Think Stats

It's a textbook. A good one. I didn't finish it. Wiping the slate clean! I saw Allen Downey give a talk on Bayesian stats, and it was fun and informative. I think he's great.

One annoyance. I think I'm maybe the perfect audience for this book: someone who took stats long ago, has worked with data ever since in some capacity, but has moved further and further away from the first principles/fundamentals. Someone who speaks Python and wants to port all of her Stata skillz onto pandas (the Python library, not the Chinese bear - okay, also the Chinese bear). So, in a way, this book was perfect for that. MY ONE COMPLAINT is that Allen provides many helper functions and .py files pre-written for you to play around with. I would have preferred less hand-holding, and more: Now build a function that will give you the cumulative distribution function! But then: who am I to complain. I didn't finish it (for now). And it can be hard, sometimes, to find the perfect puzzle piece for your current skillset/desires/time constraint on the Great Learning Journey that is life. images of pandas feverishly computing z-scores, while I cackle above them, “Work harder!!! Why are you so slow!!!” images of furry paws clutching pens and notebooks, scribbling