Re: Knowledge and Variation: Some thoughts on Deming and Fisher

[Jonathan Siegel <jmsiegel.info.research@worldnet.att.net>]

Dear Hanching,

Thanks for your thoughts. I especially appreciate your pointing out Professor's Johnson excellent speech, containing similar themes, which I found at:

http://deming.ces.clemson.edu/pub/den/deming_johnson1.htm

I've sent a revised version of the post which includes a reference to Fisher's Genetical Theory of Natural Selection (1958).

There is a mention of Fisher in the section of Out of the Crisis entitled "Remarks on Quality of Teaching" (pp. 173-174):

""In my experience, I have seen a teacher hold a hundred fifty students spellbound, teaching what is wrong. His students rated him as a great teacher. In contrast, two of my own greatest teachers in universities would be rated poor teachers on every count. Then why did people come from all over the world to study with them, including me? For the simple reason
that these men had something to teach. They inspired their students to carry on future research. They were leaders of thought--by name, Sir Ronald Fisher in statistics at University College, and Sir Ernest Brown in lunar theory at Yale.Their works will remain classic for centuries. Their students had a chance to observe what these great men were thinking about,
and how they built roads into knowledge."

This passage in OOTC would suggest that it is reasonable to posit that some of Deming's thinking was based on Fisher's. But I have no certain proof that the particular association I posited existed.

I'm suggesting that, even though knowledge makes improvement more efficient than blind mutation, there are still risks involved, and some of Fisher's ideas about variation are still relevant. Fisher's thinking was quite varied, making seminal contributions to both statistics and genetics.

Jonathan Siegel