Statistics

What Hacker News says

1. by256May 2024
   It depends how comfortable you are with mathematics. Statistics by David Freedman is a great starting point and does an excellent job of developing intuition without delving deep into the mathematical aspects. Although it may leave you wanting more details on the math side. Another great book for beginners is Statistics: The Art and Science of Learning from Data by Agresti and Franklin.

   In any case, I would recommend skimming a lot of books and finding one that contains enough practice questions (with solutions) and is suitable for your level.

   Show morethread
2. guhsnamihJan 2023
   Statistics by Freedman, Pisani and Purves. Don't know if I got better but loved the real world examples and cartoons. Does not have too many pre-requisites. Each section presents a tiny concept which is followed by plenty of exercises that have answers at the end. The furthest I got in a book in recent days, Math or not.
   thread
3. ystadJun 2022
   Statistics by Roger Purves, David Freedman, Robert Pisani

   Introduction to Linear Algebra, by Gilbert Strang

   A lot of my learning was self study. These books were very helpful to me.

   thread
4. eezurrFeb 2022
   Statistics, 4th addition by david freedman. Read it years ago but still remains the most lucid book ive ever read.
   thread
5. jlduggerJul 2020
   > It would be a birthday gift, so ideally something that is more than a plain textbook, but which also has depth, and maybe broadens their view

   > What would you have appreciated having been given at that age?

   Deep math is cool and all, but right now I'm working through a used copy of the Freedman, Pisani and Purves Statistics textbook https://amzn.to/2YVvU6o It's chock full of actual examples from real research and statistics, complete with citations. I just worked through some problem sets today, analyzing some twin studies establishing the link between smoking and cancer. Other topics I can recall: robbery trials, discrimination lawsuits, and coronary bypass surgery.

   That said, it's an actual textbook, and expects the learning to come from engaging in problem sets. And it's far less technical than the Stats for Engineers course I barely passed. If you're looking for something less textbooky, Super Crunchers (https://amzn.to/3eTz5RL) is sort of a layman's book on the subject of prediction and statistics.

   Show morethread
6. guhsnamihFeb 2020
   I am loving the Statistics book by Freedman, Pisani, Purves. Maybe it is its slow and steady pace, or may be its real-life examples, or may be the cartoons, or may be the numerous well planned exercises with solutions, or may be its requiring no pre-requisites. Or may be it just is a great match for me! Everytime I read it, I want to make sure that I have all other equivalent books. I checked other Ask HN threads and found some that suggested its sequel or the Linear Algebra book. Are there others I don't know about, especially for CS/ML.
   Show morethread