Koans (March 29, 2006)

A koan is a story used in Buddhist teaching that involves a seemingly meaningless or contradictory statement. Careful contemplation of this statement leads you to a more fuller understanding of Buddhism. Although koans have an overt link to religion, they have been used by others to illustrate difficult non-religious issues. I have some examples of religious and non-religious koans.

In the spirit of this literary style, I offer a few statistical koans. The most recently written koans are at the top of the list.

• Some Useless Gifts
• The Busy Tailor
• The Bowl of Wax Fruit
• A Visit From A Thief
• The Blindfolded Donkey
• The Other Ninety Nine Samples
• The Only True Path

This is a rather unusual literary device for teaching, but I think it is well suited for some of the subtle but important distinctions that we draw in statistics. I'm interested in your comments, thoughts, and suggestions about these koans.

When I get time, I would like to add commentary about these koans.

Stats >> Koans

This page was last modified on 04/15/08. Send feedback to ssimon at cmh dot edu or click on the email link at the top of the page.

You are welcome to link to this page or other pages on this web site. Individual educational uses are also okay. Please contact me for permission to use these pages in any other way. For more details, please consult my copyright notice.