Having spent part of my career in finance, the part she saying about modeling in that industry is true for some situations but not others. (Unsurprisingly.) An insurance company is generally going to try to get its own premium pricing models right, for example. But if the point of the model is to sell someone on something, than look out. I remember a senior banker saying to me "model this merger, and make sure it comes out to be accretive by X cents per share." It was irrelevant to him if the model was accurate - he just wanted ammunition to convince his client to do the acquisition.