May 2006
Beginner
356 pages
10h 49m
English
Content preview from Statistics HacksBecome an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Chapter 5. Playing Games
Games don’t have to involve gambling to involve statistics. You can use knowledge of game-specific probabilities to win on TV game shows [Hack #50], at Monopoly [Hack #51], or when coaching a football team [Hack #58].
The most common place you see statistics in your everyday life is probably in the world of sports, though the word “statistics” isn’t really used the same way a stat-hacker uses it. Sports fans tend to think of the data as the statistic. Regardless, there are plenty of hacks that can help you predict the outcome of a game before it is over [Hack #56] or even begun [Hack #55].
Since history is always our best guide to the future, your best predictions will require various ways to track, visualize [Hack #57], and rank [Hack #59] the performance of teams and players.
Of course, if you have the heart of a true statistics hacker, then you think that some statistical games—such as building a learning computer out of coconuts [Hack #52], doing card tricks through the mail [Hack #53], keeping your iPod honest [Hack #54], or estimating the value of pi purely by chance [Hack #60]—are fun all by themselves.
Avoid the Zonk
On the TV game show Let’s Make a Deal, contestants often had to choose between three curtains. For these sorts of situations, there is a statistical strategy that will help you to win the Buick instead of the lifetime supply of Rice-A-Roni.
Imagine, if you will, that you are traveling with your Uncle Frank through an uncharted ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access
More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.