

A review of probability theory - leibniz
http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/254a-notes-0-a-review-of-probability-theory/

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mitko
Make no mistake - this is indeed quite deep. To be able to assimilate it well
you will need _at least_ knowledge of Analysis, Measure Theory, and good
mathematical maturity.

I was able to read only part 1: Foundations, and these are my impressions.
Definitely goes into my Bookmarks, so that I can read the rest...

Edit: The title was changed from "Probability Theory 101 (by Fields medallist
Terry Tao)".

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leibniz
Well, the hacker news feature a lot of programming-related stuff that is
certainly 'above' the (average) blog post level (in the whole blogosphere). I
know of no better meta-filter than hacker news for blog entries attracting a
hacker's mindset. Certainly, the appreciation for mathematical thinking as
well as mathematical methods plays a big role in this (analytic) mind set.

While the novice programmer might not get (the content and purpose of) python
vs. ruby comparisons and the like, readers with a weak background in math will
not find this probability entry useful (or too 'difficult').

However, for a certain subset of all hacker news readers, which are looking to
dig deeper, it is a very nice resource.

Hacker news, to me, is especially useful since it provides links which are
well distributed in terms of this 'entry level'.

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pvg
The problem was not 'is this appropriate for HN' but 'the title is wildly
misleading'.

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amichail
I think a better way is needed to teach probability.

Perhaps something more visual and involving interactivity (like visual
programming).

What percentage of students after having passed a probability course can
define a random variable?

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eel
> What percentage of students after having passed a probability course can
> define a random variable?

In a typical probability theory course, all of them, hopefully. I found random
variables to be a crucial part of my probability theory class, being used in
almost all (if not all) topics after the first month.

There are certainly other approaches to learning probability theory (though
perhaps not what you were thinking.) I understand that E.T. Jaynes' book on
probability theory, which I have not yet read, does not go the route of random
variables.

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amichail
Students can still solve many sorts of problems without a good understanding
of foundations.

They may use random variables frequently without being able to define them.

