Previous to that, we saw in Forbes that Irene Rosenfeld, the CEO of Kraft Foods (home to Canada’s passion–Kraft Macaroni and Cheese), received a Doctorate in Marketing and Statistics.  Statistics is ubiquitous.  There is a need for statisticians in virtual every field.  Kelly leaned toward graduate work in Journalism after her Statistics degree, but we have seen that she has many, many more options.  At one time or another we have spoken about Management, Marketing, Publishing, Sociology, Industrial Engineering, and a variety of other fields.  Statistics provides a wonderful base for all of them.  She still has some very hard classes to complete for her degree and we are several years off, but she has some wonderful options.