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Percentages (mander.xyz)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] 26 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I work in a place full of statisticians, and we've had to unfortunately have numerous conversations with some of them about the difference between "a decrease" and "a decrease in the rate." Apparently "it's increasing slower" isn't clear enough for some.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

    Maybe I'm understanding wrong but a decrease in the rate would be the derivative of a decrease. Aka the slope of the line. So if you are decreasing at -x. Rate of decrease is -1.

    Unless I follow your wording incorrectly. Obviously it isn't always so nice of a function in real stats. Is that what they are missing?

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    I think it's more y=5x and then y=3x, so you're still increasing, but the rate of increase has decreased. Versus y=-x where the function is now decreasing.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    This is exactly the issue that happens. They write things out narratively like a decrease happened, which would cause some panic in certain groups we work with, and then they would argue when we requested they fix it to represent a decrease in the rate of increase, or a slower/lower increase than prior, or however they wanna say it. But it certainly didn't decrease.

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