or, Regression for Amateurs (and Humanities Majors) — “It’s just a line.” There’s a chance I paraphrased that a bit, but it’s something my instructor quipped to my cohort as we started the dreaded “statistical analysis” module of my (ongoing) data science boot camp. Was it a deliberately reductive non-sequitur about the mathematical underpinnings of linear regression, intended as a callback to…

About a week and a half ago, two of my classmates and I presented our first project for Flatiron School’s Data Science Live bootcamp. The assignment, on its face, was straightforward enough: we were tasked with providing data-driven recommendations to a company (Microsoft, in this mock situation) looking to expand…

1. Discovering the landscape In the 1998 comedy-drama film SLC Punk! — which has long been one of my favorite movies — spiked-haired protagonist Stevo clashes with the culturally conservative environs of his native Salt Lake City and the expectations of his divorced parents. Stevo’s father, a former hippie-turned-corporate attorney, finds himself distressed by…

In the middle of October 1979, the Pittsburgh Pirates were losing the World Series to the Baltimore Orioles, three games to one. Only a few teams in World Series history had climbed out of the 3-to-1 hole and gone on to win the series in seven games; the Pirates were…