Walk rate is probably the area in which a pitcher has the most room to improve, but a rate that high is tough to overcome.
— Nate Silver
Distinguishing the signal from the noise requires both scientific knowledge and self-knowledge.
People don't have a good intuitive sense of how to weigh new information in light of what they already know. They tend to overrate it.
To be a very, very minor, eighth-tier celebrity, you realize, 'Hey, celebrities are just like us.'
All I know is that I have way more stuff that I want to write about than I possibly have time to.
I don't think that somebody who is observing or predicting behavior should also be participating in the 'experiment.'
In baseball you have terrific data and you can be a lot more creative with it.
I think punditry serves no purpose.
If there's a major foreign policy event, the President gets on TV, the Congress doesn't.
When you try to predict future E.R.A.'s with past E.R.A.'s, you're making a mistake.
People attach too much importance to intangibles like heart, desire and clutch hitting.
Success makes you less intimidated by things.
The public is even more pessimistic about the economy than even the most bearish economists are.
I think there's space in the market for a half-dozen kind of polling analysts.
Race is still the No. 1 determinant in every election.
Any one game in baseball doesn't tell you that much, just as any one poll doesn't tell you that much.
A lot of journalism wants to have what they call objectivity without them having a commitment to pursuing the truth, but that doesn't work. Objectivity requires belief in and a commitment toward pursuing the truth - having an object outside of our personal point of view.
Remember, the Congress doesn't get as many opportunities to make an impression with the public.
If I had a spreadsheet on my computer, it looked like I was busy.
Almost everyone's instinct is to be overconfident and read way too much into a hot or cold streak.
I have the same friends and the same bad habits.
I view my role now as providing more of a macro-level skepticism, rather than saying this poll is good or this poll is evil.
Midterm elections can be dreadfully boring, unfortunately.
The problem is that when polls are wrong, they tend to be wrong in the same direction. If they miss in New Hampshire, for instance, they all miss on the same mistake.
I guess I don't like the people in politics very much, to be blunt.
First of all, I think it's odd that people who cover politics wouldn't have any political views.
Well, you know, you're not going to have 86 percent of Congress voted out of office.
