Tag Archives: statistical analysis

Ockham’s Spatula

Model building is like climbing a mountain. It’s what you spend so much time planning for. It’s what everybody wants to talk about. It’s what gives you that euphoric feeling of accomplishment when you’re finished. But just as mountain climbers … 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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The Santa Claus Strategy

I’m working all out Deadline is near Model’s in doubt Dooming my career. Sta-tis-tics will chill my meltdown. I’m adding new vars Testing them twice Trying to find out which ones’ll suffice Sta-tis-tics will give the lowdown. I see the … 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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Many Paths Lead to Models

If you’ve never created a statistical model before, you might be surprised to find that the process involves a lot more than statistics. It’s like traveling. You don’t start by thinking about your transport, the plane, train, or bus you … Continue reading

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Secrets of Good Correlations

If you’ve ever seen a correlation coefficient, you’ve probably looked at the number and wondered, is that good? Is a correlation of -0.73 good but not a correlation of +0.58? Just what is a good correlation and what makes a … Continue reading

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Fifty Ways to Fix your Data

Fifty Ways to Fix your Data (Sing to the tune of “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover” by Paul Simon) The problem is all about your scales, she said to me The R-squares will be better if you’ve matched ’em … Continue reading

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You Can Lead a Boss to Data but You Can’t Make Him Think

The most carefully planned data analysis may not survive the intervention of a boss (or a client or other reviewer), whether well intentioned or not. Your aim may be to generate sound data and conduct a thorough and valid analysis, … Continue reading

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Ten Fatal Flaws in Data Analysis

1. Where’s the Beef? In a way, the worst flaw a data analysis can have is no analysis at all. Instead, you get data lists, sorts and queries, and maybe some simple descriptive statistics but nothing that addresses objectives, answers … Continue reading

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