ASA Connect

Hello Everyone,

This forum has a lot of interesting discussion with good input from many people, so I wanted to get your thoughts on the following question, please. What didn't you learn in school that you wished you had?

Our profession is changing in "The Real World" and quite rapidly today. We always have to be learning new things on the job, but are there foundational skills that you would have been better off learning in college (high school!?) but you didn't? I imagine the question would be answered differently depending on when you graduated and what you do now. Since colleges and universities are trying to adapt their curriculum to what they perceive to be the needs of employers, more recent graduates might have a different answer than those of us in the "Silver Circle."

From my own experiences, leaving college 20 or 30 years ago depending on how you look at it, I have my own opinions, but I'm very interested in what the group says. I also see a lot of resumes and job descriptions, so my opinions may be slanted more to those experiences. However, here are the top few things I wish I had learned in school that I could have used at Kellogg's and, then, with the many clients we work with in our Business Intelligence and Analytics Practice. (And maybe they tried to teach me these things and I was just too bull-headed to learn. :-)

Integrating with the client -- this is like collaboration, but more so. It also could be described as learning to live in their world. Statistics was always an us and them, even when we talked about teams and such. There could have been more about getting into their heads, their objectives, their language.

Get it right vs. get it done -- clients have, more often than not, cared more about getting something that's in the right direction for what they need (60 - 80% of the way there) than for something that's 100% statistically accurate. Some of that requires my educating them, but I also have to compromise with them in ways that are going to give results that are quick, actionable and still minimize risk.

Business presentations -- How to tell the story of the data in such a way that the audience (business, engineers, product developers, VP's, etc.) will not be lost in the technical details, feel confident in the results, and know how to take action in their jobs. Everything I saw and did (or as I remember it) in school was very technical and that transition was hard.

Project management and software development -- Not to be a project manager or software developer, but to have some of those skills. My only project management in school was getting the homework done by Friday. It would have been good to learn more about requirements gathering, task estimation, status reporting, change control, error checking, etc.

That list is the top things on my mind now to get the discussion going. What do you all think?

I think learning something about Database systems is important. Too many professional statisticians use their stats software to perform database functions. That's like driving a Smart Car while towing yacht, then complaining about how slow it goes.

If statisticians knew how bad the algorithms are for sorting and joining data in R, SAS, Stata, etc, versus SQL Server or Oracle or Hadoop, they would feel foolish. Since they don't know about Database software, they don't use it. 

Hello Everyone,

This forum has a lot of interesting discussion with good input from many people, so I wanted to get your thoughts on the following question, please. What didn't you learn in school that you wished you had?

Our profession is changing in "The Real World" and quite rapidly today. We always have to be learning new things on the job, but are there foundational skills that you would have been better off learning in college (high school!?) but you didn't? I imagine the question would be answered differently depending on when you graduated and what you do now. Since colleges and universities are trying to adapt their curriculum to what they perceive to be the needs of employers, more recent graduates might have a different answer than those of us in the "Silver Circle."

From my own experiences, leaving college 20 or 30 years ago depending on how you look at it, I have my own opinions, but I'm very interested in what the group says. I also see a lot of resumes and job descriptions, so my opinions may be slanted more to those experiences. However, here are the top few things I wish I had learned in school that I could have used at Kellogg's and, then, with the many clients we work with in our Business Intelligence and Analytics Practice. (And maybe they tried to teach me these things and I was just too bull-headed to learn. :-)

Integrating with the client -- this is like collaboration, but more so. It also could be described as learning to live in their world. Statistics was always an us and them, even when we talked about teams and such. There could have been more about getting into their heads, their objectives, their language.

Get it right vs. get it done -- clients have, more often than not, cared more about getting something that's in the right direction for what they need (60 - 80% of the way there) than for something that's 100% statistically accurate. Some of that requires my educating them, but I also have to compromise with them in ways that are going to give results that are quick, actionable and still minimize risk.

Business presentations -- How to tell the story of the data in such a way that the audience (business, engineers, product developers, VP's, etc.) will not be lost in the technical details, feel confident in the results, and know how to take action in their jobs. Everything I saw and did (or as I remember it) in school was very technical and that transition was hard.

Project management and software development -- Not to be a project manager or software developer, but to have some of those skills. My only project management in school was getting the homework done by Friday. It would have been good to learn more about requirements gathering, task estimation, status reporting, change control, error checking, etc.

