>IMNSHO, there's no substitute for these kinds of basic skills. >Arithmetic, reading and writing are basic skills that form the foundation for other "more relevant" skills.
To a certain extent, I agree. But, just because I can calculate standard deviation, mean, & variance by hand, doesn't mean that I should have to! You need the basic skills, but more to ensure that the output from your tools is correct. A couple of years ago, there was an article in a US business magazine pointing out that, aside from fraud, the biggest reason for re-statement of financial results was over-dependence on spreadsheets maintained by secretariess & admins with no financial backgrounds. Even simple column/row cross-checks were either not used or ignored. It was only when somebody with the skills audited them that the errors were found out. Usually, after publication. Oops! - Too busy driving to stop for gas! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
