I am just a undergrad maths student but here is my experience:
I learnt more about bayesian statistics in my Machine Learning course than I did from my statistics module, reason ?
The stat book/course is the most dull nonsense I ever came across even number theory made more sense to me than statistics, the whole point of the book/course was to proof some really abstract axiom which no one understood why they were doing it.
Compare that to the process of writing a spam filter from scratch in MATLAB. A mathematical axiomatic system is only useful if you are solving some real problem using it, otherwise good luck living in the matrix.
I have learnt that is far easier for mathematics to create garbage than to create useful ideas.
The reason why I think stats sucks so much is because its a cultural problem in the community, If you google "how to write spam filter" I am sure someone made a wikihow with pictures to explain bayesian stats even to a snail.
The reason is the computer science community constantly accepts their ignorance, even if a proof/program is trivial they will make sure to explain it. In the mathematics world no such thing exists. The big assumptions are "we leave it to the reader to proof this trivial fact" No Mr Smarty Pants, pls assume the reader is a 17 year girl who cannot send an email ( if you want to attract young people please understand their mindset first ).
>The reason is the computer science community constantly accepts their ignorance, even if a proof/program is trivial they will make sure to explain it. In the mathematics world no such thing exists. The big assumptions are "we leave it to the reader to proof this trivial fact" No Mr Smarty Pants, pls assume the reader is a 17 year girl who cannot send an email ( if you want to attract young people please understand their mindset first ).
Tell it preacher!
Also, if you still want a Bayesian stats book (which covers plenty of the material from a Frequentist intro stats course, too), William Bolstad's Introduction to Bayesian Statistics is as clear as anything I've ever read.
Thanks ! I think every book that worked for the lowest common denominator like myself should be pushed in school and highlighted.
The book that was pushed in class for us was the most pathetic excuse for a book.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Modern-Engineering-Mathematics-Prof-...
I really hate this book. Its the bible for "wall of text" syndrome. The thing that really made me angry is one of the author of this book was my prof ! I think such conflict of interest should be made a crime in classroom.
This book is much better if you are interested in everything applied mathematics related (besides stats ) the author is dead but damn is this book timeless. Everything is explained in a twitter like way. every page is made up of 4 slides.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Engineering-Mathematics-K-Stroud/dp/...
I was lucky to have studied in a british curriculum high school The books I used were these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edexcel-Level-Modular-Mathematics-St...
These books were amazing. they were about 100 pages with lots of color and worked example.
They go from S1-S6. What I find amazing is I have seen some insane greek syndrome books explaining the same topics as these ""kiddee" colored books. However My statistics education stopped after college ( exception being khan academy videos ), I have replaced all my stats modules with CS modules in university, I have hacked the stats modules I was forced to do by mugging up formulas and memorizing exam techniques :( so you can see why this stats prof complaining ticked me off as he thinks students haven't tried and are acting in ignorance.
I learnt more about bayesian statistics in my Machine Learning course than I did from my statistics module, reason ?
The stat book/course is the most dull nonsense I ever came across even number theory made more sense to me than statistics, the whole point of the book/course was to proof some really abstract axiom which no one understood why they were doing it.
Compare that to the process of writing a spam filter from scratch in MATLAB. A mathematical axiomatic system is only useful if you are solving some real problem using it, otherwise good luck living in the matrix.
I have learnt that is far easier for mathematics to create garbage than to create useful ideas.
The reason why I think stats sucks so much is because its a cultural problem in the community, If you google "how to write spam filter" I am sure someone made a wikihow with pictures to explain bayesian stats even to a snail.
The reason is the computer science community constantly accepts their ignorance, even if a proof/program is trivial they will make sure to explain it. In the mathematics world no such thing exists. The big assumptions are "we leave it to the reader to proof this trivial fact" No Mr Smarty Pants, pls assume the reader is a 17 year girl who cannot send an email ( if you want to attract young people please understand their mindset first ).
/end rant