

Ask HN: Statistics for Programmers - semmons

I'm trying to learn elementary statistics, but I cannot find a good book (or website) to start with. I tried 'Introductory Statistics with R' but it assumes you already understand basic statistics. Everything that I lookup on Amazon is a textbook and cost an arm and a leg, and I'd rather not shell out for something that I'm not sure about. So tell me, how did you learn statistics and what would you suggest to someone whose been programming for 10+ years but doesn't know what to do with a standard deviation.
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lambda
I tried asking this question on Stack Overflow a couple weeks ago. I got some
good answers, though I don't feel like I got one really definitive answer.
Anyhow, I'd recommend reading through that thread to see if anything leaps out
at you.

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2039904/what-
statistics-s...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2039904/what-statistics-
should-a-programmer-or-computer-scientist-know)

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andrewcooke
[http://www.amazon.com/Reduction-Error-Analysis-Physical-
Scie...](http://www.amazon.com/Reduction-Error-Analysis-Physical-
Sciences/dp/0072472278)

it's been around for years (i used to own a copy of the original - i see it's
been updated) and i doubt the fortran / c++ code will be much use, but it's a
simple, clear, introduction to basic statistics (which is why such a slim book
costs so much...)

