Statistics, Philosophy & the fine art of decision making

I enjoy reading ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฝ๐—ต๐—ถ๐—น๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ต๐˜† but I hadnโ€™t seen these combined in a single book/paper until I came across Zoltan Varjuโ€™s compilation. And Iโ€™ve been thoroughly enjoying it! ๐—ข๐—ป๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ฎ๐—น๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜€ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐˜ ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—ป (๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜†๐˜€๐˜ s๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜) ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ด๐—ผ๐—ผ๐—ฑ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜€๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—น๐—น๐˜€.

1 min read

On the tough balance between revisiting foundations & learning new tools

A recent read reminded me of the delicate balance - one I find myself continuously navigating - between strengthening core statistics & embracing the latest advancements (like tools that automate parameter selection & modeling). ๐—œ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐˜†, ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐—ณ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ป, ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐˜ ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ณ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐˜†โ€™๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐—ถ๐—น๐˜ ๐˜‚๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ป.

~1 min read

Analytics to Decisions

How might organizations become more effective in converting analytics into management actions?

3 min read

Confidence is a Choice

โ€œConfidence is a choice, not a symptom. The batter has already hit two home runs. When he gets up to bat for the third time, his confidence is running highโ€ฆ

Itโ€™s easy to feel confident when weโ€™re on a roll, when the cards are going our way, or weโ€™re closing sales right and left. This symptomatic confidence, one built on a recent series of successes, isnโ€™t particularly difficult to accomplish or useful.

Effective confidence comes from within, itโ€™s not the result of external events. The confident salesperson is likely to close more sales. The confident violinist expresses more of the music. The confident leader points us to the places we want (and need) to go.

You succeed because youโ€™ve chosen to be confident. Itโ€™s not really useful to require yourself to be successful before youโ€™re able to become confident.โ€

Seth Godin

~1 min read

What is Econometrics?

My background is in Econometrics. I get asked this question a lot. Sometimes it comes directly, sometimes in puzzled stares. Sometimes in glazed eyes where theyโ€™re regretting their first question for fear of a barrage of heavy statistical terminology. Letโ€™s simplify it without the fear.

3 min read

On the Visibility of Deep Thinkers

โ€œWe pay too much attention to the most confident voices - and too little attention to the most thoughtful ones. Certainty is not a sign of credibility. Speaking assertively is not a substitute for thinking deeply.
Itโ€™s better to learn from complex thinkers than smooth talkers.โ€

Adam Grant

~1 min read

Book Review: Becoming a Technical Leader, Ch 1

The Leadership Book Club, at R&D Mx, is sometimes hosted by motivated colleagues, sometimes by me. It is a great space to meet coworkers that I wouldnโ€™t usually bump into. This time, we picked a book that takes us back to the basics (and, in doing so, invites many aspiring leaders) while promising to take us beyond the theory of most other leadership books: โ€˜Becoming a Technical Leaderโ€™ by Gerald M. Weinberg.

4 min read

On Ordering Correlograms

Correlograms are the usual go-to visualization for a correlation coefficient matrix. If your features set (set of variables in dataset) has only a few features, the human mind is able to eyeball the correlation co-efficients to glean the most important relationships. However, when the list of features is longer, eyeballing is time consuming and there are chances that we will miss out on a few unobvious but important details. As a rule of thumb, when the feature set contains more than 5 features, I prefer studying a corellogram rather than its correlation matrix for insights.