I would at least investigate it. I have purchased and read statistics books recently. Mostly the old classics by R.A. Fisher and D.R. Cox and etc, I have a copy of Handbook 91 by Mary Natrella. My questions are pretty simple. I like the "worked examples" approach in Handbook 91.
Ask HN: Would you read a statistics textbook?
11–20 of 70 posts
Re: Ask HN: Would you read a statistics textbook?
#12I would! If you are thinking to write one, do it!
Re: Ask HN: Would you read a statistics textbook?
#13I'm a nerd and do a lot of stats for my job and I would not read a statistics textbook.
I read a lot of informational things, but math / stats / software has always felt like an area where a book is just the wrong format.
If I were you I'd make an interactive website like SQLZoo or a video series like StatQuest.
Those are educational formats that really clicked with me for whatever reason.
Re: Ask HN: Would you read a statistics textbook?
#14Yes, I love it and would do so
Re: Ask HN: Would you read a statistics textbook?
#15Not sure I'd read it as-written. But I'd love a statistics book whereby the chapters are real case studies. I personally learn best when I can apply new theory to a tangible problem (not just an example problem that's been reduced to almost nothing).
However going the 'visual' route might be enough for me to pick it up.
Re: Ask HN: Would you read a statistics textbook?
#16Yes, with the caveat that someone else with knowledge in the field has to recommend it to me. Partner up with someone who teaches statistics.
Re: Ask HN: Would you read a statistics textbook?
#17My personal opinion is that statistics textbooks usually come from a prescriptive perspective, and that makes it challenging for the reader to get visceral intuition for what is actually going on. Any reader would be far better off just visualizing the damn distribution / samples and using reasonable judgement, instead of implicitly assuming a Gaussians distribution and blindly memorizing tests / formulae. Making the distributions explicit allows us to model them and get an intuition for what the samples are telling us. I would whole-heartedly recommend the Model based machine learning book to anyone (online version is free) https://mbmlbook.com/
Re: Ask HN: Would you read a statistics textbook?
#18Yes, there is always a need for another "intuitive statistics" book.
However the link you have provided is not the way; it is low on content and high on pretty distractions. Use all sorts of diagrams and graphs primarily, with animations only where required. The key is to always relate to something in the real world so one can see its actual relevance. Also tie it back to other fields of mathematics so one can see how they all come together.
A good example to study is How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business by Douglas Hubbard. Detailed review at - https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ybYBCK9D7MZCcdArB/how-to-mea...
And of course Nassim Taleb's works are a good source of inspiration. Here is a great video summarizing Taleb's ideas nicely Pareto, Power Laws, and Fat Tails - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcqt49dXtm8
Re: Ask HN: Would you read a statistics textbook?
#19No idea about statistics, but in most physict courses in my university, they recomend 3 books: 1) The main book, that has a complete explanation and is well ordered. It's for learning. 2) Tha Landau book, that is super short and hard. It's only to check you didn't miss any important formula or topic. 3) There Feynman book, that is anassorted colection of fairytales for physicist. It's a pleasure to read it but you mu…
Similar to an old idea I had about how every programming language needs three books: 1. Basic introduction. 2. Reference tome, which has absolutely everything. 3. Cookbook with style advice for the more advanced student, which assumes you've read 1 and can look up various details in 2. These days, 2 would be a wiki and 1 would likely be a bunch of pages on that wiki, but it's still good if you have someone sit down a…
Back in my day, the 3 books for programmers were Knuth vol 1, Knuth vol 2, and Knuth vol 3. ;)
Re: Ask HN: Would you read a statistics textbook?
#20I’m weird. I read textbooks and instruction manuals. I read incredibly fast though, so it fits nicely. There’s always some deeper learning to be gained in those pages.
Good luck if you do this.