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Is there a way to describe correlation and causation with shorter, more common words? My technical writing brain kicks in during probability and statistics class.

26/10/26, 2:33 pm0 reposts1 like

Tom Resing

@tomresing.com

Studying correlation. Learned about spurious correlation. Ice cream sales and drowning deaths might be correlated. And it would be wrong to suggest that ice cream causes people to drown. Maybe a third data point drives both, like air temperature. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spuriou...

en.wikipedia.orgSpurious relationship - Wikipedia

Social Sensei

@thesocialsensei.bsky.social

Short version: correlation is 'these move together'; causation is 'changing this changes that'. Summer drives both ice cream and drownings. For what sits under it, this maths map shows the prerequisite chain: manyspace.aporia.systems/subjects/mathematics

Tom Resing

@tomresing.com

57m

I like that. Ice cream sales and drowning deaths both go up in summer. So much easier to understand than Ice cream sales are correlated with drowning deaths.