Google Reader Feed: My Shared Items
In the days after the US midterm elections cable news outlets, radio programs, political pundits, newspapers, and activists on both sides of the ideological spectrum have exerted a great deal of blood and sweat to explain the nationwide drubbing of the Democrats. Democrats are predictably covering their behinds—conceding voter anger, but cautioning that the country [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: politics, research methodology, theory | 2 Comments »
For those that have not read it yet, The Atlantic recently featured an article profiling Dr. John Ioannidis who has made a career out of falsifying many of the findings of medical research that guides clinical practice. Ioannidis’ research should cause us all to appreciate the various bias we may bring to our own work: [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: falsification, research methodology | 3 Comments »
I came across this Chris Anderson piece from a 2008 issue of Wired via Ana Andjelic. Anderson argues that in the era of Big Data we no longer need to rely on theory and the scientific method to achieve advances in knowledge: Google’s founding philosophy is that we don’t know why this page is better [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Big Data, research methodology, Science | Leave a Comment »
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the US Department of Energy is set to restate the data it collects on U.S. natural-gas production. The reason? The Department has learned that its methodology is seriously flawed: The monthly gas-production data, known as the 914 report, is used by the industry and analysts as guide for [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: data, research methodology, statistics | Leave a Comment »
Nathan at Flowing Data puts words to an idea I’ve had for a while, but could never figure out how to communicate. He writes, “[T]he most important things I’ve learned [in statistics courses] are less formal, but have proven extremely useful when working/playing with data.” Some of the lessons learned include: [T]rends and patterns are [...]
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Jen Prout of The Full Belmonty recently posted about the various organizational and management lessons to be learned by watching CBS’s new reality show, “Undercover Boss”. Each week, the show follows a CEO as they go undercover, posing as a new hire or trainee, working at various locations. The basic plot is that the CEO’s [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Business, management, research methodology | 1 Comment »
Aaron Shaw had an interesting post at the Dolores Labs blog last week that examined how using different question scales in surveys can elicit very different responses: You can ask “the crowd” all kinds of questions, but if you don’t stop to think about the best way to ask your question, you’re likely to get [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: research methodology | 1 Comment »
Fiction
Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1)
Non-fiction
The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball
Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value
The Numbers Game
Codes of the Underworld: How Criminals Communicate
Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception
The Rational Optimist
The Quiet American
How Doctors Think
The Wisdom of Whores
Switch
Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory
