5 ms·

Shameless plug of my own attempt to summarize key concepts in probability theory and statistics: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13060021 https://news.ycom

by mavam 10y ago

Shameless plug of my own attempt to summarize key concepts in probability theory and statistics: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13060021 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13060021

mjfl 10y ago
That's really cool, how did you go about writing that? Like, do you have a deep background in stats or did you just pick up some books?
- mavam 10y ago
  When I took stats classes at UC Berkeley, we covered a lot of ground quickly. The courses (STAT 200A and 200B) where breadth-first in the sense that you just got a short amount of exposure to each concept. But since many concepts build on top of each other, I was needed a way to make sure I fully understood the previous step. I started with writing down the most basic axioms that most of the rest would found on. (Not really in a fundamental sense, e.g., I did not go into sigma algebras and measure theory in more detail, but in a practical sense). The sheer amount of identities and distribution relationships were initially hard to remember, so those I jotted down next. Then more advanced concepts built on the simpler ones, and the process repeated itself.
ronald_raygun 10y ago
Wow, this is a really nice sheet. I did a stats master's and this seems like it covers 90%+ of what I learned. A++
curiousgal 10y ago
That is precisely the kind of content I expected a cheat sheet on Probability to contain. No offence to OP but if you need a cheat sheet for basic concepts like the ones included in the original post then you'll find it really hard to do grasp any "useful" Probability concepts.
- max_ 10y ago
  >No offence to OP but if you need a cheat sheet for basic concepts like the ones included in the original post then you'll find it really hard to do grasp any "useful" Probability concepts. FYI, "Basic" varies from person to person
  - curiousgal 10y ago
    True but when compared to Measure Theory (the foundation of Probability Theory) almost everyone can agree that those concept are simpler, i.e. basic.
    - max_ 10y ago
      "almost everyone" is not everyone

by mavam 10y ago

Shameless plug of my own attempt to summarize key concepts in probability theory and statistics: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13060021 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13060021

mjfl 10y ago

That's really cool, how did you go about writing that? Like, do you have a deep background in stats or did you just pick up some books?

mavam 10y ago
When I took stats classes at UC Berkeley, we covered a lot of ground quickly. The courses (STAT 200A and 200B) where breadth-first in the sense that you just got a short amount of exposure to each concept. But since many concepts build on top of each other, I was needed a way to make sure I fully understood the previous step. I started with writing down the most basic axioms that most of the rest would found on. (Not really in a fundamental sense, e.g., I did not go into sigma algebras and measure theory in more detail, but in a practical sense). The sheer amount of identities and distribution relationships were initially hard to remember, so those I jotted down next. Then more advanced concepts built on the simpler ones, and the process repeated itself.

ronald_raygun 10y ago

Wow, this is a really nice sheet. I did a stats master's and this seems like it covers 90%+ of what I learned. A++

curiousgal 10y ago

That is precisely the kind of content I expected a cheat sheet on Probability to contain. No offence to OP but if you need a cheat sheet for basic concepts like the ones included in the original post then you'll find it really hard to do grasp any "useful" Probability concepts.

max_ 10y ago
>No offence to OP but if you need a cheat sheet for basic concepts like the ones included in the original post then you'll find it really hard to do grasp any "useful" Probability concepts. FYI, "Basic" varies from person to person
- curiousgal 10y ago
  True but when compared to Measure Theory (the foundation of Probability Theory) almost everyone can agree that those concept are simpler, i.e. basic.
  - max_ 10y ago
    "almost everyone" is not everyone