5 ms·

Ask HN: What is the best book to learn probability through self study?

• mortimerwax 11y ago
  IMHO, "Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data" by Charles Wheelan is the best book to start with Probability and Statistics(you can buy it using the link below). I've studied those fields when I was at Uni, but never really got the intuition right. I wish I would have read that book back then. The book is short(~200 pages), and focuses on providing both the context and the intuition behind Probabilities. Once you get that right, the formulas just make sense. After reading that book, you will be way more comfortable to read books about Machine Learning, or any other fields where Probabilities and Statistics are a prerequisite. http://www.amazon.com/Naked-Statistics-Stripping-Dread-Data-ebook/dp/B007Q6XLF2/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me= http://www.amazon.com/Naked-Statistics-Stripping-Dread-Data-...
  • wodenokoto 11y ago
    That is quite an endorsement! Started reading the ebook version immediately!
    • kxs 11y ago
      What is your initial impression?
  • sharmi 11y ago
    Hi thank you mortimerwax, I already find Prof. Joe Blitzstein's book quite intuitive to understand probability. I just need a supplementary book/resource for practice of extra problems. I find that for most books, the solutions manual is made available only for professors and not for students.
• gtani 11y ago
  good list of open content or sanctioned preprints here: https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/1jeawf/machine_learning_books/ https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/1jeawf/mac... ____________ this one gets relatively credible amazon reviews: http://www.probabilitycourse.com/ http://www.probabilitycourse.com/
• trextrex 11y ago
  One of the books that I personally found easy to read with good exercises is Probability and Statistics by Morris H. DeGroot, Mark J. Schervish http://www.amazon.com/Probability-Statistics-Edition-Morris-DeGroot/dp/0321500466 http://www.amazon.com/Probability-Statistics-Edition-Morris-...
• smeyer 11y ago
  Joe Blitzstein is usually pretty communicative (I see him answering a lot of questions on Quora and he had a reputation for being pretty approachable at Harvard.) If you like their book, maybe you should reach out and see if either of them have books they'd recommend for your case?
  • an0nym1ty 11y ago
    Based on the presence of a bookshelf on his webpage [0], he seems to be a fan of literature. I've been looking for a text on abstract algebra and now I think I've got one! Seems like a question that he would welcome. [0] http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~blitz/Site/Books.html http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~blitz/Site/Books.html
  • akg_67 11y ago
    It surprises me how few people reach out directly to authors or other "known" people for recommendation, suggestion and questions. If you like someone's work, then you are more likely to like his/her suggestions too. Some may not respond but some may do and might become quite valuable resource. A few years ago, I reached out to an author of financial book while reading his book with a few questions and suggestions for next book to pick up after his book to build up my knowledge further. We had interesting email conversations about the different topics. Even now time to time I reach out to him with questions.
  • sharmi 11y ago
    Thank you for your suggestion. I think this is the best course of action.
• cvwright 11y ago
  Random Services has some nice online materials. http://www.math.uah.edu/stat/index.html http://www.math.uah.edu/stat/index.html
• i2ifunding 11y ago
  You can read book of Jim Pitman may be it's helpful for you.