Nate Silver
Running Your Legal Business Like Nate Silver
May 23, 2014
In the ELM world, legal analytics can provide law firms, corporate law, and claims litigation departments with the data that they need as a foundation for their most critical decisions. Years of professional experience and wisdom do not fly out the window when you implement fact-based decision making. Good instincts are supplemented by concrete, real-world information that helps to hone those instincts for even better results. For example, Dawn the corporate attorney might have a general sense,...
May 23, 2014
In the ELM world, legal analytics can provide law firms, corporate law, and claims litigation departments with the data that they need as a foundation for their most critical decisions. Years of professional experience and wisdom do not fly out the window when you implement fact-based decision making. Good instincts are supplemented by concrete, real-world information that helps to hone those instincts for even better results. For example, Dawn the corporate attorney might have a general sense,...
Nate Silver’s Advice to Young Journalists: Learn to Code Now
May 4, 2014
Nate Silver has two tips for young up-and-coming journalists: Work your ass off and learn how to code. Silver, the well-known statistician and founder of FiveThirtyEight, sat down with GeekWire this morning and offered up advice for those looking to establish themselves in the journalism world. While knowing how to write and report are obviously important qualities in a journalist, Silver said that computer programming skills will give potential hires a potent one-two punch. “If you’re...
May 4, 2014
Nate Silver has two tips for young up-and-coming journalists: Work your ass off and learn how to code. Silver, the well-known statistician and founder of FiveThirtyEight, sat down with GeekWire this morning and offered up advice for those looking to establish themselves in the journalism world. While knowing how to write and report are obviously important qualities in a journalist, Silver said that computer programming skills will give potential hires a potent one-two punch. “If you’re...
ESPN: Enough Already With Win Probabilities
March 16, 2014
Watching ESPN’s college basketball coverage this season has made me feel like I’m back in high school algebra class with all its mind-numbing probabilities of victory. Look, I get it. We’re in the Golden Age of statistics in sports. It was started by baseball’s Sabermetrics and now intense statistical analysis has spread to football and basketball as well. And with the recent hiring of Nate Silver of The New York Times, ESPN is going to focus even more on analytics. I certainly don’t...
March 16, 2014
Watching ESPN’s college basketball coverage this season has made me feel like I’m back in high school algebra class with all its mind-numbing probabilities of victory. Look, I get it. We’re in the Golden Age of statistics in sports. It was started by baseball’s Sabermetrics and now intense statistical analysis has spread to football and basketball as well. And with the recent hiring of Nate Silver of The New York Times, ESPN is going to focus even more on analytics. I certainly don’t...
Can Big Data Help Nate Silver Reinvent Journalism? #SXSW
March 16, 2014
Big Data Rock Star For those who don’t know, Nate Silver is is quite possibly the Andy Warhol that big data has been looking for. Silver emerged from obscurity when he created the Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm (PECOTA), which is used for evaluating and forecasting the development of baseball players. He later sold it to Baseball Prospectus. Not satisfied with a sports exclusive lens, Silver set his sights on politics and proceeded to rewrite the rules of the narrative...
March 16, 2014
Big Data Rock Star For those who don’t know, Nate Silver is is quite possibly the Andy Warhol that big data has been looking for. Silver emerged from obscurity when he created the Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm (PECOTA), which is used for evaluating and forecasting the development of baseball players. He later sold it to Baseball Prospectus. Not satisfied with a sports exclusive lens, Silver set his sights on politics and proceeded to rewrite the rules of the narrative...
Nate Silver: Motivated Reasoning Explains Washington [and all Settlement Negotiations]
January 12, 2014
Oftentimes when we think we're engaged in reasoned policy discussion we're actually engaged in complex efforts to rationalize the direction in which our tribal affiliations are pushing us. Psychologists call this motivated reasoning. And they've shown its power in laboratory settings again and again and again. * * * The problem is that human beings are incredibly good at rationalizing their way to whatever conclusion their group wants them to reach. And most policies can be supported -- or opposed...
January 12, 2014
Oftentimes when we think we're engaged in reasoned policy discussion we're actually engaged in complex efforts to rationalize the direction in which our tribal affiliations are pushing us. Psychologists call this motivated reasoning. And they've shown its power in laboratory settings again and again and again. * * * The problem is that human beings are incredibly good at rationalizing their way to whatever conclusion their group wants them to reach. And most policies can be supported -- or opposed...
Will the Next Nate Silver Please Stand Up?
