Category Archives: Uncategorized

Science and Cookies

Posted on July 15, 2023 by statswithcats

Creating science is like making cookies—you need a recipe, ingredients, and tools to combine the ingredients and bake the dough. If you’ve ever made cookies, you know that if you use quality ingredients and follow the recipe, everything will probably … Continue reading →

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When Science Goes Wrong

Posted on April 21, 2023 by statswithcats

Science is our perception of how things work. The scientific method is how we determine what is the current state of our science. Science is the product of the successful application of the scientific method. They are not the same. … Continue reading →

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How to Tell if a Political Poll is Legitimate

Posted on February 13, 2022 by statswithcats

Four things to look for. Why People Hate Polls It’s probably true that everybody has taken a survey at some point or other. What’s also probably true is that most people think polling is easy. And why not? Google has … Continue reading →

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A Typology of Data Relationships

Posted on November 19, 2020 by statswithcats

Nine patterns of three types of relationships that aren’t spurious. When analysts see a large correlation coefficient, they begin speculating about possible reasons. They’ll naturally gravitate toward their initial hypothesis (or preconceived notion) which set them to investigate the data relationship … Continue reading →

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The Evolution of Data Science … As I Remember It

Posted on October 22, 2020 by statswithcats

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana History isn’t always clear-cut. It’s written by anyone with the will to write it down and the forum to distribute it. It’s valuable to understand different perspectives … Continue reading →

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PII. The Great Taboo of Data Analysis

Posted on October 16, 2020 by statswithcats

Many of us have had our personal information stolen from the Internet, some more than once. Even governments can’t prevent the thefts. Professionals who work with data come under a lot of scrutiny because of PII. Continue reading →

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Anecdotes and Big Data

Posted on September 27, 2020 by statswithcats

An anecdote is a kitten gently licking your face with a warm, wet,
raspy tongue. Big data is a three-inch, high-pressure, firehose held an arm’s length away. They have to be treated quite differently.
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WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

Posted on August 25, 2020 by statswithcats

Probability is the core of statistics. You hear the phrase “what’s the probability of …” all the time in statistics. You also hear that phrase in everyday life, too. What’s the probability of rain tomorrow? What’s the probability of winning … Continue reading →

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WHY YOU NEED TO TAKE STATS 101

Posted on August 11, 2020 by statswithcats

Whether you’re in high school, college, or a continuing education program, you may have the opportunity, or be required, to take an introductory course in statistics, call it Stats 101. It’s certainly a requirement for degrees in the sciences and … Continue reading →

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PROBABILITY IS SIMPLE … KINDA

Posted on August 1, 2020 by statswithcats

Language isn’t very precise in dealing with uncertainty. Probably is more certain than possibly, but who knows where dollars-to-doughnuts falls on the spectrum. Statistics needs to deal with uncertainty more quantitatively. That’s where probability comes in. For the most part, … Continue reading →

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