Bayes' Theorem Examples: A Visual Introduction For Beginners Kindle Edition

A Helpful Illustration of An Important Statistical Tool -

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October 16, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Author Morris begins by pointing out that Bayes' Theorem is used in Google search logic, Netflix recommendations, hedge fund decisions, and many other areas. Stated simply, Bayes' Theorem tells us how much we should change our assessment of probabilities when we encounter new evidence. Venn diagrams and decision trees are used to help visualize the mathematics.

43 people found this helpful

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Louis Tinaro

PAPERBACK does not work!

June 18, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Do not buy the PAPERBACK! This book is obviously designed to be read and accessed on a computer with "LINKS" that make absolutely no sense in printed form. It is a crime that Amazon sells this as a paperback. There are no page numbers and there are references to support materials that lack a way of accessing them in printed form. For example (actual quote from book): "THIS ARTICLE AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY is also helpful....." What article? You can't click on a link in a PAPERBACK !

A solution to this might be to provide a web site for anyone who buys the paperback, but the paperback book led to a lot of frustration and made me feel that I was really being cheated.

10 people found this helpful

My favourite book yet in this excellent series.

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David Styles

January 22, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I could actually use Bayes’ Theorem to estimate for you in this review the odds of you enjoying the book, but I fear it’ll look quite arbitrary without the clear and helpful visual guides that the book provides, walking the reader through many examples in a step-by-step fashion, such that we get to not only know how to use the theorem in a functional fashion (say, plugging and playing with the numbers, as one might if learning it for a mathematics exam, practically learning the method by rote), but also to have a genuine understanding and overview of how it actually works and why.

Maybe, like me, you never got on with mathematics at school. In my schooldays, my problems in the subject were threefold: 1) a bad teacher 2) an active resistance to anything I didn’t find stimulating 3) a lack of awareness of how to work around dyscalculia. So instead, I challenged my teacher to prove things (he refused and/or was unable; this book in contrast contains a neat proof, by the way), I accused him of witchcraft when he produced correct numeric answers with no demonstration of how things worked, and I generally struggled with anything containing numbers.

Here instead, everything is presented in a clear and simple fashion—as the title suggests, largely visual—minimizing the need to juggle a lot of numbers and instead working chiefly with concepts, which I can grasp much more readily. Where numbers are necessary, they’re not onerous and they’re nothing whose calculations one couldn’t do on a phone if necessary.

In short, a clear and engaging primer in how Bayes’ Theorem works, how to use it, and how to rapidly estimate changes in probability so as to make better decisions.

If only books like this were used in schools, resulting in people better understanding stats and probability, the world might have a lot fewer problems than it does!

8 people found this helpful

Clear, ;helpful! But could go further in teaching intuitive feeling for using this approach--which may be asking too much.Read more

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Most recent customer reviews

Appreciative reader

Good for beginners

Published 1 month ago

Michael E Krueger

Four Stars

Dan's Book is clear and concise in explaining Bayes theorem a must for engineers, risk, and project managers.

Published 1 month ago

Tim Havranek

A Great Introduction to Bates Theorem

This is a good place to start for anyone interested in understanding Bayes Theorem. I recommend getting the Kindle Edition and reading it on a Fire or other device that allows...Read more

Not bad, but mistakes in At least one calculation

Robert M. Harvey

Not bad, but mistakes in At least one calculation, and Venn Diagrams used in explanations were poorly done.Read more

Very basic - simple and easy to follow

SMess

If you want to learn Bayes Theorem more in-depth you will need to do more research and reading. The author warns you about this at the very beginning.

Gary Bouska

Three Stars

Good

I was concerned about the value of this book when I saw the price, but the reviews mislead me into buying it anyway.Read more

Jerry B Schutz

Not to Be Trusted