November 24, 2013
Ever since Nate Silver made a splash with his freakishly accurate election predictions, all sorts of companies have been looking for their own rock-star data scientists. The trouble is that these people are hard to come by — few can blend computer science with applied mathematics in a way that produces truly effective data science — and for many companies, it’s not even clear that they really need this kind of expertise. Shashi Upadhyay, CEO of analytics outfit Lattice Engines, which helps...
November 24, 2013
Ever since Nate Silver made a splash with his freakishly accurate election predictions, all sorts of companies have been looking for their own rock-star data scientists. The trouble is that these people are hard to come by — few can blend computer science with applied mathematics in a way that produces truly effective data science — and for many companies, it’s not even clear that they really need this kind of expertise. Shashi Upadhyay, CEO of analytics outfit Lattice Engines, which helps...
Nate Silver: How To Make Better Predictions
October 26, 2013
Many predictions, Nate shared with the audience, fail because as humans we are “hard wired to find patterns.” As a result many of our predictions are not based on a tested and retested process, but rather on our overconfidence in seeing “a signal”. As a result of this overconfidence, as well as a general lack of understanding of probability and uncertainty, these predictions fail and typically at a great cost to either the business or society. During his keynote, Nate shared 3 suggestions...
October 26, 2013
Many predictions, Nate shared with the audience, fail because as humans we are “hard wired to find patterns.” As a result many of our predictions are not based on a tested and retested process, but rather on our overconfidence in seeing “a signal”. As a result of this overconfidence, as well as a general lack of understanding of probability and uncertainty, these predictions fail and typically at a great cost to either the business or society. During his keynote, Nate shared 3 suggestions...
Nate Silver Predicts That You, Too, Can Be A Data Master
September 29, 2013
Everybody has a crush on Nate Silver. The statistician-author-blogger calls elections and awards with titillating accuracy--and from what he's said before, it's mostly gut feeling. Thankfully HBR.org had the guts to ask him why. So let's learn how to have the stomach ourselves. TO GET DATA LITERATE QUICK, FIRST GET DIRTY. Silver's thoughts on getting good with data echo back to earlier findings on unstoppability: It's about getting as experienced, rather than knowledgeable, as quickly...
September 29, 2013
Everybody has a crush on Nate Silver. The statistician-author-blogger calls elections and awards with titillating accuracy--and from what he's said before, it's mostly gut feeling. Thankfully HBR.org had the guts to ask him why. So let's learn how to have the stomach ourselves. TO GET DATA LITERATE QUICK, FIRST GET DIRTY. Silver's thoughts on getting good with data echo back to earlier findings on unstoppability: It's about getting as experienced, rather than knowledgeable, as quickly...
How Nate Silver Brought Analytics to the Masses
September 17, 2013
Statisticians rarely make the news. This is no surprise as their work tends to focus on complex research at universities, think tanks and large corporations. That’s what makes the story of FiveThirtyEight blogger (and SAP TechEd Las Vegas keynote speaker) Nate Silver so fascinating and insightful. Silver’s rise from baseball geek to acclaimed author/journalist at The New York Times and ESPN is a wonderful example of how one person can change how the world thinks. He brought...
September 17, 2013
Statisticians rarely make the news. This is no surprise as their work tends to focus on complex research at universities, think tanks and large corporations. That’s what makes the story of FiveThirtyEight blogger (and SAP TechEd Las Vegas keynote speaker) Nate Silver so fascinating and insightful. Silver’s rise from baseball geek to acclaimed author/journalist at The New York Times and ESPN is a wonderful example of how one person can change how the world thinks. He brought...
How Nate Silver Won the Internet (and You Can Too)
August 19, 2013
This fall, Nate Silver--political predictor and baseball sabermetric man--will bring his statistical knowledge and predictive analysis chops to ESPN. Not surprisingly, this news caused quite a stir in the media community, particularly given that 20 percent of online traffic to The New York Times website during last year's election was attributed to his blog, FiveThirtyEight. The biggest free agent signing in the world of sports occurred off the playing field, and experts worldwide commented on what...
August 19, 2013
This fall, Nate Silver--political predictor and baseball sabermetric man--will bring his statistical knowledge and predictive analysis chops to ESPN. Not surprisingly, this news caused quite a stir in the media community, particularly given that 20 percent of online traffic to The New York Times website during last year's election was attributed to his blog, FiveThirtyEight. The biggest free agent signing in the world of sports occurred off the playing field, and experts worldwide commented on what...
