Data and Other Fables – Peter Licari

I Simulated 60,000 Games of Chutes and Ladders to See How Long the Average Game Takes.

An investigation using Python, R, and DuckDB

R

Python

simulation

games

The other day, at my daughter’s behest, we sat down and played a game that I hadn’t played since I was close to her age: Chutes and Ladders¹ I’ll be honest, I was never much…

Getting Worse to Get Better

Some thoughts about improving in data science…and bowling, I guess.

reflection

It may come as a surprise to some people who know me, but I actually have other hobbies other than “doing stuff with data.” This post is concerns some experiences I’ve had…

What I Learned From My First Non-Academic Conference

Reflections on ODSC East 2024

reflection

This week, I attended the 2024 Open Data Science Conference (ODSC) in Boston, Massachusetts. It was the first conference I attended since Covid¹ and my first non-academic…

How Popular Are Birthdays Over Time?

A datacentric way to celebrate turning 30

R

description

dataviz

Here are two fun facts about 30:

Some reflections, hopes, and plans for 2024

reflection

life

2023 has just about come to a close. I thought I was due for an audit on how things went and where (I think) things are going.

The Traditional Margin of Error When You Have Oversamples in Your Survey is Wrong

Illustrated using Pokemon

R

statistics

simulation

surveys

Not too long ago, pollsters and social scientists on X (the decaying husk of Twitter) found themselves discussing a recent CNN poll detailing President Biden’s job…

How to add a Variable Font to a Quarto PDF on Windows

Or: How I was driven completely insane by Google Fonts

R

Quarto

tutorial

This is one of those posts motivated by never ever wanting to subject anyone to the insanity that I experienced while struggling through what only seems to be a simple idea.

What to do when R punches you in the mouth

R

tutorial

Attaining mastery in R is not about avoiding hiccups, but about learning what to do when you’re inevitably confronted with them. However, this is hardly covered in most…

Simulating My Daughter’s First Board Game in Python

python

simulation

Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn.

Book Review: Theory and Reality

review

Theory and Reality is an ambitious book that aims to accessibly cover a large swath of historical and philosophical ground. In many ways, it lives up to that ambition…

Thoughts on the 2020 Election

elections

reflection

I thought I would post my prediction for the election and a few thoughts regarding it more generally. I’ll be peppering in some maps that I’ve made to help illustrate my…

How to Do Unequal Randomization in Qualtrics Surveys

surveys

qualtrics

research design

Recently, some coauthors and I were working on a survey experiment in Qualtrics where we were assigning people into 4 different groups. This is something that Qualtrics can…

Surveying is a Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

review

surveys

fiction

I binged Hank Green’s A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor yesterday and it is, let me tell you, just fantastic. I don’t plan on writing a longer review because I didn’t really…

Capturing a PowerPoint/Google Slides Lecture with Open Source Software

tutorial

teaching

A number of schools are either shutting down or transitioning classes to an online format due to the novel corona virus (also known as COVID-19). (UF just let us know…