The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for YouWork with data like a pro using this guide that breaks down how to organize, apply, and most importantly, understand what you are analyzing in order to become a true data ninja. From the stock market to genomics laboratories, census figures to marketing email blasts, we are awash with data. But as anyone who has ever opened up a spreadsheet packed with seemingly infinite lines of data knows, numbers aren't enough: we need to know how to make those numbers talk. In The Model Thinker, social scientist Scott E. Page shows us the mathematical, statistical, and computational models—from linear regression to random walks and far beyond—that can turn anyone into a genius. At the core of the book is Page's "many-model paradigm," which shows the reader how to apply multiple models to organize the data, leading to wiser choices, more accurate predictions, and more robust designs. The Model Thinker provides a toolkit for business people, students, scientists, pollsters, and bloggers to make them better, clearer thinkers, able to leverage data and information to their advantage. |
Contents
The Science of Many Models | |
Modeling Human Actors | |
The Bell Curve | |
Long Tails | |
Markov Models | |
Systems Dynamics Models | |
Threshold Models with Feedbacks | |
Spatial and Hedonic Choice | |
Game Theory Models Times Three 22 Models of Cooperation | |
Collective Action Problems | |
Mechanism Design | |
Signaling Models | |
Linear Models | |
Concavity and Convexity | |
Models of Value and Power | |
Network Models | |
Broadcast Diffusion and Contagion | |
Modeling Uncertainty | |
Random Walks | |
Path Dependence | |
Local Interaction Models | |
Lyapunov Functions and Equilibria | |
Learning Models | |
MultiArmed Bandit Problems | |
RuggedLandscape Models | |
Opioids COVID19 and Inequality | |
Discover More About the Author | |
Praise for The Model Thinker | |
Notes | |
Bibliography | |
Other editions - View all
The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You Scott E. Page No preview available - 2018 |
The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You Scott E. Page No preview available - 2018 |
The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You Scott E. Page No preview available - 2018 |
Common terms and phrases
algorithm alternative apply assumptions attributes average balls behavior bidder cells chapter choice clustering coefficient coefficient complex construct contribute cooperation correlation COVID create defect disease diversity economic effect entropy equals equation equilibrium estimate example explain Figure firms follows friends Grim Trigger growth ideal point incentive income increase individual inequality information entropy interactions less linear logic long-tailed distributions Lyapunov function majority model Markov model mechanism multiple Nash equilibrium neighbors node normal distribution opioids optimal outcomes output Pareto efficient path dependence payoff period person player chooses population positive feedbacks power-law distribution predict preferences produce random walk regression replicator dynamics reproduction number resource result reward rule rule of 72 sequence Shapley value signal social spread standard deviation strategy systems dynamics model theorem threshold transition probabilities types variables votes zero