The Counselor and the Statistician: Episode 1

I happen to have the good fortune to have really interesting and helpful people among my acquaintance.  I tend to learn quite a bit from these people, even if it is something small or something about myself.  For example, I have a friend and mentor whom I respect and enjoy considerably.  I think it's fair to say he identifies as a statistician, although his interests and talents are quite broad.  He and I share similar opinions on many things but often arrive at our conclusions in different ways.  I envision this process of coming to conclusions as us standing on the same street corner in almost the exact same spot, except he's there in the summer, and I'm there in the spring.  Same basic data, different situational observations but similar conclusions.  Despite overlap in perspective, we have very divergent communication styles.  Statistician helps me learn more effective communication, or he at least highlights the fact that it's nearly impossible for me to write anything with fewer than 10 sentences, half of which are often questions or statements of moral outrage.

A standard Counselor/Statistician email chain looks like this:         

11 sentences, no questions, no statements of moral outrage... as I said, *nearly* impossible.