Thursday, July 16, 2009

A Stubborn Mule's view of the world

That week I mentioned in my last post proved to be a very long week indeed.

My old friend and colleague Noric Dilanchian kindly pointed me to a Stubborn Mule's Perspective. The writer works in the financial markets in Sydney and is something of a statistical fanatic - a believer in graphs.

I stand somewhat in awe of his statistical skills. Like me, he is interested in patterns. Like me, he likes to test things. However, his statistical skills allow him to do things that I cannot.

4 comments:

Sean Carmody said...

Glad you like the blog Jim. It's true that I am a little obsessive when it comes to graphs. But, I do think that they can be a very valuable tool for exploring data. Of course, they can be counterproductive as well, as is well illustrated by the Junk Charts blog which is an old favourite of mine.

Jim Belshaw said...

Hi Sean. I hadn't visited Junk Charts.

There is test and then there is presentation and/or explanation. I liked your testing.

I stuggle a bit with the presentation side at a personal level. I would like to do better here.

Sean Carmody said...

My presentation approach is strongly influenced by Edward Tufte. Have you seen any of his books? They are beautiful.

Jim Belshaw said...

No I haven't Sean. I will look him up.