Here it is, friends, the one complete universal simple function, the only function you will ever need to fit any—I said any—dataset x. And all it takes is one—I said one—parameter! . […]
An Argument Against The Multiverse
The multiverse might be real. God might in His wisdom and love of completeness and true diversity and the joy of filling all possible potentials with actuality might have created such a […]
Data Do Not Have Means: Or, The Deadly Sin of Reification Strikes Again!
No, data do not have means. Nor do they have variances, autocorrelations, partial or otherwise, nor moments; nor do they have any other statistical characteristic you care to name. Data only have […]
What Is Cause Like?
Time for the two-week teaching sojourn. In order to grasp cause, we need a brief, a very brief, introduction to the Aristotelian metaphysics of change. These are ancient views, largely abandoned in […]
Don’t Use Statistics Unless You Have To
We’re finally getting it, as evinced by the responses to the article “Netherlands Temperature Controversy: Or, Yet Again, How Not To Do Time Series.” Let’s return to the Screaming Willies. Quoting myself […]
Sampling Variability Is A Screwy, Misleading Concept
@freakonometrics @DiegoKuonen @mattstat Pure data analysis cannot kill inference. Sampling variability cannot be hidden!!! — Paolo Giudici (@stateconomist) March 6, 2015 Because of travel and jet lag, exacerbated by “springing forward”, we […]
Resolved: Statisticians To Cease Using “Independence”, Change To “Irrelevance”
What’s the difference between “independence” and “irrelevance” and why does that difference matter? This typical passage is from The First Course in Probability by Sheldon Ross (p. 87) is lovely because many […]
Explanation Vs Prediction
Introduction There isn’t as much space between explanation and prediction as you’d think; both are had from the same elements of the problem at hand. Here’s how it all works. I’ll illustrate […]
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