#16 Bayesian Statistics the Fun Way, with Will Kurt

A librarian, a philosopher and a statistician walk into a bar — and they can’t find anybody to talk to; nobody seems to understand what they are talking about. Nobody? No! There is someone, and this someone is Will Kurt! 

Will Kurt is the author of ‘Bayesian Statistics the Fun Way’ and ‘Get Programming With Haskell’. Currently the lead Data Scientist for the pricing and recommendations team at Hopper, he also blogs about stats and probability at countbayesie.com.

In this episode, he’ll tell us how a Boston librarian can become a Data Scientist and work with Bayesian models everyday. He’ll also explain the value of Bayesian inference from a philosophical standpoint, why it’s useful in the travel industry and how his latest book came into life.

Finally, Will is also a big fan of the “mind projection fallacy”, an informal fallacy first described by physicist and Bayesian philosopher Edwin Thompson Jaynes. Does that intrigue you? Well, stay tuned, he’ll tell us more in the episode…

Our theme music is « Good Bayesian », by Baba Brinkman (feat MC Lars and Mega Ran). Check out his awesome work at https://bababrinkman.com/ !

Links from the show:

• Will's Blog: https://www.countbayesie.com
• Will on Twitter: https://twitter.com/willkurt
• Bayesian Statistics the Fun Way -- Understanding Statistics and Probability with Star Wars, LEGO, and Rubber Ducks: https://nostarch.com/learnbayes
• Get Programming with Haskell: https://www.amazon.com/Get-Programming-Haskell-Will-Kurt/dp/1617293768
• The Mind Projection Fallacy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_projection_fallacy
• Probability Theory -- The Logic of Science by E.T. Jaynes: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/probability-theory/9CA08E224FF30123304E6D8935CF1A99
• Wittgenstein's Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics: https://www.amazon.com/Wittgensteins-Lectures-Foundations-Mathematics-Cambridge/dp/0226904261