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Learning About Statistical Learning

measuringmeasures.blogspot.com

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Re: Learning About Statistical Learning

#31

Post by Perceval »

I just read yesterday a book on Non-parametric Statistics: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047045461X/ref=oss_T15_prod...

I found this useful and interesting, because a great deal of social phenomena are not normally distributed (do not fit a Gaussian bell-curve distribution, regardless of the size of the sample).

I am interested in learning more about non-parametric statistics, and statistics using alternative distributions (e.g. stable distributions, power laws, etc.). Does anyone have good references for this kind of statistics (preferably written in English as opposed to jargon)?

Re: Learning About Statistical Learning

#33

Post by llimllib »

briansmith wrote: post #18
Shamiq wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the buying and selling of those international versions questionably legal in the United States? (Assuming OP is from the US).

What's illegal about buying or selling books? The publishers have a contract with distributors in those poorer countries that prohibits those distributors from distributing the books here. But, anybody who DOESN'T have a contract with the book publisher can buy from the distribitor and sell them here, unless their local laws prohibit that. And, nothing in OUR laws prohibits buying them--by now it's well established t…

> Do you want the international edition? I have a few of them, and they are better than nothing. But, the paper is so thin that I get distracted by the words/figures on the other side of the page.

Yeah, I don't buy them for myself either; I just know they're wicked cheap.

Re: Learning About Statistical Learning

#34

Post by fgimenez »

justokay wrote: post #22

Mike Jordan at Berkeley sent me his list on what people should learn for ML. The list is definitely on the more rigorous side (ie aimed at more researchers than practitioners), but going through these books (along with the requisite programming experience) is a useful, if not painful, exercise. I personally think that everyone in machine learning should be (completely) familiar with essentially all of the material in…

Keep in mind that Mike Jordan is a superhuman math machine. I remember his undergraduate research assistants at Cal were telling me that it would take grad students days to understand 5 minute proofs he would do on the fly.

Re: Learning About Statistical Learning

#35

Post by silentbicycle »

mahmud wrote: post #11
FraaJad wrote: post #6

Definitely a very good list. But also an expensive list! HNers: any suggestions on where to find these books for cheap. (outside university libraries)

Local 4-year universities typically allow the public to access their libraries for a fee; around $100/year.

University alumni can often get an alumni card for much less. I can access several CS academic journals online with mine.

Re: Learning About Statistical Learning

#36

Post by ptuzla »

justokay wrote: post #22

Mike Jordan at Berkeley sent me his list on what people should learn for ML. The list is definitely on the more rigorous side (ie aimed at more researchers than practitioners), but going through these books (along with the requisite programming experience) is a useful, if not painful, exercise. I personally think that everyone in machine learning should be (completely) familiar with essentially all of the material in…

Can one fit this study list in a life time? Seriously, this has been a problem for me for a long time. Any one of the mentioned books would take me months to study. It'd take me a month to just read a textbook, without any toil. Am I too slow, or are there some study/reading techniques that I'm not aware of?

Re: Learning About Statistical Learning

#37

Post by vdm »

ptuzla wrote: post #36
justokay wrote: post #22

Mike Jordan at Berkeley sent me his list on what people should learn for ML. The list is definitely on the more rigorous side (ie aimed at more researchers than practitioners), but going through these books (along with the requisite programming experience) is a useful, if not painful, exercise. I personally think that everyone in machine learning should be (completely) familiar with essentially all of the material in…

Can one fit this study list in a life time? Seriously, this has been a problem for me for a long time. Any one of the mentioned books would take me months to study. It'd take me a month to just read a textbook, without any toil. Am I too slow, or are there some study/reading techniques that I'm not aware of?

Just so you know, you're not the only one who feels this way. There's no way you could carry that load AND a day job/family.

Maybe tools like incanter will bridge the gap and let application software practitioners put this research to work.

Re: Learning About Statistical Learning

#38

Post by vdm »

imp wrote: post #26
hamilton wrote: post #15

Thanks to liebke for posting this, and Bradford for writing it. I have two points. First, your point about programming is incredibly important. I've worked with people who had amazing insights about statistical problems, but went cross-eyed upon being asked about SVN and Git. This makes a CS homework assignment unpleasant, and a real world research project impossible. Second, this really begs another post. It should…

For anyone doing the self-learning thing, right now there's 24 people that just started learning Stanford CS229 Machine Learning here: http://www.crunchcourse.com/class/stanford-cs229-machine-lea... (disclosure: Crunch Course is my website. I just thought it might be a good resource for people taking hamilton's advice.)

I didn't know about the idea of 'social learning'. I appreciate the link (and your full disclosure).

Re: Learning About Statistical Learning

#39

Post by vdm »

briansmith wrote: post #16
kaddar wrote: post #3

This is a good list. That said, Why second edition intro to algs? Why not third? also, considering that intro to algs is one of the "Books Programmers Claim to Have Read" http://www.billthelizard.com/2008/12/books-programmers-dont-... , so those planning to read it, note that it is best learned in a classroom setting where you are forced to work through the problems. Finally, interesting that he does amazon reference…

The 2nd edition can be had for less than $30 used. The cheapest you can get the 3rd edition for is ~$60. For $30 you can pick up a linear algebra textbook used. If somebody had only $60 to spend, it's a no-brainer to pick the 2nd edition + a linear algebra textbook.

That's a good point. One really needs to balance the cheaper price against whether the diff with the latest edition is worth it.

Re: Learning About Statistical Learning

#40

Post by imp »

vdm wrote: post #38
imp wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For anyone doing the self-learning thing, right now there's 24 people that just started learning Stanford CS229 Machine Learning here: http://www.crunchcourse.com/class/stanford-cs229-machine-lea... (disclosure: Crunch Course is my website. I just thought it might be a good resource for people taking hamilton's advice.)

I didn't know about the idea of 'social learning'. I appreciate the link (and your full disclosure).

Yeah, it's kind of an experiment. I think some social interaction and accountability can help a lot with self-guided learning. We'll see though.
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