Regular readers of this blog will know very well that I keep talking about how everything in life is Bayesian. I may not have said it in those many words, but I keep alluding to it. For example, when I’m hiring, I find the process to be Bayesian – the CV and the cover letter … Continue reading “Bayes Theorem and Respect”
I’m currently reading a book called How the World Thinks: A global history of philosophy by Julian Baggini. I must admit I bought this by mistake – I was at a bookshop where I saw this book and went to the Amazon website to check reviews. And by mistake I ended up hitting buy. And before … Continue reading “Bayesian Reasoning and Indian Philosophy”
When people come to see small babies, it’s almost like they’re obliged to offer their opinions on who the child looks like. Most of the time it’s an immediate ancestor – either a parent or grandparent. Sometimes it could be a cousin or aunt or uncle as well. Thankfully it’s uncommon to compare babies’ looks to … Continue reading “Bayesian recognition in baby similarity”
People who have been in a long-term relationship are likely to recognise that fights between a couple are not Markovian – in that the likelihood of fighting today is not independent of the likelihood of having fought yesterday. In fact, if you had fought in a particular time period, it increases the likelihood that you’ll … Continue reading “Bayes and serial correlation in disagreements”
David Henderson at Econlog quotes a doctor on a rather interesting and important point, regarding Bayesian priors. He writes: Later, when I went to see his partner, my regular doctor, to discuss something else, I mentioned that incident. He smiled and said that one of the most important lessons he learned from one of his … Continue reading “Horses, Zebras and Bayesian reasoning”
So I bumped into Deepa at a coffee shop this evening. And she almost refused to recognise me. It turned out to be a case of Bayesian Recognition having gone wrong. And then followed in quick succession by a case of Inverse Charlie Chaplin Principle. So I was sitting at this coffee shop in Jayanagar … Continue reading “Bayesian Recognition and the Inverse Charlie Chaplin Principle”
We don’t meet often, but every time we talk, she reminds me that I had failed to recognize her the first time we had met after graduating together from school. Yes, I could claim in my defence that I was seeing her for the first time in over six years. While that might be a … Continue reading “Bayesian Recognition”
Over the last week or so, I’ve been discussing this post by Robin Hanson with just about anyone. The first paragraph is the one that caught my attention. Having a romantic partner is useful in many ways. You won’t be as lonely, you can ask them for advice, you can do activities together, and you … Continue reading “Status and money”
Ok I’m starting to write this on the first “sight seeing leg” of the school trip to kocbi. I’ll just stick to pertinent observations in a bullet format this time More tomorrow, after we visit the actual biennale!
Earlier on this blog, I’ve argued in favour of stereotypes. “In the absence of further information, stereotypes give you a strong Bayesian prior”, I had written (I’m paraphrasing myself here). I had gone on to say (paraphrasing myself yet again), “however, it is important that you treat this as a weak prior and update them … Continue reading “Stereotypes and correlations”