Tag: Principal components regression

Stock Trader Sleeping At Multiple Computer's Desk

^{Type
post

Author
Gary Smith
Date
October 17, 2022

Categorized
Business and Finance, Economics, Mathematics

Tagged
Alan Sokal, Black box algorithms (in decision-making), Data pruning, Featured, Harris Friedman, Internal rate of return (IRR), Lemonade insurance company, Losada line, Marcial Losada, Mathematics and comprehensibility, Net present value (NPV), Nick Brown, NPV vs. IRR, Principal components regression}

More Hard Math Does Not Necessarily Mean More Useful Solutions

_{It is sometimes tempting to overemphasize the math and underemphasize the relevance} _{Gary Smith

October 17, 2022

7

Business and Finance, Economics, Mathematics}

Math is said to be the language of science in that most (but definitely not all) scientific models of the world involve mathematical equations. The Pythagorean theorem, the normal distribution, Einstein’s energy-mass equivalence, Newton’s second law of motion, Newton’s universal law of gravitation, Planck’s equation. How could any of these remarkable models be expressed without math? Unfortunately, it is sometimes tempting to overemphasize the math and underemphasize the relevance. The brilliance of the models listed above lies not in mathematical pyrotechnics but, if anything, in their breath-taking simplicity. Useful models help us understand the world and make reliable predictions. Math for the sake of math does neither. Examples of mindless math are legion. I will give three very different examples. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Jeffrey Funk and Gary Smith
Date
October 4, 2022

Categorized
Economics, Education, Peer Review

Tagged
Cross-disciplinary studies, Data science and data mining, Disciplinary boundaries, Hyper-specialization in research, J. Robert Oppenheimer, John Maynard Keynes on economics and human nature, Principal components regression, Research and overspecialization, Researchers' reading demands, Retraction rate in esteemed journals, Ridge regression, Stepwise regression}

The Hyper-Specialization of University Researchers

_{So many papers are published today in increasingly narrow specialties that, if there is still a big picture, hardly anyone can see it} _{Jeffrey Funk and Gary Smith

October 4, 2022

5

Economics, Education, Peer Review}

The Bible warns that, “Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” Nowadays, the endless making of books is dwarfed by the relentless firehose of academic research papers. A 2010 study published in the British Medical Journal reported that the U.S. National Library of Medicine includes 113,976 papers on echocardiography — which would weary the flesh of any newly credentialed doctor specializing in echocardiography: We assumed that he or she could read five papers an hour (one every 10 minutes, followed by a break of 10 minutes) for eight hours a day, five days a week, and 50 weeks a year; this gives a capacity of 10000 papers in one year. Read More ›