[olalonde]

For me, the big confusion comes from the fact that if you simulate people, you almost inevitably have to deal with data about people. How can those two be mutually exclusive?

Without a clear definition or concrete examples of what the OP meant by "simulate people" versus "data about people", the post is almost devoid of information (to me; apparently, a lot of people understood what OP meant).

[chongli]

For me, the big confusion comes from the fact that if you simulate people, you almost inevitably have to deal with data about people. How can those two be mutually exclusive?

They're not mutually exclusive: the inverse is not necessarily true. This is basically the entire point of the article. When you're just working with data, don't use constructs which are meant for simulation. It's a subtle way of saying "Don't model data about people (or any other piece of pure information) with mutable objects; prefer values instead."