All Models Wrong Quote

The cluster focuses on the adage 'All models are wrong, but some are useful,' with commenters using it to defend the value of imperfect models despite their simplifications or inaccuracies.

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Keywords

PHD HN en.m reddit.com wikipedia.org models model useful wrong theories representation judgements model just predictive stop trying

Sample Comments

Capt-RogerOver Jan 11, 2017 View on HN

Models are not wrong. They are just models. Ie, != reality.

hle Sep 10, 2010 View on HN

"All the models are wrong but some are useful". I think that in this case the model was just wrong... or a bit simplistic.

drabiega May 2, 2017 View on HN

You know what they say about models: all of them are wrong, some of them are useful.

jdhzzz Aug 21, 2022 View on HN

Reminds me of "All models are wrong, some are useful." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_models_are_wrong

btown Feb 22, 2019 View on HN

"All models are wrong, but some are useful" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_models_are_wrong

simion314 Mar 9, 2019 View on HN

Models are not reality, you exclude some details from the model, can you expand on your criticism and explain why the missing details would have different impact on the result?

amackera Sep 10, 2021 View on HN

"All models are wrong, but some are useful." [1][1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_models_are_wrong

agos Feb 8, 2024 View on HN

you should not forget the second part: all models are wrong, some are useful

fragmede Jan 7, 2024 View on HN

aka, all models are wrong, some are useful.

mitchbob Mar 3, 2025 View on HN

All models are wrong, but some are useful.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_models_are_wrong