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158 Exciting timesCritically, Efron saw theory and computing working together to ensure the developmentof future statistical methodology, meeting many different demands.And, of course, that is what happened, despite the concerns of some (see, e.g.,Hall, 2003, p. 165) that advances in computing threatened to replace theoreticalstatistical argument.15.1.2 Computer-intensive statistics and meIn this short paper I shall give a personal account of some of my experiencesat this very exciting time. My intention is to focus particularly on a 15-yearperiod, from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. However, it will be necessaryfrom time to time to stray to the present, in order to make a didactic point,and to look back at the past, so as to see how much we still have in commonwith our forebears like R.A. Fisher and E.J.G. Pitman.I feel particularly fortunate to have been able to work on the developmentof statistical methodology during such an era of seminal change. I’ll explainhow, as in many of the most important things in life, I came to this rolelargely by accident, while looking for a steady job in probability rather thanstatistics; and how the many advances in computing that have taken placesince then have actually created an increasingly high demand for theoreticalanalysis, when some of my colleagues had predicted there would actually bemuch less.I’m going to begin, in Section 15.2, by trying to capture some of the recentconcerns I have heard about the directions being taken by statistics today, andby indicating why I generally do not share the anxiety. To some extent, I feel,the concerns exist only if we try to resist change that we should accept asexciting and stimulating, rather than as a threat.Also in Section 15.2 I’ll try to set this disquiet against the background ofthe many changes that stimulated my work, particularly from the late 1970sto the early 1990s, and argue that the changes we are seeing today are in parta continuation of the many technological advances that have taken place overa long period. The changes add to, rather than subtract from, our field.In Section 15.3, with the reader’s indulgence I’ll focus more sharply on myown experience — on how I came to be a theoretical statistician, and howtheory has always guided my intuition and led, somewhat indirectly, to mywork on computer-intensive statistical methods. I know that, for many of mycolleagues in Australia and elsewhere, my “cart” of theoretical analysis comesbefore their “horse” of statistical computing. The opportunity to write thisshort chapter gives me a chance of explaining to them what I’ve been doingall these years, and why.