[HN Gopher] Engineering Statistics Handbook (2012)
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       Engineering Statistics Handbook (2012)
        
       Author : gballan
       Score  : 171 points
       Date   : 2023-10-22 05:58 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.itl.nist.gov)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.itl.nist.gov)
        
       | sieste wrote:
       | Books like these should be read by all mathematics/statistics
       | students, not to get better at mathematics, but to see how the
       | concepts they study in theory are relevant in practice.
        
         | Koshkin wrote:
         | Indeed, statistics (as opposed to probability theory) is more
         | like physics, in its relation to mathematics.
        
       | GTP wrote:
       | Anyone used this in the past? Do you think it's a good book?
        
         | avs733 wrote:
         | It's good. I provide it to students as a resource and bring it
         | up on a couple of topics when I teach undergraduate engineers
         | statistics
        
         | happy3483t583 wrote:
         | It's good but it's old-school, focusing on traditional null
         | hypothesis significance testing and related ideas. These ideas
         | have been under attack for decades, most recently as being one
         | cause of the scientific replicability problem.
         | 
         | If you're new to applied stats, be aware that there's a whole
         | other world out there, beautifully taught to beginners by
         | https://xcelab.net/rm/statistical-rethinking/
        
           | brennanpeterson wrote:
           | It is old school in the sense that it is quite pragmatic. It
           | is aimed at Mainstays of engineering like 'did I improve
           | performance in this line' or 'ate these systems giving the
           | same output's or even 'how do.i design an experiment in a
           | really complex system'. And they generally work well.
           | 
           | Just do work using appropriate tools. There are reasons for
           | all sorts of tools, use the right ones.
           | 
           | Reproducibility crisis is mostly about marginal results,
           | publication bias, and humans.behavior. Bayesians can (and
           | do!) The same things. It isn't the tool, it is the people.
        
             | tgv wrote:
             | It's also the tool.
             | 
             | There are whole books dedicated to it (I can recommend
             | Bernouilli's Fallacy by Clayton), but the gist is: NHST
             | answers the wrong question (it should answer: what is the
             | likelihood of the hypothesis given the data, but answers:
             | what is the likelihood of the data under the hypothesis),
             | and is (thus) very sensitive to the probability of the
             | prior. To quote the old example: when you wake up with a
             | headache, it's not usual to assume you've got a brain
             | tumor.
        
             | happy3483t583 wrote:
             | It's both.
             | 
             | I've consulted in many situations where people make
             | horrible business decisions based on "statistically
             | significant." People mistake p-values for
             | p(hypothesis|data), mistake p-values for effect size ("it's
             | _highly_ significant! "); moreover, people using NHST don't
             | understand multiplicity or "topping-off" problems.
             | 
             | Of course one could argue that they just need to review
             | Intro Stats, but that skips over the impenetrable
             | conceptual nature of p-values and NHST. Given that _regular
             | people must use applied stats_ and given that NHST is
             | fundamentally arcane and confusing, then the stage is set
             | for endless drama.
             | 
             | Now if we were sampling manufactured products from batches
             | and looking for a quantitative upper-bound on the failure
             | rates, run over many batches, then we have a winner!
        
               | crispyambulance wrote:
               | It seems that the problems you cited are still very much
               | people-related.
               | 
               | There's a lot of pressure (especially in regulated
               | environments) to be "data-driven". It's tempting for
               | folks to pick up a tool like minitab and churn some
               | stats, cargo-cult-style, to prove whatever and look-smart
               | while doing it.
               | 
               | This is tricky stuff. Nobody like to admit they're
               | confused or that the path isn't clear. I agree it sets
               | the stage for drama and failure.
        
           | mdp2021 wrote:
           | Excellent, Richard McElreath also publishes lectures full
           | lectures at
           | 
           | https://www.youtube.com/@rmcelreath/videos
        
           | stiff wrote:
           | The book has eight voluminous chapters and only one is about
           | hypothesis testing. Much of it is about design of experiments
           | and statistical process control, think something like
           | optimizing the workings of a factory. Hypothesis testing has
           | been under attack in psychology/economics/etc., as part of I
           | think a broader problem those disciplines have drawing
           | reliable conclusions in general, since it is difficult to
           | control all the variables. This book is about engineering and
           | industrial applications which are closer to physics.
        
       | hcks wrote:
       | Any other recommendation with the same focus?
        
         | iancmceachern wrote:
         | There is a book called "statistics for engineers and scientists
         | "
        
         | ta_tunestub wrote:
         | "The Book of Why" and "Statistical Rethinking" course [1]
         | 
         | [1]https://twitter.com/chrismgreer/status/1714687870286655885?s
         | ...
        
       | dpflan wrote:
       | Is there an updated version?
        
         | crispyambulance wrote:
         | It's maintained, minor changes as late as January 2023
         | (https://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/changes.htm).
         | 
         | This is stable stuff!
         | 
         | The retro html needs a bit of a refresh, but everything seems
         | to work AFAIK.
        
       | boredemployee wrote:
       | I read a few mins of the book and loved it, but I confess that
       | the comments here have left me a bit confused.
       | 
       | I have a degree in engineering, took two statistics courses that
       | basically used high school level math.
       | 
       | Nowadays, I work with data analysis, using SQL and Python. And I
       | would like to know which statistical approach you guys think are
       | most suitable for the real world, like how to test hypothesis
       | etc?
        
         | brutusborn wrote:
         | I think the examples in the handbook are excellent, as an
         | engineer I started on the pipeline example [1]. In terms of
         | testing hypothesis, the design of experiments section is useful
         | [2].
         | 
         | [1]
         | https://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/pmd/section6/pmd62....
         | [2] https://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/pmd/section3/pmd31
         | .....
        
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