Category Archives: Use R Everyday

Linear Regression Level 100

Published / by shep2010

I think it’s difficult for a professor or teacher to know at exactly what point should linear regression be taught in a curriculum, it seems like it turns up everywhere calculus, algebra stats, modeling. It should be in all of them, but then the next question is do you need to know algebra, matrix algebra and linear algebra before knowing how to do a linear regression? I don’t know to be honest. Having worked with SQL for most of my adult life I have had to know and use all three and did not pay much attention to it or realize until I started formally beefing up my academics.

Regardless, the one thing I have heard from a few stats instructors is “don’t worry about how its done or how it works, the software will take care of it for you”, to be fair, these were not stats professors at the local beauty college, these were ivy league educated (I checked) professors and teachers saying this. Which, my problem is if I don’t know how it works I will probably not truly understand it, ever. Depending on what you are doing a trivial knowledge may be sufficient, but what if it’s not? If I am in an interview can I use the words “the software will do it for me” as the answer to a hard question?

What?
In the next few posts, I will do my best to define Linear Regression in R using lm. Continue reading

Learn R Now, again

Published / by shep2010

One of the hardest things about learning anything new is finding resources that are worth your time, don’t cost thousands of dollars, and don’t suck. One of the things i have not done and will not do is teach base R. I will do demos, i will explain some packages and functions along the way, but the basics of R are all free, and all range form pretty good to excellent. When you are in the early stages of learning anything, anyone that knows more than you is a resource for you. Just make sure they know wtf they are talking about, that part is harder. The next hardest part is use it everyday!

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