Simple Rules for Effective Statistical Practice (journals.plos.org) 98 points by kctess5 10y ago ↗ HN
[–] nanis 10y ago ↗ This is probably the most often forgotten rule among engineers, software developers etc:> Rule 5: Statistical Analysis Is More Than a Set of Computations [–] nerdponx 10y ago ↗ I think I get asked once a week, "can't we just run it through a neural network and be done?" [–] larrydag 10y ago ↗ Oh my. As if an algorithm can answer all problems. The algorithm is only a tool to analyze the data. The real science is understanding what the underlying data is telling you about the hypothesized behavior. [–] ellisv 10y ago ↗ I thought this was sort of funny given the authors published a set of rules.Conjecture 1: Statistical practice is more than a set of rules.
[–] nerdponx 10y ago ↗ I think I get asked once a week, "can't we just run it through a neural network and be done?" [–] larrydag 10y ago ↗ Oh my. As if an algorithm can answer all problems. The algorithm is only a tool to analyze the data. The real science is understanding what the underlying data is telling you about the hypothesized behavior.
[–] larrydag 10y ago ↗ Oh my. As if an algorithm can answer all problems. The algorithm is only a tool to analyze the data. The real science is understanding what the underlying data is telling you about the hypothesized behavior.
[–] ellisv 10y ago ↗ I thought this was sort of funny given the authors published a set of rules.Conjecture 1: Statistical practice is more than a set of rules.
[–] projectramo 10y ago ↗ I am not complaining about the quality of the list, but I fear the authors have conflated several senses of the word "rule" in this list.I have an intuition that "signal comes with noise", isn't the same kind of rule as "keep is simple."It might be useful to break it out into a checklist of things to look at, philosophical principles to keep in mind, and useful tips or something.
5 comments
[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 26.1 ms ] thread> Rule 5: Statistical Analysis Is More Than a Set of Computations
Conjecture 1: Statistical practice is more than a set of rules.
I have an intuition that "signal comes with noise", isn't the same kind of rule as "keep is simple."
It might be useful to break it out into a checklist of things to look at, philosophical principles to keep in mind, and useful tips or something.