That list is the top things on my mind now to get the discussion going. What do you all think?

I'll comment more about what I've seen missing from new-hires, as I came out of grad school the first time 35 years ago.  Statistical fundamentals:  I think too much emphasis is placed on applied techniques.  New-hires are more inclined to make assumptions that allow them to use the analysis approach they used in school as opposed to examining the phenomena they are working with and adjusting methodology appropriately.  Strategic Planning:  This is not so much one to get in initial education, but it becomes critical as you move up the ladder.  Once in the working world, few statisticians seek training on this subject, so they tend to muddle through somewhat haphazardly.

Hello Everyone,

This forum has a lot of interesting discussion with good input from many people, so I wanted to get your thoughts on the following question, please. What didn't you learn in school that you wished you had?

Our profession is changing in "The Real World" and quite rapidly today. We always have to be learning new things on the job, but are there foundational skills that you would have been better off learning in college (high school!?) but you didn't? I imagine the question would be answered differently depending on when you graduated and what you do now. Since colleges and universities are trying to adapt their curriculum to what they perceive to be the needs of employers, more recent graduates might have a different answer than those of us in the "Silver Circle."

From my own experiences, leaving college 20 or 30 years ago depending on how you look at it, I have my own opinions, but I'm very interested in what the group says. I also see a lot of resumes and job descriptions, so my opinions may be slanted more to those experiences. However, here are the top few things I wish I had learned in school that I could have used at Kellogg's and, then, with the many clients we work with in our Business Intelligence and Analytics Practice. (And maybe they tried to teach me these things and I was just too bull-headed to learn. :-)

Integrating with the client -- this is like collaboration, but more so. It also could be described as learning to live in their world. Statistics was always an us and them, even when we talked about teams and such. There could have been more about getting into their heads, their objectives, their language.

Get it right vs. get it done -- clients have, more often than not, cared more about getting something that's in the right direction for what they need (60 - 80% of the way there) than for something that's 100% statistically accurate. Some of that requires my educating them, but I also have to compromise with them in ways that are going to give results that are quick, actionable and still minimize risk.

Business presentations -- How to tell the story of the data in such a way that the audience (business, engineers, product developers, VP's, etc.) will not be lost in the technical details, feel confident in the results, and know how to take action in their jobs. Everything I saw and did (or as I remember it) in school was very technical and that transition was hard.

Project management and software development -- Not to be a project manager or software developer, but to have some of those skills. My only project management in school was getting the homework done by Friday. It would have been good to learn more about requirements gathering, task estimation, status reporting, change control, error checking, etc.

That list is the top things on my mind now to get the discussion going. What do you all think?

Hello Everyone,

This forum has a lot of interesting discussion with good input from many people, so I wanted to get your thoughts on the following question, please. What didn't you learn in school that you wished you had?

Our profession is changing in "The Real World" and quite rapidly today. We always have to be learning new things on the job, but are there foundational skills that you would have been better off learning in college (high school!?) but you didn't? I imagine the question would be answered differently depending on when you graduated and what you do now. Since colleges and universities are trying to adapt their curriculum to what they perceive to be the needs of employers, more recent graduates might have a different answer than those of us in the "Silver Circle."

From my own experiences, leaving college 20 or 30 years ago depending on how you look at it, I have my own opinions, but I'm very interested in what the group says. I also see a lot of resumes and job descriptions, so my opinions may be slanted more to those experiences. However, here are the top few things I wish I had learned in school that I could have used at Kellogg's and, then, with the many clients we work with in our Business Intelligence and Analytics Practice. (And maybe they tried to teach me these things and I was just too bull-headed to learn. :-)

Integrating with the client -- this is like collaboration, but more so. It also could be described as learning to live in their world. Statistics was always an us and them, even when we talked about teams and such. There could have been more about getting into their heads, their objectives, their language.

Get it right vs. get it done -- clients have, more often than not, cared more about getting something that's in the right direction for what they need (60 - 80% of the way there) than for something that's 100% statistically accurate. Some of that requires my educating them, but I also have to compromise with them in ways that are going to give results that are quick, actionable and still minimize risk.

Business presentations -- How to tell the story of the data in such a way that the audience (business, engineers, product developers, VP's, etc.) will not be lost in the technical details, feel confident in the results, and know how to take action in their jobs. Everything I saw and did (or as I remember it) in school was very technical and that transition was hard.

