It never ceases to amaze me that intelligent people will spend huge amounts of time doing a literature review, designing elaborate theories, generating elegant hypotheses, selecting a three-stage stratified random sample, performing multivariate analyses, and their measures on which this brilliant study rests are some questions they made up with their three best friends over…
On twitter, where I probably spend too much of my time, Dave Winer suggested that start-ups write about themselves, thus cutting out Tech Crunch as the middle man. Since Dave wrote the original blogging software and the first blog on the Internet (really!), his advice is worth considering. So, this week is all about our…
I’m working on the latest two proposals for federal funding for our computer games while sitting by the fire in a ski resort in Vermont, which is funny because I have never skied in my life and don’t intend to start now. I’m meeting with two people who we would like to have begin working…
I have colleagues who hate Excel with a passion. Why, they demand to know, would ANYONE use Excel for statistics when there are so many options that are so much better? Actually, I don’t find the Excel add-on for statistics that terrible, but that isn’t even the topic of this post. I use Excel because…
“Arthur: If I asked you where the hell we were, would I regret it? Ford: We’re safe. Arthur: Oh good. Ford: We’re in a small galley cabin in one of the spaceships of the Vogon Constructor Fleet. Arthur: Ah, this is obviously some strange use of the word safe that I wasn’t previously aware of.”…
Most people probably have been thinking about Christmas preparations and not so much the Common Core Standards. I’ve actually been thinking about these standards a lot lately. The more I think about them, the less comfortable I feel. Let me explain, first of all, that the common core standards are an effort to get states…
These days, I cannot turn around without seeing a billboard, poster or article with my third daughter’s name on it. She was the first woman signed by the UFC, and will be the first woman to headline a pay per view event in mixed martial arts. Interestingly, earlier this year, I wrote a post with…
In my copious spare time, of which I have none, I teach in the doctoral program at a nearby university. They want me to use the library and keep up on research, both because it looks nice in the alumni newsletter and also so that when students ask me questions about current technologies or findings,…
I’ve always been a bit skeptical of online education. I think I’m a good instructor. I know my subject extremely well, put a lot of time into preparing lectures, class activities and assignments. Having done some online classes, I have found it harder to gauge if students are confused or bored. Those hand-raises on goto…
“I teach statistics to people who don’t want to learn it.” This is my cocktail party response to people who ask what I do for a living. Even though I usually only teach one course a year, it is a quick way to answer the question and get back to drinking. Having faced up to…