#105 - The World of Bayesian Statistics (w/ Alex Andorra)

We've spent a long time bashing Bayesian epistemology on the podcast. Unfortunately, this is sometimes taken to mean that we bash all things Bayesian. But our God-fearing listeners will be pleased to learn that we do not bash all things that the Reverend Thomas Bayes stood for. Bayesian statistics, when appropriately separated from epistemology, has many things to teach us. And instead of taking our word for it, we're bringing on an expert in this field: Alex Andorra, a research scientist at Meta and host of the Learning Bayesian Statistics podcast. The Gods Smile.

Check out Alex's website and the Learning Bayesian statistics podcast.

We discuss

• 538 and election forecasting
• Sports analytics and why Messi is objectively the best
• What is Bayesian statistics?
• What is the difference between Bayesian and frequentist statistics?
• What is the allure of Bayesian statistics?
• Are priors best thought of as beliefs?
• How do critical rationalists make decisions?

References

• Learning Bayesian Statistics: https://learnbayesstats.com/
• Silver Bulletin: https://www.natesilver.net/
• Vaden's blog post on decision making: https://vmasrani.github.io/blog/2020/vaden_second_response/#what-other-options-to-decision-theory-are-there # Socials
• Follow us on Twitter at @alex_andorra, @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani
• Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link
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Send us an email because you have - no, because you want to - over at incrementspodcast@gmail.com.

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