Full Width [alt+shift+f] Shortcuts [alt+shift+k] TRY SIMPLE MODE
Sign Up [alt+shift+s] Log In [alt+shift+l]
16
The premise of Think Stats, and the other books in the Think series, is that programming is a tool for teaching and learning — and many ideas that are commonly presented in math notation can be more clearly presented in code. In the draft third edition of Think Stats there is almost no math — not because I made a special effort to avoid it, but because I found that I didn’t need it. For example, here’s how I present... Read More Read More The post Reject Math Supremacy appeared first on Probably Overthinking It.
8 months ago

Improve your reading experience

Logged in users get linked directly to articles resulting in a better reading experience. Please login for free, it takes less than 1 minute.

More from Probably Overthinking It

Announcing Think Linear Algebra

I’ve been thinking about Think Linear Algebra for more than a decade, and recently I started working on it in earnest. If you want to get a sense of it, I’ve posted a draft chapter as a Jupyter notebook. In one way, I am glad I waited — I think it will be better, faster [to write], and stronger [?] because of AI tools. To be clear, I am writing this book, not AI. But I’m finding ChatGPT helpful for... Read More Read More The post Announcing Think Linear Algebra appeared first on Probably Overthinking It.

2 months ago 34 votes
My very busy week

I’m not sure who scheduled ODSC and PyConUS during the same week, but I am unhappy with their decisions. Last Tuesday I presented a talk and co-presented a workshop at ODSC, and on Thursday I presented a tutorial at PyCon. If you would like to follow along with my very busy week, here are the resources: Practical Bayesian Modeling with PyMC Co-presented with Alex Fengler for ODSC East 2025 In this tutorial, we explore Bayesian regression using PyMC – the... Read More Read More The post My very busy week appeared first on Probably Overthinking It.

2 months ago 32 votes
Announcing Think Stats 3e

The third edition of Think Stats is on its way to the printer! You can preorder now from Bookshop.org and Amazon (those are affiliate links), or if you can’t wait to get a paper copy, you can read the free, online version here. Here’s the new cover, still featuring a suspicious-looking archerfish. If you are not familiar with the previous editions, Think Stats is an introduction to practical methods for exploring and visualizing data, discovering relationships and trends, and communicating... Read More Read More The post Announcing Think Stats 3e appeared first on Probably Overthinking It.

4 months ago 36 votes
Young Adults Want Fewer Children

The most recent data from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) provides a first look at people born in the 2000s as young adults and an updated view of people born in the 1990s at the peak of their child-bearing years. Compared to previous generations at the same ages, these cohorts have fewer children, and they are less likely to say they intend to have children. Unless their plans change, trends toward lower fertility are likely to continue for... Read More Read More The post Young Adults Want Fewer Children appeared first on Probably Overthinking It.

4 months ago 34 votes
Algorithmic Fairness

This is the last in a series of excerpts from Elements of Data Science, now available from Lulu.com and online booksellers. This article is based on the Recidivism Case Study, which is about algorithmic fairness. The goal of the case study is to explain the statistical arguments presented in two articles from 2016: Both are about COMPAS, a statistical tool used in the justice system to assign defendants a “risk score” that is intended to reflect the risk that they... Read More Read More The post Algorithmic Fairness appeared first on Probably Overthinking It.

6 months ago 23 votes

More in science

China's most overrated asset with Mike Bird

Episode four of the Works in Progress podcast is about land.

12 hours ago 4 votes
New Physics-Inspired Proof Probes the Borders of Disorder

For decades, mathematicians have struggled to understand matrices that reflect both order and randomness, like those that model semiconductors. A new method could change that. The post New Physics-Inspired Proof Probes the Borders of Disorder first appeared on Quanta Magazine

13 hours ago 2 votes
How Should We Evaluate Healthcare AI? Some Thoughts | Out-Of-Pocket

Maybe we’re thinking about all of these papers the wrong way

3 days ago 5 votes
The Amazon Rainforest Approaches a Point of No Return

In “Amazon Tipping Point” — Third-Place Winner of the 2025 Yale Environment 360 Film Contest — Brazilian filmmakers capture striking images of clear-cutting and explore how human activity is so damaging the world’s largest rainforest that it will not be able to recover. Read more on E360 →

4 days ago 5 votes
Lithium and Alzheimer’s Disease

This is an interesting story, and I am trying to moderate my optimism. Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the major cause of dementia in humans, is a very complex disease. We have been studying it for decades, revealing numerous clues as to what kicks it off, what causes it to progress, and how to potentially treat it. […] The post Lithium and Alzheimer’s Disease first appeared on NeuroLogica Blog.

4 days ago 5 votes