How Does a Stat Modeler's Approach Influence Learning Physics?

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Gary Venter
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How did you find PF?
I was on the Philosophy Forum, as I studied that in grad school, and saw a list of forums
I studied foundations of mathematics from mathematical and philosophical angles in grad school but then went on to a career of building and testing statistical risk models. The guiding philosophy there, which I call Boxian Skepticism, derives from a quote of George Box: "All models are wrong but some are useful." That's a dramatic but exaggerated expression that statisticians and philosophers have objected to, but makes the basic point that true / false is not the right way to evaluate models. "What can it do for me?" might say it better - predicting of course, but also the overall picture it provides of what is going on, and what other approaches it might lead to.

I retired from model building and I'm now trying to understand fundamental issues of modern physics, which I did study as an undergraduate. I find a lot of things interesting. At least initially I'll mostly have questions, but I hope they are not too trite.
 
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Thank you! Looking forward to it all.