Project management and software development -- Not to be a project manager or software developer, but to have some of those skills. My only project management in school was getting the homework done by Friday. It would have been good to learn more about requirements gathering, task estimation, status reporting, change control, error checking, etc.

That list is the top things on my mind now to get the discussion going. What do you all think?

Hello Everyone,

This forum has a lot of interesting discussion with good input from many people, so I wanted to get your thoughts on the following question, please. What didn't you learn in school that you wished you had?

Our profession is changing in "The Real World" and quite rapidly today. We always have to be learning new things on the job, but are there foundational skills that you would have been better off learning in college (high school!?) but you didn't? I imagine the question would be answered differently depending on when you graduated and what you do now. Since colleges and universities are trying to adapt their curriculum to what they perceive to be the needs of employers, more recent graduates might have a different answer than those of us in the "Silver Circle."

From my own experiences, leaving college 20 or 30 years ago depending on how you look at it, I have my own opinions, but I'm very interested in what the group says. I also see a lot of resumes and job descriptions, so my opinions may be slanted more to those experiences. However, here are the top few things I wish I had learned in school that I could have used at Kellogg's and, then, with the many clients we work with in our Business Intelligence and Analytics Practice. (And maybe they tried to teach me these things and I was just too bull-headed to learn. :-)

Integrating with the client -- this is like collaboration, but more so. It also could be described as learning to live in their world. Statistics was always an us and them, even when we talked about teams and such. There could have been more about getting into their heads, their objectives, their language.

Get it right vs. get it done -- clients have, more often than not, cared more about getting something that's in the right direction for what they need (60 - 80% of the way there) than for something that's 100% statistically accurate. Some of that requires my educating them, but I also have to compromise with them in ways that are going to give results that are quick, actionable and still minimize risk.

Business presentations -- How to tell the story of the data in such a way that the audience (business, engineers, product developers, VP's, etc.) will not be lost in the technical details, feel confident in the results, and know how to take action in their jobs. Everything I saw and did (or as I remember it) in school was very technical and that transition was hard.

Project management and software development -- Not to be a project manager or software developer, but to have some of those skills. My only project management in school was getting the homework done by Friday. It would have been good to learn more about requirements gathering, task estimation, status reporting, change control, error checking, etc.

That list is the top things on my mind now to get the discussion going. What do you all think?

Hello Everyone,

This forum has a lot of interesting discussion with good input from many people, so I wanted to get your thoughts on the following question, please. What didn't you learn in school that you wished you had?

Our profession is changing in "The Real World" and quite rapidly today. We always have to be learning new things on the job, but are there foundational skills that you would have been better off learning in college (high school!?) but you didn't? I imagine the question would be answered differently depending on when you graduated and what you do now. Since colleges and universities are trying to adapt their curriculum to what they perceive to be the needs of employers, more recent graduates might have a different answer than those of us in the "Silver Circle."

From my own experiences, leaving college 20 or 30 years ago depending on how you look at it, I have my own opinions, but I'm very interested in what the group says. I also see a lot of resumes and job descriptions, so my opinions may be slanted more to those experiences. However, here are the top few things I wish I had learned in school that I could have used at Kellogg's and, then, with the many clients we work with in our Business Intelligence and Analytics Practice. (And maybe they tried to teach me these things and I was just too bull-headed to learn. :-)

Integrating with the client -- this is like collaboration, but more so. It also could be described as learning to live in their world. Statistics was always an us and them, even when we talked about teams and such. There could have been more about getting into their heads, their objectives, their language.

Get it right vs. get it done -- clients have, more often than not, cared more about getting something that's in the right direction for what they need (60 - 80% of the way there) than for something that's 100% statistically accurate. Some of that requires my educating them, but I also have to compromise with them in ways that are going to give results that are quick, actionable and still minimize risk.

Business presentations -- How to tell the story of the data in such a way that the audience (business, engineers, product developers, VP's, etc.) will not be lost in the technical details, feel confident in the results, and know how to take action in their jobs. Everything I saw and did (or as I remember it) in school was very technical and that transition was hard.

Project management and software development -- Not to be a project manager or software developer, but to have some of those skills. My only project management in school was getting the homework done by Friday. It would have been good to learn more about requirements gathering, task estimation, status reporting, change control, error checking, etc.

That list is the top things on my mind now to get the discussion going. What do you all think?

