The first real data set I ever analyzed was from my senior honors thesis as an undergraduate psychology major. I had taken both intro stats and an ANOVA class, and I applied all my new skills with gusto, analyzing every which way.
It wasn’t too many years into graduate school that I realized that these data analyses were a bit haphazard. (Okay, a LOT). And honestly, not at all well thought out.
A few decades of data analysis experience later, I realized that’s just a symptom of being an inexperienced data analyst.
But even experienced data analysts can get off track. It’s especially easy with large data sets with many variables. It’s just so tempting to try one thing, then another, and pretty soon you’ve spent weeks getting nowhere.