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In a nutshell, the way I have understood it, given a specific set of data, the frequentist believes that there is a true, underlying distribution from which said data was generated. The inability to get the exact parameters is a function of finite sample size. The Bayesian, on the other hand, think that we start with some assumption about the... See more

When are Bayesian methods preferable to Frequentist?

This probability of obtaining another data set as extreme as the one collected is known as the P value. The P value is often criticized for being misunderstood and misused in the field of medicine.2,3 For example, in contrast to popular belief, the P value is not a measure of how correct a hypothesis is, nor is it a measure of the size or... See more

Understanding the Differences Between Bayesian and Frequentist ...

Science may be the pursuit of truth, but scientific language is adept at dressing up insidious ideologies as fundamental truths.

Elan Ullendorff • A brief history of creativity (and power)

The point of Bayesian decision theory is to help make a decision. Or, more accurately, to describe the optimal way of making a decision, given uncertainty about the outcome.

But I was learning that succeeding at a research institution like Penn required skills that had little to do with science. You needed the ability to sell yourself and your work. You needed to attract funding. You needed the kind of interpersonal savvy that got you invited to speak at conferences and made people eager to mentor and support you. You... See more

The Weird Nerd comes with trade-offs

instrumentalism is “the view that theories are merely instruments for predicting observable phenomena or systematizing observation reports.”

Antirealism Will Not Save the DSM From Empirical Inadequacy

No physical process can grow indefinitely.

There are always friction terms in the dynamics equation that eventually become dominant (energy consumption, heat dissipation, quantum effects, thermal fluctuations, communication bandwidth, mass/energy density....).

Even processes that *appear* exponential on a long time scale are actually a succession of... See more

Yann LeCun • Tweet

It’s important to note that the concept of a field cannot be broken down into something which has a material or mechanical analogy. Sometimes, physicists think of a field as the aggregate effect of exchange or virtual particles which are governed by a quantum field theory, or the effect of the curvature of space time, but it’s important to note... See more

An Intuitive Guide to Maxwell’s Equations

“ To see the beauty of the Maxwell theory it is necessary to move away from mechanical models and into the abstract world of fields. To see the beauty of quantum mechanics it is necessary to move away from verbal descriptions and into the abstract world of geometry. Mathematics is the language that nature speaks. The language of mathematics makes