Hello Everyone,

This forum has a lot of interesting discussion with good input from many people, so I wanted to get your thoughts on the following question, please. What didn't you learn in school that you wished you had?

Our profession is changing in "The Real World" and quite rapidly today. We always have to be learning new things on the job, but are there foundational skills that you would have been better off learning in college (high school!?) but you didn't? I imagine the question would be answered differently depending on when you graduated and what you do now. Since colleges and universities are trying to adapt their curriculum to what they perceive to be the needs of employers, more recent graduates might have a different answer than those of us in the "Silver Circle."

From my own experiences, leaving college 20 or 30 years ago depending on how you look at it, I have my own opinions, but I'm very interested in what the group says. I also see a lot of resumes and job descriptions, so my opinions may be slanted more to those experiences. However, here are the top few things I wish I had learned in school that I could have used at Kellogg's and, then, with the many clients we work with in our Business Intelligence and Analytics Practice. (And maybe they tried to teach me these things and I was just too bull-headed to learn. :-)

Integrating with the client -- this is like collaboration, but more so. It also could be described as learning to live in their world. Statistics was always an us and them, even when we talked about teams and such. There could have been more about getting into their heads, their objectives, their language.

Get it right vs. get it done -- clients have, more often than not, cared more about getting something that's in the right direction for what they need (60 - 80% of the way there) than for something that's 100% statistically accurate. Some of that requires my educating them, but I also have to compromise with them in ways that are going to give results that are quick, actionable and still minimize risk.

Business presentations -- How to tell the story of the data in such a way that the audience (business, engineers, product developers, VP's, etc.) will not be lost in the technical details, feel confident in the results, and know how to take action in their jobs. Everything I saw and did (or as I remember it) in school was very technical and that transition was hard.

Project management and software development -- Not to be a project manager or software developer, but to have some of those skills. My only project management in school was getting the homework done by Friday. It would have been good to learn more about requirements gathering, task estimation, status reporting, change control, error checking, etc.

That list is the top things on my mind now to get the discussion going. What do you all think?

Chuck, this is a lovely question indeed.

The reality is that school will never fully prepare us for what we need to do in the real world. One reason for this is that the expectations we face in our working environments continue to evolve and increase in complexity as we progress in our careers. Another reason is that some teachers may miss the opportunity to teach not just their subject, but also valuable life skills by either modelling those skills in front of the students or mentoring the students outside of class.

But what schools can do is to nurture our ability to learn, prepare us to some degree for the transition into the real world and help build our confidence as professionals. 

A few years back, I used to teach a statistics course to graduate students. They were all extremely bright and talented but many of them seemed unaware of their individual strengths and were low on confidence. The competitiveness of the school environment had the unintended consequence of making many of the students feel "less than" some of their peers. I worked with the students in a way that reinforced that everyone is appreciated for having unique talents, strengths and skills. I also encouraged all students to leverage the talents, strengths and skills of their peers when choosing project teams.

It would be great if schools could find the right balance between competitiveness and collaboration. Competitiveness is about the individual whereas collaboration is about the greater good. 

It would also help if schools had a formal program in place for mentoring graduates as they seek their first position. Personally, I felt "abandoned" after graduation - and was even told that I was someone who was no longer the responsibility of my school, as everyone was too busy with current students. This was a harsh experience and I can only hope that things have improved since then. The success of a school is intimately connected to the success of its students, so the school should be invested in making sure its graduates go on to bigger and better things. Making the fresh graduates aware of mentoring resources they can tap into either at the department or university level is paramount.

In terms of hiring, I think many of us can attest to the importance of having been given a chance somewhere along the way by someone who believed we could achieve more if given the opportunity.

Sadly, as the economy evolved, the concept of extensive training on the job became rather obsolete. Back in the 60's, a new hire could expect to get a variety of training courses in the first few months and years on the job. Nowadays, a new hire has to hit the ground running on Day 1.  This places tremendous pressure on new graduates, as they are expected to posses a laundry list of skills which require years to acquire. 

So, if I were to look at a fresh graduate's resume, I would seek signs that they have the ability to learn things on the fly and are not afraid to tackle challenging tasks. I would also look at their ability to collaborate with other people and whether or not they have shown early signs of leadership.  

The key is to look at each potential hire not as as a "final product" but someone who could become a valuable asset to the company/organization with the proper amount of training and mentoring.

