Comment by rdouble | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rdouble | Hacker News Reader

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I was in the same boat as you. I have an undergrad math degree but took no statistics. I have found that most statistics books are inscrutable at best and complete wastes of paper and effort at worst. Based on the book recommendations I've been given by people who supposedly use statistics all the time, I don't believe that many trained statisticians have any idea what they are doing.

That said, here's what has sort of worked for me:

- Cartoon Guide to Statistics by Larry Gonick

- Fundamentals of Applied Probability Theory by Al Drake: out of print, and mostly about probability. However, the stats intro at the end is the clearest one I've ever read. Originally recommended to me by Philip Greenspun.

- Introductory Statistics with R by Peter Dalgaard. I'm assuming if you are posting to Hacker News you probably are coming from a programming background. This book does exactly what the title says, shows you how to apply introductory statistics by programming. It's heavier on R than stats.

Based on the book recommendations I've been given by people who supposedly use statistics all the time, I don't believe that many trained statisticians have any idea what they are doing.

Many people working with statistics in their employment have never grappled with the issues of adequate descriptive statistics or reasonable inference. Besides the recommendations I just posted above,

http://statland.org/MyPapers/MAAFIXED.PDF

http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=10...

see

Statistics: A Guide to the Unknown 4th edition

http://www.amazon.com/Statistics-Guide-Roxy-Peck/dp/05343728...

for articles with examples of what statistics is really all about.

Second the idea that a lot of statisticians don't know what they're doing. The first mistake is to make things easier by glossing over, or mangling, the mathematical details. Many statistics textbooks do this, and the only real protection is to have a good math background. The second mistake is to treat statistics like a bunch of techniques to be learned and applied with little regard for the philosophical problems inherent in every attempt to model the real world.

The Cartoon Guide to Statistics is an excellent way to go from zero to a good overview of the basics with a minimum of hard math. After that, if you're mostly interested in applying basic techniques to your own stuff, you want a good undergrad textbook. I don't have any good recommendations here, unfortunately. If you have a good math background (or are motivated to get it) and you want to keep going, Statistical Models; Theory and Practice by David A. Freedman (http://www.amazon.com/review/R2XUNM92KYU7BB) has the math, the philosophy, the hands on analysis of studies, and the exercises to put you in a better position to evaluate statistical research than some people who produce it.

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