Be approximately right

Updated July 21, 2023

Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise. (John W Turkey)


Consider the value of an answer along 2 axes: accuracy and precision.

  • High accuracy, low precision — "Pi is 3.14"
  • High precision, low accuracy — "Pi is 5.230394891123039491203157"

See also intuition is pattern recognition, learn to learn.