A Fact About Indonesia & Statistics

A lot of ordinary people assess the application of a science based on knowledge they had, or we can say they just judge it only from one side.

 

This phenomenon may be a lot going occurred in Indonesia. When I was at 3^rd grade at senior high school, lot of my friends wanted to continue their education to college and took major that had high interest such as engineering, pharmacy, psychology, architecture, law, accountant, international relationship, doctor. One of the reasons that reinforce them to chose that majors is because it has a good prospect in work and tend to have bright future, usually the job that they’ll get in the real world is will be suitable as name of major. So, is other majors like agriculture, animal husbandry, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, literature, social where the characteristic of the majors are still general and doesn’t have a clear work prospective? Most of my friends said that maybe we can only become a lecturer or in the bank from that course. Is it true?

I have the same mindset with that when i was in senior high school, but it seems Allah SWT wanted me to have an extensive knowledge, mature in thinking, and saw a thing not only from one side. Therefore I was destined to study at Statistika FMIPA Unpad, even though my first plan is to took Architect major, hehe.

Allah SWT gives us what we need not what we want.

That sentence motivated me first time to study at Statistika FMIPA Unpad.

Undeniably, this is the initial response of people (including me before studying in this college) who might doesn’t know what is Statistics really are and it’s benefit in the real life.

Definitely, in the beginning people will think that learning statistics is just counting mean, modus, median, and variance. Indeed, when we were at senior high school we were taught it, but it’s just a small portion from statistics.

Many people think that statistics and mathematics are the same

Mathematic and Statistic are just like brothers, where Mathematic is older than Statistics. Simple think that differences this two major are : Math commonly talk about something linear, sure, and abstract, Statistic commonly talk about probability, error, and reality. So the differences are clear isn’t it? Same think with Chemistry and Chemistry Engineering. Indeed, in natural science initially come from mathematics, chemistry, physics, and biology, also mostly talking about theory. Their derivation such as statistics, chemistry engineering, physics engineering, etc are application from its theory in the real world. Even though just a derivative, but why college student candidate interest to enter this derivation is more than the basic? Strange huh?

Statistics and Statistic is different.

Many people might think that the word of statistics and statistic have same meaning, the difference is only a letter of s, but actually it has a difference meaning. Definitely, statistics is the art of gathering, analyzing and making conclusions from data, on the other side, statistic is a data. So statistic is a part of statistics.

Mostly scientist focus on their experiment in laboratory, so sometimes they don’t notice the advantages for their surrounding.

In Indonesia, S1 student has mandatory to master theory rather than practice, it’s different from D3 student who has mandatory to master  practice rather than theory.

This is maybe the reason why many statistics student only know the advantages of statistics on the paper or just to answer a question.

Sometimes we get confused with the advantage of this knowledge in our daily life, the fact that statistics is an applied theory form mathematics, which we suppose to feel the implementation.

Statistics have many contributed in our life.

In Journalism and News Broadcasting

Number is one of the most wanted element by journalist because with this number they can talk about fact and make the news become highly rated for society. Sometimes they use diagram to represent the result from the number they get. Diagram is one of the statistics theory and also to make number make more valuable for their audience.

In Sports

Statistics is used to check out potential athletes. Sports teams also use statistics to prepare for upcoming opponents. They look to see which players on the opposing teams are doing well at that time. They also use statistics to decide which players are doing well and they try to predict which players will bring the best results for the game.

In Business

The people who pick out merchandise for retail stores also use statistics. They look to find out what styles and colors sold the best in previous seasons and then they decide what to buy. It is also used to know needed of market.

In Economic Development

Analysis of economic growth, inflation, and interest rates, to find out the problems with the census of population growth.

In Politic

Many people very amazed with quick account, only with sample, it can indicate result that can represent the population with small error and fast.

Government also make a policy based on data, the example is making flyover bridge to reduce traffic jam based on data from transportation authority.

In Crime

Being a Statistician is like being a detective. With data and our knowledge, we can easily know who’s the suspect and also to plot how many police based on the frequency of crime.

In Transportation Service

In this case, statistics is mainly used to forecast the need. Such as vehicle need, fuel need, income, optimal satisfactory point between society and company.

In Health

Nowadays, all of medicine or treatment that a become a part to prevent or cure disease is the result from research recently done. In the recent research obviously to know whether a treatment that have given can affect or no to the object. Usually this research need an expensive thing, like an expert doctor, expert statistician, much money, and time.

In Daily Life

As you know, what I write above is  the result from my observation until now.

So what is the relationship with Statistics?

Everything above is not just i made so, they are made based on pattern that i have got. Every person, company, and phenomenon must have characteristic and pattern itself. One of the rule to use Statistics tool is knowing the data characteristic and pattern. After knowing it, then we can use Statistics tool that is suitable with the data characteristic and pattern to conclude the data.

In the simple way, when i already know someone characteristic and pattern, I can forecast what will that person do.

As long there’s a data, there’s also a place for Statistician in this world.

Statistics is very powerful major but it’s just a tool. A tool without subject or object is become nothing. This can be applied on the other theory, every single theory can’t stand alone and have to collaborate with other theory.

So, lucky for us for studying this majority.

This majority can be a knife with two sides, where if this knife is used wisely, it can be useful for many people, otherwise if this knife is used unwisely, it can be dangerous for many people.

Being statistician means that we have to mingle with everyone.