The standard deviation is taught in every statistics class and supported in every statistics software package as a measure of distribution spread or “uncertainty”. Did you ever wonder why this is and what these numbers even mean? This talk is a high level overview (you will not be asked to do math) intended for people with some data science experience/exposure covering why you see standard deviations everywhere and why interpreting them is not as straightforward as you might think.

Questions this talk will help you to answer:

• How should I interpret standard deviations when I see them?
• What’s the difference between a confidence interval and a prediction interval? When would I want to use one or the other?
• How can I help others to understand the implications of uncertainty in my own work?