Interesting short interview with statistician Andrew Gelman

"What makes a statistician look like a hero?  You might think that the answer would be, Extracting a small faint signal from noise.  But I don't think so.  I think that a statistician looks like a hero by studying large effects.  "

http://junkcharts.typepad.com/numbersruleyourworld/2013/09/numbersense-pros-interview-with-andrew-gelman.html