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Playing with Open Data – Good to Know Tips from the Random File

From the random file — I’ve been super-busy working on our new startup, 7 Generation Games , and Darling Daughter Number Three had to defend her world title again which distracted me a bit, so I have a bunch of half-written posts, I thought I’d just put up at random, for the same reason I do…

I Don’t Need to Hire Anyone to Tell Me Stupid Shit: Advice to Students

My next-door neighbor started college this fall and when I ran into him today and asked him how classes were going he said, Last semester was harder, I took Botany and didn’t get a very good grade in it. This semester, I took Environmental Science and it’s really easy because it’s mostly about what’s bad…

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Whatever happened to graduate research?

I read this recently in a powerpoint that came with a research methods textbook If answering the study question adequately requires the use of elaborate analytic techniques, invite a statistical expert to serve as a collaborator and as a coauthor on the resulting paper.   I was so non-plussed that I looked up the word…

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Drinking and teaching statistics: Day 10 of the 20-day blogging challenge

There are multiple reasons that I haven’t gotten around to Day 10 of the 20-day blogging challenge. In part, because I have been really busy, and the other part is because I read this topic, “Share ideas that your classroom uses for brain breaks and/or indoor recess” and I thought I got nothin’ Anyone who…

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Survivor 8: Statistics on selling the sizzle and not the steak

I attended  Survivor 8, the Tech Coast Venture Network fast pitch competition last night, and I thought I’d give my thoughts in case you are considering attending a similar event in the future. In keeping with the 30-second format, I’ll give you my take away now – it is worth it if you have an…

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Failing Forward and regression lines

It’s been a really productive two weeks in North Dakota, installing our game in schools on two reservations, in tribal schools and public schools. I didn’t write this post to talk about that. Rather, in keeping with some of the really useful posts I’ve read about start-up failures, I wanted to share with you the…

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What I totally will do again, and what I wish I didn’t have to

Today I’m getting around to day nine of the 20-day blogging challenge while I wait for The Invisible Developer to get out of the shower where he is curled in a fetal position whining about having to go outside when it is 14 below zero. Actually, he is probably just taking a shower, but lots…

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Scoring tests with SAS: What a difference array makes

Day eight of the 20-day blogging challenge was to write about a professional read – a book, article or blog post that has had an impact on me. To be truthful, I would have to say that the SAS documentation has had a profound impact on me. SAS documentation is extremely well-written (to be fair,…

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What’s Really Needed for Data Science, Start-ups & Life

There’s been quite a bit of discussion on twitter lately regarding generalists versus specialists. This article on KD Nuggets reported an even split in their poll numbers regarding whether companies try to hire a generalist who has knowledge of all areas required by a data scientist, as opposed to those who said that they hired…