Talk:Squared deviations from the mean

As an end user of stats (analytical chemist), I've been looking around the statistical sections of Wikipedia. It's tough going.

I agree with some commentators of other statistical sections that people like myself need a more gentle introduction. For example a simple explanation of why the most likely value for a series of repeated measurements is the one for which the sum of the squared deviations is a minimum.

As another anonymous commenter, I just added a banner to ask for more expert help. I'm afraid people read articles like this and say "well this is accurate and gosh this seems like a really stuffy article; I better not mess with it." It would really be better if it were just deleted and someone were encouraged to start from scratch. The stuff about "easily derived" could easily be self-satire, as if one stats professor is explaining a basic concept to another while making sure to show that it really doesn't need explanation. It needs a basic explanation of what this is and where it is used, not ways of "enhancing" some deep contemplation on the underlying theory. Charitably, these look like notes for graduate students when the vast majority of people reading this won't be. Ok my two cents. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:603:4880:12C0:1019:B0A5:C7AF:FF6C (talk) 04:28, 5 April 2017 (UTC)