Statistical Rethinking, 2nd Edition

Preface to the Second Edition

It came as a complete surprise to me that I wrote a statistics book. It is even more surprising how popular the book has become. But I had set out to write the statistics book that I wish I could have had in graduate school. No one should have to learn this stuff the way I did. I am glad there is an audience to benefit from the book.

It consumed five years to write it. There was an initial set of course notes, melted down and hammered into a first 200-page manuscript. I discarded that first manuscript. But it taught me the outline of the book I really wanted to write. Then, several years of teaching with the manuscript further refined it.

Really, I could have continued refining it every year. Going to press carries ...