Statistics – Page 244 – William M. Briggs

Why Do Statisticians Answer Silly Questions That No One Ever Asks?

Julian Champkin, editor of Significance magazine somehow came across the percipient insights of yours truly and asked me to write l'article controversé. Which I did. And with gusto. Champkin, a…

Philosophy Statistics

Teaching Journal: Day 11—Rewrite, Red Wine, Hat Clips

We started by learning that probability is hard and not always quantifiable. For instance, I imagine many of you would have judged it more likely than not that the Supreme…

Philosophy Statistics

Teaching Journal: Day 9—Hypothesis Testing: Part II

A review. We have sales data from two campaigns, A and B, data in which we choose (as a premise) to quantify our uncertainty with normal distributions. We assume the…

Statistics

Teaching Journal: Day 8—Hypothesis Testing: Part I

Hypothesis testing nicely encapsulates all that is wrong with frequentist statistics. It is a procedure which hides the most controversial assumption/premise. It operates under a "null" belief which nobody believes.…

Philosophy Statistics

Teaching Journal: Day 7

The joke is old and hoary and so well known that I risk the reader's ire for repeating it. But it contains a damning truth. Most academic statistical studies are…

Philosophy Statistics

Teaching Journal: Day 6

(I'm assuming you have been reading previous posts. If not, do so.) We still want this: (1) Pr (Distance > 1 meter | normal with m and s specified)…

Philosophy Statistics

Teaching Journal: Day 5

Let's make sure we grasped yesterday's lesson. Emails and comments suggest we have not. These concepts are hardest for those who have only had classical training. We want to know…

Philosophy Statistics

Teaching Journal: Day 4

Today is the quietest day, a time when all is still, a moment when nary a voice is raised and, quite suddenly, appointments are remembered, people have to be seen,…

Cloudbuster on AI Is Driving Many Crazy: Our Latest PanicFebruary 16, 2026
"You will have seen many similar pronouncements of Doom.... AI is going to slaughter Hollywood." I'm missing the "doom" in…
John M on AI Is Driving Many Crazy: Our Latest PanicFebruary 16, 2026
For a long time, I though AI was short for Albert. I couldn't help myself. AI should be required to…
Hans Oberfell on AI Is Driving Many Crazy: Our Latest PanicFebruary 16, 2026
There is an HR system that uses AI to blacklist people so they can nevwr get jobs. We need a…
joe smoe on AI Is Driving Many Crazy: Our Latest PanicFebruary 16, 2026
AI is taking too long to collapse though so its causing economic damage. Increased price of computer components. Making it…
George Jameson on AI Is Driving Many Crazy: Our Latest PanicFebruary 16, 2026
I don’t know Sarge but the part about gutting the legal profession did cause my ears to perk up…