Correlation vs Causation

Summary

Two variables moving together doesn't mean one causes the other — a distinction that's easy to state and surprisingly easy to forget under stakeholder pressure for a clean story.

• 1Find (or recall) a classic spurious correlation example (ice cream sales and drownings).
• 2Practice proposing 2-3 alternative explanations for a correlation you observe.
• 3Learn what would actually be needed to establish causation (e.g. a controlled experiment).