Bits: What Are the Odds That Stats Would Be This Popular?

What:
   An article discussing the sudden popularity of statisticians.

Thoughts:
   I didn't know a person needed a degree in stats, I always thought of it as something that could be learned or part of a math skill set, apparently I was wrong. I'm sure there are tons of people from other disciplines that are doing great work in the field, but the guys in the article are the ones getting the big bucks. This reminds of the mid nineties tech boom when programmers were in short demand and getting insane salaries. I wonder why this keeps happening, is it a failure of the colleges, a success of innovation, or something entirely different?

“Most of my life I went to parties and heard a little groan when people heard what I did,” says Robert Tibshirani, a statistics professor at Stanford University. “Now they’re all excited to meet me.”

Read more: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/what-are-the-odds-that-stats-would-get-this-popular/