Always visualize the data

Sometimes comments on Twitter offers useful perspectives.  Kris Peeters (@peeterskris), of datamined, tweeted this set of plots along with some excellent advice:

These sets all have the same mean, median and variance. Lesson: Always Visualise.

Of course, Twitter being Twitter, and geeks being geeks, someone named Emil OW Kirkegaard (@Kirkegaard.Emil) shortly thereafter presented a computerized numerical analysis and noted:

Not quite true, but close and the recommendation is good. 

It's during moments like this that I miss being on the MIT faculty!