Why Sportswriters Didn't Become Statisticians

Today, at 10:40 am, by rrusczyk

Exhibit Number 1.

See if you can pick out all the dodgy uses of stats, and all the outright mathematical inaccuracies.

(That said, all the "Belichick is a genius" and "Belichick is a moron" pieces seem silly to me -- I don't think either possible call clearly dominated the other. It did at least overshadow del Rio's call, which was just as interesting...)

Asking Questions

Today, at 6:18 am, by rrusczyk

MellowMelon has reminded me about writing and article on how to ask questions. I'm going to ask again for suggestions. What I'm looking for here isn't strategies for getting people to ask questions -- I'm looking for strategies for asking good questions. Things like:

-> Put yourself in the other person's shoes; what information do you think you'd need to answer the question?

-> If you're writing the question on a forum or in an email, reread the question when finished writing to make sure it makes sense, and has the necessary information.

-> If you want a specific answer, ask a specific question.

-> Highly specific questions are more likely to get answers than broad, non-specific questions.

What others should be on this list? (One way to think of these is to think about times you've been annoyed by poorly-framed questions. I get 5-10 such questions a week. I'm going to take notes on these over the next couple months and see what I find...)

Facebook >> Twitter

Today, at 6:13 am, by rrusczyk

Twitter: AoPS is on Twitter for 5 days, has 13-14 followers.

Facebook: AoPS is on FB for 20 hours, has 148 fans.

I think we have a clear winner.

Difficulty of Cutting Government Spending: A Case Study

Yesterday, at 7:46 pm, by rrusczyk

The recent brouhaha about a government study showing that women should get fewer tests for breast and cervical cancer is a great example of how tough it is to cut government spending. The government is now almost entirely Democratic, and all we hear from the other side is that this is a horrible example of how the Democrats will ration medical care under federalized medicine. I don't think it's a stretch to say that if this had occurred in 2004, it would have been loudly decried as an example of the heartless Republicans trying to cut government services by removing some Medicaid services for poor women. In either case, government doing less is used a political cudgel against those doing the cutting, even if the cutting makes sense. (I don't know the details of the study in this case, but my point is that the details don't really matter in the political debate.)

This is why any increase that is funded by "cuts to be named later" should be evaluated as if those cuts will never occur, because, as we see over and over, those "cuts to be named later" almost never happen. What I'd give for a government that does the cuts first. Particularly out here in California.

We Laugh a Lot in the Office

Yesterday, at 6:11 pm, by rrusczyk

Now Only Three Years Behind

Yesterday, at 12:10 pm, by rrusczyk

AoPS now has an official Facebook page. As with the Twitter feed, I'll be using that to broadcast news about AoPS, as well as about any other events or scholarships that may be of interest to AoPS students.

Collaboration Software

Yesterday, at 8:54 am, by rrusczyk

I had a chance to visit with the people at Science House while I was in NYC for the Math Prize for Girls. We spent a considerable amount of time discussing one of their new projects, which is developing an online tool for collaboration that is specifically designed for mathematicians. They also have in mind the possibility of offering bounties to solve problems, much like Erdos used to do. I'm particularly interested in this project for a couple reasons. First of all, good collaboration software might be particularly useful for the AoPS community. Second, a good set of problems with bounties might be excellent learning tools for AoPS members of all ages.

So, here's a question for those of you who like to imagine new online applications: how would you design a good online collaboration tool for mathematics?

New Scholarship at UCLA

Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:57 am, by rrusczyk

UCLA is offering a new full scholarship specifically targeting top USAMO scorers or IMO medalists. This may be particularly interesting to international students, since the scholarship is open to them, as well.

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  • You said something about writing an article about "How to ask a question" after the Precalc book was done. You should actually do that.

    When people ask about how to approach learning and mastering a subject, the articles section here is one place I point them to, so it would be a good addition.

    By MellowMelon, on Yesterday, at 8:34 am

  • Congratulations on finishing the Precalculus book! Thanks! Very Happy

    By ThinkFlow, on Tue Nov 10, 2009 1:15 pm

  • Interesting fact: math lowers blood pressure Mr. Green When I was at a doctor's check up having my pressure taken, I was bored and started mentally working on an AIME problem I had been doing before left. Just then, I heard the doctor exclaiming, "Wow, look at this!" Apparently, my blood pressure fell by like, 20 point things.

    By isabella2296, on Sat Oct 31, 2009 9:21 am

  • HAH? COOl! a bday! Smile

    By elevate, on Sat Oct 31, 2009 8:49 am

  • That's a nice thing to remind him about. Razz

    By dragon96, on Sat Oct 24, 2009 4:31 pm

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  • Joined: 28 Mar 2003
  • Location: Alpine, CA

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  • Blog started: 28 Jan 2005
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