Head first statistics
by Dawn Griffiths · first published 2008
6mentions
3recommended by
6HN commenters
2009–2022first – last mentioned
50% recommend50% neutral
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
2009–2025Data analysis using regression and multilevel/hierarchical models
Andrew Gelman
Recommended by 10 · mentioned by 1210 recommend · 12 mention10 recommend · 1210 recommend
2007–2025Programming Collective Intelligence
Toby Segaran
Recommended by 86 · mentioned by 11986 recommend · 119 mention86 recommend · 11986 recommend
If you are starting from scratch without a very strong math background, I'd recommend: 1.) Head First Statistics -- Pretty good, but beware the section on Bayes Theorem which is a bit off. This is a quick and casual intro, but worthwhile. I used it to refresh me on my college stats course (which was a long time…
on “Ask HN: I want to learn statistics and data mining” ↗Here's the resources I've used and found helpful (plus notes) for getting a least a basic grounding in statistics. Khan Academy + "Head First Statistics" -No matter what direction you want to go with your learning and before you start getting into street fights over Bayesian vs Frequentists philosophies, "stats 101" is the common base of 'statistics'…
on “Try R — A new online course, for free” ↗this reminds me of the Head First series of books. I can still recall specific pages from the Head First Statistics book not because of the content but because every topic (and probably page) had a creative visualization.
on “The collapse of complex software” ↗The Headfirst series has a statistics book now: http://www.amazon.com/Head-First-Statistics-Dawn-Griffiths/d... No it doesn't have R in it, but it's an interesting read
on “Ask HN: Suggestions for learning statistics (& prob) really fast?” ↗I grabbed Hadoop: The Definitive Guide Tomcat: The definitive Guide 2nd ed (this one I have access to via ACM membership but those rotate out potentially so eh) Head first Statistics (my math skills are beyond rusty, and the head first books tend to be good. However either due to overload or something, while I was able to place my order, the books are not showing up in my available…
on “O'Reilly is selling any eBook for $9.99 today” ↗…meetings (among others.) And of course there are tons of videos and great lectures up on on Youtube and other sites. Lately I've been going through that Stanford/Google one on Data Mining and reading the Head First Statistics book. If there's a point to all this, I'd say it's "Just keep learning."
on “Ask HN: HOW did YOU learn to program?” ↗