Tag Archives: jargon

What Type of Data Scientist are You?

Read any popular business magazine and you’re sure to find an article about how data science is the wave of the future. Since 2011, after fifty years of wandering through the halls of academia, real world employment of data scientists … Continue reading

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Limits of Confusion

A confidence interval is the numerical interval around the mean of a sample from a population that has a certain confidence of including the mean of the entire population. “Say what?” OK, let’s take it one point at a time. … Continue reading

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A Picture Worth 140,000 Words

Even if it’s been a while since your last statistics class, when you read Stats with Cats: The Domesticated Guide to Statistics, Models, Graphs, and Other Breeds of Data Analysis you’ll figure out that there’s much more to data analysis … Continue reading

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Grasping at Flaws

Even if you’re not a statistician, you may one day find yourself in the position of reviewing a statistical analysis that was done by someone else. It may be an associate, someone who works for you, or even a competitor. … Continue reading

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You’re Off to Be a Wizard

The process of developing a statistical model (https://statswithcats.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/many-paths-lead-to-models/) involves finding the mathematical equation of a line, curve, or other pattern that faithfully represents the data with the least amount of error (i.e., variability). Variability and pattern are the yin and … Continue reading

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The Seeds of a Model

Perhaps the most complicated and time-consuming aspect of model building is selecting the components of your model—the variables, the samples, and the data (https://statswithcats.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/many-paths-lead-to-models/). Here are a few tips for collecting the seeds of your model. Models Revisited Here’s a … Continue reading

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It was Professor Plot in the Diagram with a Graph

You probably were taught how to graph data in high school. Depending on your work, you may frequently plot data yourself or look at graphs prepared by others. Even if you don’t use graphs on your job, you may run … Continue reading

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It’s All in the Technique

You can’t understand your data unless you control extraneous variance attributable to the way you select samples, the way you measure variable values, and any influences of the environment in which you are working. Using the concepts of reference, replication … Continue reading

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The Right Tool for the Job

Statistics are like power tools. If you know how to use them, they are incredibly valuable and fun to use. They help you do your job better, more thoroughly, and more quickly. But if you are careless, they can cause … Continue reading

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The Five Pursuits You Meet in Statistics

When people think about statistical analyses, they often think only of mind-numbing number crunching that creates yet more numbers. But that’s like touring a cabinetmaker’s shop and seeing only the sawdust. A talented cabinetmaker can create beauty and function in … Continue reading

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