Essential Math
James Tanton: An Australian Mathematician in Uncle Sam’s Court
My guest this month is James S. Tanton, a mathematician, math educator, and author. He was awarded the Kidder Faculty Prize for his teaching at the The…
Probability and Statistics
Articles
Applied Math
Should You Get Started in Data Science?
I recently received an inquiry on how to get started in the currently hot field of data science. Perhaps a better question is: should you get started in…
Applied Math
Did Facebook’s News Feed Algorithm Elect Donald Trump?
Dozens of articles are trying to blame the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States on Facebook’s news feed algorithm, and especially its supposed propensity…
Applied Math
Pre-Election Polls That Were Wrong
Following up on my last post Big Data Flubs Donald Versus Hillary, here are some famous cases where pre-election polls were wrong. The Literary Digest Predicts Landon Will…
Applied Math
Big Data Flubs Donald Versus Hillary
Donald Trump’s unexpected upset victory over Hillary Clinton raises troubling questions about the use of mathematical models and “Big Data” in politics. With the possible exception of the…
Applied Math
Ronald Fisher and Maximum Likelihood Estimation Video and Slides
“Ronald Fisher and Maximum Likelihood Estimation” is a presentation that I gave to the Bay Area Entrepreneurs in Statistics (BAES) on August 20, 2016 at Symation in Richmond,…
Probability and Statistics
Hard Facts and Statistical “Facts”
“Trust No One” — Fox Mulder’s Password I recently had a conversation with some colleagues about Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs death from pancreatic cancer in 2011…
Probability and Statistics
Perform Statistical Analysis Directly from Your Browser
One of the coolest projects I work on at IBM is called the Data Scientist Workbench. It’s a free all-in-one solution for people interested in performing data analysis.…
Applied Math
Data Science Boot Camps
Business Insider recently ran an article “Here’s what you should know about those 99% job placement rates at ‘coding bootcamps’— some of which boast $100,000 exit salaries” warning…
Probability and Statistics
Review of Statistics Done Wrong: The Woefully Complete Guide
Statistics Done Wrong: The Woefully Complete Guide by Alex Reinhart Paperback: 176 pages Publisher: No Starch Press; 1 edition (March 16, 2015) Language: English ISBN-10: 1593276206 ISBN-13: 978-1593276201…
Math Education
Review of Stat-Spotting: A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data
Stat-Spotting: A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data Joel Best University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California 2008, updated 2013 158 pages (Paperback) My Rating: 4/5…
Probability and Statistics
Review of More Damned Lies and Statistics: How Numbers Confuse Public Issues
More Damned Lies and Statistics: How Numbers Confuse Public Issues By Joel Best University of California Press Hardcover, 217 pages ISBN: 9780520238305 September 2004 $29.95, £19.95 My Rating:…