Hello Everyone,

This forum has a lot of interesting discussion with good input from many people, so I wanted to get your thoughts on the following question, please. What didn't you learn in school that you wished you had?

Our profession is changing in "The Real World" and quite rapidly today. We always have to be learning new things on the job, but are there foundational skills that you would have been better off learning in college (high school!?) but you didn't? I imagine the question would be answered differently depending on when you graduated and what you do now. Since colleges and universities are trying to adapt their curriculum to what they perceive to be the needs of employers, more recent graduates might have a different answer than those of us in the "Silver Circle."

From my own experiences, leaving college 20 or 30 years ago depending on how you look at it, I have my own opinions, but I'm very interested in what the group says. I also see a lot of resumes and job descriptions, so my opinions may be slanted more to those experiences. However, here are the top few things I wish I had learned in school that I could have used at Kellogg's and, then, with the many clients we work with in our Business Intelligence and Analytics Practice. (And maybe they tried to teach me these things and I was just too bull-headed to learn. :-)

Integrating with the client -- this is like collaboration, but more so. It also could be described as learning to live in their world. Statistics was always an us and them, even when we talked about teams and such. There could have been more about getting into their heads, their objectives, their language.

Get it right vs. get it done -- clients have, more often than not, cared more about getting something that's in the right direction for what they need (60 - 80% of the way there) than for something that's 100% statistically accurate. Some of that requires my educating them, but I also have to compromise with them in ways that are going to give results that are quick, actionable and still minimize risk.

Business presentations -- How to tell the story of the data in such a way that the audience (business, engineers, product developers, VP's, etc.) will not be lost in the technical details, feel confident in the results, and know how to take action in their jobs. Everything I saw and did (or as I remember it) in school was very technical and that transition was hard.

Project management and software development -- Not to be a project manager or software developer, but to have some of those skills. My only project management in school was getting the homework done by Friday. It would have been good to learn more about requirements gathering, task estimation, status reporting, change control, error checking, etc.

That list is the top things on my mind now to get the discussion going. What do you all think?

Hello Everyone,

This forum has a lot of interesting discussion with good input from many people, so I wanted to get your thoughts on the following question, please. What didn't you learn in school that you wished you had?

Our profession is changing in "The Real World" and quite rapidly today. We always have to be learning new things on the job, but are there foundational skills that you would have been better off learning in college (high school!?) but you didn't? I imagine the question would be answered differently depending on when you graduated and what you do now. Since colleges and universities are trying to adapt their curriculum to what they perceive to be the needs of employers, more recent graduates might have a different answer than those of us in the "Silver Circle."

From my own experiences, leaving college 20 or 30 years ago depending on how you look at it, I have my own opinions, but I'm very interested in what the group says. I also see a lot of resumes and job descriptions, so my opinions may be slanted more to those experiences. However, here are the top few things I wish I had learned in school that I could have used at Kellogg's and, then, with the many clients we work with in our Business Intelligence and Analytics Practice. (And maybe they tried to teach me these things and I was just too bull-headed to learn. :-)

Integrating with the client -- this is like collaboration, but more so. It also could be described as learning to live in their world. Statistics was always an us and them, even when we talked about teams and such. There could have been more about getting into their heads, their objectives, their language.

Get it right vs. get it done -- clients have, more often than not, cared more about getting something that's in the right direction for what they need (60 - 80% of the way there) than for something that's 100% statistically accurate. Some of that requires my educating them, but I also have to compromise with them in ways that are going to give results that are quick, actionable and still minimize risk.

Business presentations -- How to tell the story of the data in such a way that the audience (business, engineers, product developers, VP's, etc.) will not be lost in the technical details, feel confident in the results, and know how to take action in their jobs. Everything I saw and did (or as I remember it) in school was very technical and that transition was hard.

Project management and software development -- Not to be a project manager or software developer, but to have some of those skills. My only project management in school was getting the homework done by Friday. It would have been good to learn more about requirements gathering, task estimation, status reporting, change control, error checking, etc.

That list is the top things on my mind now to get the discussion going. What do you all think?

Hello Everyone,

This forum has a lot of interesting discussion with good input from many people, so I wanted to get your thoughts on the following question, please. What didn't you learn in school that you wished you had?

