
Ask HN: What is the best book to learn probability through self study? - sharmi
Hi,
   I am using Introduction to Probability by Joe Blitzstein and Jessica Hwang to learn probability by self study but I would like to have an additional book for problems practice. Can you suggest one that has solutions available for students?  It would be nice if it is free but it is ok otherwise.
======
mortimerwax
IMHO, "Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data" by Charles Wheelan
is the best book to start with Probability and Statistics(you can buy it using
the link below). I've studied those fields when I was at Uni, but never really
got the intuition right. I wish I would have read that book back then. The
book is short(~200 pages), and focuses on providing both the context and the
intuition behind Probabilities. Once you get that right, the formulas just
make sense. After reading that book, you will be way more comfortable to read
books about Machine Learning, or any other fields where Probabilities and
Statistics are a prerequisite.

[http://www.amazon.com/Naked-Statistics-Stripping-Dread-
Data-...](http://www.amazon.com/Naked-Statistics-Stripping-Dread-Data-
ebook/dp/B007Q6XLF2/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=)

~~~
wodenokoto
That is quite an endorsement! Started reading the ebook version immediately!

~~~
kxs
What is your initial impression?

------
trextrex
One of the books that I personally found easy to read with good exercises is
Probability and Statistics by Morris H. DeGroot, Mark J. Schervish

[http://www.amazon.com/Probability-Statistics-Edition-
Morris-...](http://www.amazon.com/Probability-Statistics-Edition-Morris-
DeGroot/dp/0321500466)

------
smeyer
Joe Blitzstein is usually pretty communicative (I see him answering a lot of
questions on Quora and he had a reputation for being pretty approachable at
Harvard.) If you like their book, maybe you should reach out and see if either
of them have books they'd recommend for your case?

~~~
akg_67
It surprises me how few people reach out directly to authors or other "known"
people for recommendation, suggestion and questions. If you like someone's
work, then you are more likely to like his/her suggestions too. Some may not
respond but some may do and might become quite valuable resource.

A few years ago, I reached out to an author of financial book while reading
his book with a few questions and suggestions for next book to pick up after
his book to build up my knowledge further. We had interesting email
conversations about the different topics. Even now time to time I reach out to
him with questions.

------
cvwright
Random Services has some nice online materials.

[http://www.math.uah.edu/stat/index.html](http://www.math.uah.edu/stat/index.html)

------
gtani
good list of open content or sanctioned preprints here:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/1jeawf/mac...](https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/comments/1jeawf/machine_learning_books/)

____________

this one gets relatively credible amazon reviews:
[http://www.probabilitycourse.com/](http://www.probabilitycourse.com/)

------
i2ifunding
You can read book of Jim Pitman may be it's helpful for you.

