John D. Cook
@JohnDCook
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Consultant in applied math and data privacy
Houston
Joined November 2008
When I started consulting, clients approached me with math/stat problems. Now clients need conscientious problem solving, and there may not be any math/stat component.
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"I’m suffering from fascination burnout. Of all the things that are fascinating, I have to choose just one or two.” -- Neal Stephenson, Anathem.
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I recognize that curve in the background.
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Four rules of thumb for converting English words in to Spanish. 1. Words ending in –ible or –able often stay the same. 2. Change words ending in –ent and –ant to end in –ente and –ante respectively. 3. Change words ending in –tion to end in –ción. 4. Change words ending in –ical.
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He cannot, like the politicians, screen his short-comings by blaming his opponents and hope the people will forget. The engineer simply cannot deny he did it. If his works do not work, he is damned. 3/3.
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He cannot argue them into thin air or blame the judge like the lawyers. He cannot, like the architects, cover his failures with trees and vines. 2/n.
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From Herbert Hoover, mining engineer and 31st President of the United States:. The great liability of the engineer compared to men of other professions is that his works are out in the open where all can see them. His acts, step by step, are in hard substance. 1/n
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Mathematical modeling described in poetic language.
Hereafter, when they come to model heaven.And calculate the stars: how they will wield the.The mighty frame, how build, unbuild, contrive.To save appearances, how gird the sphere.With centric and eccentric scribbled o’er,.Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb. Milton, Paradise Lost
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“. most neuroses and some psychoses can be traced to the unnecessary and unhealthy habit of daily wallowing in the troubles and sins of five billion strangers.”. Robert Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land.
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Taken from a blog post written before this platform allowed long posts.
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Seven questions a statistician could help a lawyer answer. 1. Was this data collected in a proper way?.2. Does common sense apply here, or is there something subtle going on?.3. What conclusions can we draw from the data?.4. Is this analysis routine or is there something unusual.
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"The problem with raging against the machine is that the machine has learned to feed off rage." -- Liv Boeree
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