Our profession is changing in "The Real World" and quite rapidly today. We always have to be learning new things on the job, but are there foundational skills that you would have been better off learning in college (high school!?) but you didn't? I imagine the question would be answered differently depending on when you graduated and what you do now. Since colleges and universities are trying to adapt their curriculum to what they perceive to be the needs of employers, more recent graduates might have a different answer than those of us in the "Silver Circle."

From my own experiences, leaving college 20 or 30 years ago depending on how you look at it, I have my own opinions, but I'm very interested in what the group says. I also see a lot of resumes and job descriptions, so my opinions may be slanted more to those experiences. However, here are the top few things I wish I had learned in school that I could have used at Kellogg's and, then, with the many clients we work with in our Business Intelligence and Analytics Practice. (And maybe they tried to teach me these things and I was just too bull-headed to learn. :-)

Integrating with the client -- this is like collaboration, but more so. It also could be described as learning to live in their world. Statistics was always an us and them, even when we talked about teams and such. There could have been more about getting into their heads, their objectives, their language.

Get it right vs. get it done -- clients have, more often than not, cared more about getting something that's in the right direction for what they need (60 - 80% of the way there) than for something that's 100% statistically accurate. Some of that requires my educating them, but I also have to compromise with them in ways that are going to give results that are quick, actionable and still minimize risk.

Business presentations -- How to tell the story of the data in such a way that the audience (business, engineers, product developers, VP's, etc.) will not be lost in the technical details, feel confident in the results, and know how to take action in their jobs. Everything I saw and did (or as I remember it) in school was very technical and that transition was hard.

Project management and software development -- Not to be a project manager or software developer, but to have some of those skills. My only project management in school was getting the homework done by Friday. It would have been good to learn more about requirements gathering, task estimation, status reporting, change control, error checking, etc.

That list is the top things on my mind now to get the discussion going. What do you all think?

Hello Everyone,

This forum has a lot of interesting discussion with good input from many people, so I wanted to get your thoughts on the following question, please. What didn't you learn in school that you wished you had?

Our profession is changing in "The Real World" and quite rapidly today. We always have to be learning new things on the job, but are there foundational skills that you would have been better off learning in college (high school!?) but you didn't? I imagine the question would be answered differently depending on when you graduated and what you do now. Since colleges and universities are trying to adapt their curriculum to what they perceive to be the needs of employers, more recent graduates might have a different answer than those of us in the "Silver Circle."

From my own experiences, leaving college 20 or 30 years ago depending on how you look at it, I have my own opinions, but I'm very interested in what the group says. I also see a lot of resumes and job descriptions, so my opinions may be slanted more to those experiences. However, here are the top few things I wish I had learned in school that I could have used at Kellogg's and, then, with the many clients we work with in our Business Intelligence and Analytics Practice. (And maybe they tried to teach me these things and I was just too bull-headed to learn. :-)

Integrating with the client -- this is like collaboration, but more so. It also could be described as learning to live in their world. Statistics was always an us and them, even when we talked about teams and such. There could have been more about getting into their heads, their objectives, their language.

Get it right vs. get it done -- clients have, more often than not, cared more about getting something that's in the right direction for what they need (60 - 80% of the way there) than for something that's 100% statistically accurate. Some of that requires my educating them, but I also have to compromise with them in ways that are going to give results that are quick, actionable and still minimize risk.

Business presentations -- How to tell the story of the data in such a way that the audience (business, engineers, product developers, VP's, etc.) will not be lost in the technical details, feel confident in the results, and know how to take action in their jobs. Everything I saw and did (or as I remember it) in school was very technical and that transition was hard.

Project management and software development -- Not to be a project manager or software developer, but to have some of those skills. My only project management in school was getting the homework done by Friday. It would have been good to learn more about requirements gathering, task estimation, status reporting, change control, error checking, etc.

That list is the top things on my mind now to get the discussion going. What do you all think?

Hey, Chuck!

Nice topic and many nice points.

I would add a couple more...

Metadata: Real world data almost always has an undocumented or partially documented history. That history is often extremely important for analysis and understanding. I find it very challenging to argue for more resources applied to that documentation, more effort to communicate that history as part of data sharing,  and more detail added to the now readily available appendices of published research.

And metadata has an umbrella topic...

Non-statistical uncertainty: Samplers have long discussed, but it extends to every act of inference and indeed summary description. Computational power is giving us more tools to explore it, but thinking about and communicating non-statistical uncertainty is still a growth industry.