Analytics Dispatch 3/28/2016
Pity the pie chart
GIVE ME A LIFT
Lift analysis - A data scientist's secret weapon
Learn how to spot flaws in machine learning models with lift analysis (and why you should add it to your list of evaluation metrics). - Andy Goldschmidt
HUMBLE PIE
The correct way to use pie charts
Pie charts get a lot of flack in the data visualization community, but sometimes they prove useful. Can this post salvage their reputation? - Randy Olson
IN THE BEGINNING
[PODCAST] Not So Standard Deviations: Episode 11 - Start and Stop
If you haven't listened to NSSD yet, you're missing out on an inside look at how data scientists work in industry and academia. In this episode, statisticians Hilary Parker and Dr. Roger Peng discuss their methods for tackling the beginning and ending parts of analyses (discussion starts at 20:43). - Not So Standard Deviations
WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS
Explained Visually
This website is an incredible collection of interactive visualizations aimed at making tricky concepts like Markov chains and regression easy to understand. Schedule a few hours to explore this one—you're gonna need them. - Explained Visually
MIND GAMES
How does Lumosity use data science?
An inside look at the structure of Lumosity's data science team and the internal tools and product features they build. - Quora
People are talking about: Microsoft's racist chatbot
Tay went downhill so fast you might have missed her. On Wednesday, Microsoft introduced Twitter, Kik, and GroupMe to Tay.ai, a chatbot with the personality of millennial girl. The idea was that Tay would learn from her interactions with users and use her algorithm to respond. But within 24 hours, she was shut down for generating racist, genocidal replies. Microsoft blames the incident on "a coordinated effort by some users to abuse Tay’s commenting skills”; others attribute it to poor training.
- Microsoft’s Tay is an Example of Bad Design (or Why Interaction Design Matters, and so does QA-ing) (Caroline Sinders)
- Why Microsoft Accidentally Unleashed a Neo-Nazi Sexbot (MIT Technology Review)
- Here's How We Prevent the Next Racist Chatbot (Popular Science)