If you’ve been reading Rolling Alpha for some time, you’ll know that I have a lot of feelings around statistics and data. Specifically: how bad we are at dealing with them.

Some past posts that I’m a bit proud of:

  • 50% of Marine Life – a discussion around ‘what the media reports about the state of the world’s oceans’ and how tenuous a link that has to the actual data.
  • Office Politics: Cornered Animals – involving prospect theory, the death penalty for homosexuality, frivolous lawsuits, and a passing reference to Adam Lambert.
  • The Crisis of Framing – which is all about the perils of screening for breast cancer, where doing nothing might well be better than doing something.
  • The Correlation-Causation Crisis of Confidence – sure, correlation may not imply causation, but it doesn’t mean that there’s no causation, y’know?
  • Lies and Statistics – includes the doubling of the world’s population, and how insignificant that can sound when described in annualised population growth rates.

To continue with that theme, I found a blog that is making my mathematical heart very happy. It’s called “Math with Bad Drawings“, and it’s hilarious.

There is one post in particular that I’m appreciating: What Does Probability Mean In Your Profession?

The answers:

20150921070718_00001 20150921070718_00002 20150921070718_00003 20150921070718_00004 20150921070718_00005 20150921070718_00006 20150921070718_00007 20150921070718_00008

Amazing.

Happy Thursday.

Rolling Alpha posts about finance, economics, and sometimes stuff that is only quite loosely related. Follow me on Twitter @RollingAlpha, or like my page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rollingalpha. Or both.