Spoken like a space-using degenerate.

(J.k.: spaces FTW)

> The model estimated that using spaces instead of tabs leads to a 8.6% higher salary (confidence interval (6%, 10.4%), p-value < 10^-10). (By predicting the logarithm of the salary, we were able to estimate the % change each factor contributed to a salary rather than the dollar amount). Put another way, using spaces instead of tabs was worth as much as an extra 2.4 years of experience.

Maybe I'm not up on my statistics lingo, but saying "using spaces instead of tabs leads to a higher salary" sounds much more causal than "using spaces instead of tabs is correlated with a higher salary."

If they're going to say something leads to something else, I don't see how that one's justified over the reverse: "having a higher salary leads to using spaces." Isn't that's just as valid a conclusion from the data?