Statistics – Page 151 – William M. Briggs

Possibility Versus Probability & Decision

Philip Pilkington, author of the buyable The Reformation in Economics: A Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Economic Theory, asks a follow-up question to the material on the precautionary principle. If probability…

Culture Philosophy Statistics

Video: How To Think About Statistics, Figures, And New Ideas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmMBLTz6Pp8 Hard link to the video. This post ran originally on 28 February 2015. Given the quiet weekend, I postponed our Summa Contra Gentiles until next week. It is a…

Class Statistics

Taleb’s Curious Views On Probability — Part III: Ergodicity & All That

Read Part I, Part II Ergodic in probability has a technical definition. Without going into mathematical details (which are fine except possibly when applied), a "sequence" is defined as a…

Class Statistics

Taleb’s Curious Views On Probability — Part II: Skin in the Game

Read Part I It is in one sense fortunate that the mathematical, or rather quantitative, roots of probability began with gambling. Routine gambles are easy to understand, and the calculations…

Class Philosophy Statistics

Taleb’s Curious Views On Probability — Part I: I Say Probability Does Not Exist

Ye Olde Statistician points us to an essay (a book chapter?) by our old pal Nassim Nicholas Taleb called "The Logic of Risk Taking". Let's examine it. You, dear reader,…

Statistics

Middle Ground Between Precautionary Principle & Inaction

From reader (and listener!) Phil Pilkington (there asterisks are original): Hi Matt, Loved your speech. Hyperskeptical Economist that I am, M Taleb did us some great favours in outlining the…

Statistics

DDP: Quack Cures For What Doesn’t Ail Us, Part II

I'm at the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness meeting in No-History City, Louisiana. Here's Part II of (an earlier draft of) the speech I gave Saturday. Consider donating $1 for every…

Statistics

DDP: Quack Cures For What Doesn’t Ail Us, Part I

I'm at the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness meeting in No-History City, Louisiana. Here's Part I of (an earlier draft of) the speech I gave Saturday. Consider donating $1 for every…

Brian (bulaoren) on Truly Random Numbers Found?June 15, 2026
Wait...Does this mean that all those non-winning lottery tickets, I've bought over the years, were drawn from non-randomly-generated numbers? I…
McChuck on Truly Random Numbers Found?June 15, 2026
What QM leaves out of their "randomness is fundamental" picture is the state of the entire rest of the universe.…
John M on Climate Change Increases Risk of Even Slower World Cup Games!June 15, 2026
LarryG, I appreciate that sport and game participants can enjoy their favorite activity but that doesn't make the activity entertaining.
JR Ewing on Truly Random Numbers Found?June 15, 2026
I'm not a fan of airport security pantomime. There are a lot of things about it that I don't like,…
LarryG on Climate Change Increases Risk of Even Slower World Cup Games!June 14, 2026
The provincial and parochial attitude of Americans towards soccer perplexes me. It’s a great sport. High school: football, sat on…