Why…?

We answer random questions you might have.

How is “Bayesian” pronounced?

OK, there are two strong opinions out there. Since the Bayesian philosophy is named for Reverend Thomas Bayes, like Bayz not Beige, the authors pronounce “Bayesian” as follows:


But we’ll still be excited to chat with you about Bayesian statistics if you prefer this pronunciation:


Source: soundoftext.com



Why 84735?

We set our random number seed to 84735 throughout the Bayes Rules! book. Why?



Why an exclamation point in the title?

Why not? We are just as enthusiastic as we are serious about the topic. Plus, naming things is hard. Here are some of the other contenders we considered in naming the book: Modeling with Bayes, Bayesian Modeling, Introduction to Bayesian Modeling, Discovering Bayes, Learning Bayes, Project Bayes, The Road to Bayes, Updating with Bayes. We had to make a decision at some point, and went with the option that we’ll never get bored of and that will never be confused for another book.



What does a disco ball have to do with anything?

Without a disco ball, a room is filled with a single dull light. Without light, a disco ball is a dull object with lots of facets. Together, a light and disco ball produce a magical, dance inspiring bounce of colorful light. Similarly, in a Bayesian analysis, a prior model and data together produce comprehensive, posterior insight into an analysis.

Footnotes