Bayesian methods for hackers
by Cameron Davidson-Pilon · first published 2015
69% recommend29% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
Code-first, notebook-based introduction to Bayesian analysis and MCMC with PyMC, with worked examples like A/B testing. Suits programmers and non-mathematicians who want practical methods before heavy theory.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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What Hacker News says
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If you are interested in the practical practice of Bayesian methods (and you love Python), check out our open-source project/book Bayesian Methods for Hackers: https://github.com/CamDavidsonPilon/Probabilistic-Programmin... We aim to empower the non-mathematician with really cool tools and methods to solve otherwise very difficult problems. Plus it's all…
on “Philosophy and the practice of Bayesian statistics [pdf]” ↗…formal background in X. Machine Learning for Hackers http://www.amazon.co.uk/Machine-Learning-Hackers-Drew-Conway... Design for Hackers http://www.amazon.co.uk/Design-Hackers-Reverse-Engineering-B... Bayesian Methods for Hackers http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bayesian-Methods-Hackers-Probabilist... EDIT: I'm not the author, but you can find Bayesian Methods for Hackers (free, released by the author) at the link below. I think it's…
on “Statistics for Hackers” ↗Probabilistic Programming & Bayesian Methods for Hackers [1] by Cameron Davidson-Pilon is exactly what you want, starting from a computational-first perspective, then introducing the maths later, although it uses PyMC rather than Stan. It's freely available…
on “Prophet: forecasting at scale” ↗If you're looking for some Bayesian Stats books that require very little math/stats, I'd recommend starting with these two: Think Bayes by Allen Downey:https://allendowney.github.io/ThinkBayes2/ Bayesian Methods for Hackers by Cam Davidson-Pilon: https://dataorigami.net/Probabilistic-Programming-and-Bayesi... They're both an excellent warm up for Statistical Rethinking.
on “A Bayesian View of Amazon Resellers” ↗…and graphical models. I've listed them in (approximate) order of increasing difficulty/mathematical complexity: Think Bayes (Downey): http://www.amazon.com/Think-Bayes-Allen-B-Downey/dp/14493707... Bayesian Methods for Hackers (Davidson-Pilon et al): https://github.com/CamDavidsonPilon/Probabilistic-Programmin... Doing Bayesian Data Analysis (Kruschke), aka "the puppy book": http://www.amazon.com/Doing-Bayesian-Data-Analysis-Second/dp...…
on “Ask HN: What are some good Machine Learning resources?” ↗If someone wants a more interactive companion-book targeted more towards Python developers, check out "Probabilistic Programming & Bayesian Methods for Hackers": http://camdavidsonpilon.github.io/Probabilistic-Programming-... Relevant quote: > "I ... read this book ... I like it!" - Andrew Gelman
on “Bayesian Data Analysis, Third Edition [pdf]” ↗Probabilistic Programming and Bayesian Methods for Hackers: https://github.com/CamDavidsonPilon/Probabilistic-Programmin...
on “What is probabilistic programming?” ↗I also recommend Probabilistic Programming & Bayesian Methods for Hackers http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/minrk/Probabilistic-Progr...
on “Intro to statistical data analysis in Python – frequentist and Bayesian methods” ↗Bayesian Methods for Hackers https://github.com/CamDavidsonPilon/Probabilistic-Programmin... is really fun. But it does not exactly teach the basics of data science.
on “Lessons learned teaching data analysis with Python” ↗…thing I came across that helped me contextualize the DL field into something that might be relevant for my work. It's a great way to get your hands dirty. One point of comparison is Cam Davidson Pilon's Bayesian Methods for Hackers, they have a similar vibe: practical applied advice from a field that tilts towards the academic...
on “Deep Learning for Coders – Launching Deep Learning Part 2” ↗If you want a non-mathematician friendly introduction, "Probabilistic Programming and Bayesian Methods for Hackers" [0] is a good place to start. For a motivating application, chapter 2 walks through using probabilistic programming for A/B testing. [0] https://camdavidsonpilon.github.io/Probabilistic-Programming...
on “Gen: Probabilistic programming system with programmable inference” ↗Thanks! I'm planning on digging into Cam Davidson-Pilon's Bayesian Methods for Hackers soon:https://github.com/CamDavidsonPilon/Probabilistic-Programmin... Thanks for the link to the book. I could see it being really helpful to me to have frequentist examples alongside Bayesian examples.…
on “Goodbye R scripts, hello R packages” ↗…"Hey this isn't the original title, downvote!" but the submitted title here doesn't do justice to the already relevant title of the OP, and the breadth of OP's material: "Probabilistic Programming and Bayesian Methods for Hackers" This is truly a labor of love, and at version 0.1, very readable. I got through about half of it on the subway ride to work.
on “Probabilistic Programming and Bayesian Methods for Hackers” ↗Counting up and down votes is a surprisingly interesting problem. If you are interested, have a look at chapter 4 of Probabilistic Programming and Bayesian Methods for Hackers [1]. [1]: http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/CamDavidsonPilon/Probabil...
on “Ask HN: How exactly does Hacker News 'points' work?” ↗…Inference for Everyone: http://web.bryant.edu/~bblais/statistical-inference-for-ever... - Frequentism and Bayesianism: A Python-driven Primer: http://arxiv.org/abs/1411.5018 - Probabilistic Programming and Bayesian Methods for Hackers: http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/CamDavidsonPilon/Probabil... - Software Carpentry's primer: http://software-carpentry.org/v5/novice/python/index.html - And of course, LPTHW: http://learnpythonthehardway.org/…
on “Introduction to Data Analysis in R” ↗