Think of TensorFlow as a high-performance, easy-to-use framework to perform machine learning. The specific algorithm used for this machine learning is neural networks. But these are not ordinary neural nets. These are a souped-up version, including fancy stuff such as or neural nets. Created by the Google Brain team, TensorFlow provides a user-friendly python front-end, but […]
After installing TensorFlow, you can try running a quickstart / beginner script (below, downloaded from the TensorFlow site).
TensorFlow is great for creating machine learning solutions. The process of installing it is relatively straightforward: Step 1: Make sure you have Anaconda installed. If not, go to: Installing Anaconda Step 2: Installing TensorFlow. Initiate the Anaconda prompt (search for “Anaconda”, you should see the program as well as “Anaconda Prompt”). After initiating the DOS […]
There is a reason why statistical texts spill copious amounts of ink on data sampling and survey designs. Historically speaking, data was incredibly laborious to collect and to analyze with limited computational resources. This led to the development of mathematical modeling techniques that relied on small amounts of information. These models are simplistic and replete […]
This book and whole professions (e.g. predictive modelers, data scientists, economists, etc.) hinge on the assumption that the future can be predicted to some degree. But can it? The Newtonian revolution reinforced not only physical, but a causal determinism about our reality. The past and the future are inextricably linked. We can predict the motion […]
A model in the context of predictive modeling is simply some useful mathematical abstraction of reality. A model should be (a lot) less complex than the reality it is intended to represent. This might seem obvious, but with ever increasing computation at our finger tips we need to carefully assess the relative complexity of our […]
You may have heard the phrase ‘less is more‘. I believe it applies well to predictive modeling and programming in general. Perhaps it also applies to transmittal of information more generally. As Mark Twain once remarked: I did not have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead. Even in […]
