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I think that's a fair point, but the issue is that most people stop with the application and don't pick up on the underlying math. So, we get articles[1] discussing the lack of data science talent that point to a lack of math as the reason.

[1]: http://www.businessinsider.com/statisticians-arent-the-probl...


This is the part that really irks me.

It wouldn't bother me so much if I could test my model and get a score, without having to turn over the code in the event I won - of course without accepting the cash either.


As a soon to be CPA, these recent articles on Benford's Law fascinating. But it's funny that there's extreme skepticism around Moore's Law, but Benford's Law seems to get a free pass. Just like Moore's Law it's a law matched to empirical observations - meaning it works until it doesn't.


Benfords Law works as long as those that would mess with numbers aren't too much aware of it.

Moore's law works until you hit the limits of physics.

Benfords Law also works for the observation of various phenomena totally unrelated to human activity, so my guess is that it is here to stay. One day we will run into what we will probably call 'Moore's Wall' and then that will be that.


That is not true, Benford's law has rigid mathematical theory behind it, it is not solely empirically grounded. It is a property of numbers.



There's a short write-up available on my blog: http://blog.trenthauck.com/post/10402535918/le-tweet-market


Yes the slides are very nice. Anyone know what he used to create the deck?


Keynote. Some of these slides are a little messed up because the elaborate animations had to be scaled way down for PDF. For instance, the status.github.com pull request slide was actually a tall browser screenshot. Transitions slid to a further point in the pull request to highlight specific events.


It'd be pretty awesome if he used GitHub to build 'How GitHub uses GitHub to build GitHub'.



Although I can't read this because I'm not a subscriber, I can offer an anecdotal perspective.

This isn't only Reading and Writing. I'm a Teaching Assistant at one of many college that claim to be the Harvard of the Midwest, and have been for a few years now. Most students coming in are placed into the Calculus for non-scientists/engineers and few even have the algebra skills to survive. I'm constantly reviewing how to add fractions, factor equations, and the like, before I begin to help them on the issues of Calculus. Even worse, more students are enrolling in the past few years and less seem to be adequately prepared.


copy the title then paste it to google


Would definitely be interested in this. Use it everyday for stats, but would like to get better at the fundamentals.

I think for it to be most efficient, we should use the book that coincides w/ the MIT lectures.


Removing the ads doesn't seem to remove the space it occupies. If this raison d'etre is giving me more space, then it should do so.


You need to check the option "Remove the People widget" to enjoy a larger space.


This is cool, I've been doing something similar w/ the combination of the google command line tools and Mac's folder actions. Although it is only one way.

Basically you designate a folder to always upload to google docs, then when you add a file you have the folder action run the google command line tool to upload the file.


Glad to see they're moving forward a bit. They launched with much hoopla, and since then the most that I've seen from them is a shorter url (tt.fm).

That said, this is a really great service, of which I am a constant user. Hopefully this means they will release ancillary services more often.


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