How Does a Stat Modeler's Approach Influence Learning Physics?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gary Venter
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Physics Statistics
Gary Venter
Messages
16
Reaction score
3
How did you find PF?
I was on the Philosophy Forum, as I studied that in grad school, and saw a list of forums
I studied foundations of mathematics from mathematical and philosophical angles in grad school but then went on to a career of building and testing statistical risk models. The guiding philosophy there, which I call Boxian Skepticism, derives from a quote of George Box: "All models are wrong but some are useful." That's a dramatic but exaggerated expression that statisticians and philosophers have objected to, but makes the basic point that true / false is not the right way to evaluate models. "What can it do for me?" might say it better - predicting of course, but also the overall picture it provides of what is going on, and what other approaches it might lead to.

I retired from model building and I'm now trying to understand fundamental issues of modern physics, which I did study as an undergraduate. I find a lot of things interesting. At least initially I'll mostly have questions, but I hope they are not too trite.
 
  • Like
Likes DeBangis21 and berkeman
Physics news on Phys.org
:welcome:
 
Thank you! Looking forward to it all.
 
Welcome to PF.
 
:smile:
 
Hello there, and nice to meet all of you! My name is Olga, I am from Russia. I have a PhD in laser physics, and I work at the local university. I study chalcogenide lasers. I am a pure experimentalist, and I love working with my hands, et cetera, and I do math only when I have to. Sometimes I work with biologists. I do nothing exciting in research, and after my defence, I hardly can call myself a scientist because we have a lack of financial support, and most of my time I spend on teaching...

Similar threads

  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
777
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
2K
  • · Replies 21 ·
Replies
21
Views
5K
Replies
24
Views
2K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
2K
  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
2K
  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
2K
  • · Replies 9 ·
Replies
9
Views
3K
  • · Replies 71 ·
3
Replies
71
Views
1K
  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
3K