Data Science 101: Instrumental Variables Demystified

Instrumental variables are a fancy technique data scientists use to prove causality—I think I spend about 50% of my time in meetings reminding executives "correlation isn't causation" (I'm VERY popular). But let’s be real, you’ve got about as much chance of finding a naturally occurring “instrumental variable” as you do of spotting Bigfoot. That’s why A/B testing is so powerful—it’s like buying a Bigfoot costume off Amazon and terrifying hikers, but with stats!