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by santiagobasulto 1498 days ago
Of course that `.head()`, `.tail()`, `iloc` and other mechanisms to visualize the data of subsets is always important. But would you really caution AGAINST this? Like, literally telling someone NOT to use summary statistics to explore a dataset?
1 comments

No, I’m more cautioning against using summary statistics in isolation without looking at the raw data.

I was more responding to the statement that one can “see” the shape of data through them and not needing visual tools. The lens of summary statistics is a very narrow one — it’s a necessary but almost always insufficient one. Even .ilocs are insufficient —- it’s hard to know what to .iloc for. One really needs to browse the data interactively to get a good sense of it.

Ah, ok. Sorry, I misunderstood. Yes, we’re on the same page. As usual, a good balance is necessary.