Why Rare Events Happen Every Day

With David J. Hand

David Hand, a two-time former president of the Royal Statistical Society, explains the commonplace nature of extraordinary events in his book The Improbability Principle. He joins us to discuss examples from his book and the set of laws behind chance moments in life, as well as the great importance of the discipline of statistics. Hand was made OBE in 2013 for his service to research and innovation.

In this video:
  • The intersection of statistics and data mining.
  • People’s reactions to a probabilistic view of nature.
  • How confusion over the different types of probability impedes our understanding of what we can reasonably expect to happen – or not.
  • Extraordinary examples of the law of truly large numbers.
  • The importance of communicating the relevance of statistics to others.