Can't tell your facts from your figures?

A brief excerpt from Head First Statistics by Dawn Griffiths, now available in bookstores and online.

Statistics help you make sense of confusing sets of data. They make the complex simple. And when you've found out what's really going on, you need a way of visualizing it and telling everyone else. So if you want to pick the best chart for the job, grab your coat, pack your best slide rule, and join us on a ride to Statsville.

Statistics are everywhere

Everywhere you look you can find statistics, whether you're browsing the Internet, playing sports, or looking through the top scores of your favorite video game. But what actually is a statistic?

Statistics are numbers that summarize raw facts and figures in some meaningful way. They present key ideas that may not be immediately apparent by just looking at the raw data, and by data, we mean facts or figures from which we can draw conclusions. As an example, you don't have to wade through lots of football scores when all you want to know is the league position of your favorite team. You need a statistic to quickly give you the information you need.

The study of statistics covers where statistics come from, how to calculate them, and how you can use them effectively.

But why learn statistics?

Understanding what's really going on with statistics empowers you. If you really get statistics, you'll be able to make objective decisions, make accurate predictions that seem inspired, and convey the message you want in the most effective way possible.

Statistics can be a convenient way of summarizing key truths about data, but there's a dark side too.

Statistics are based on facts, but even so, they can sometimes be misleading. They can be used to tell the truth—or to lie. The problem is how do you know when you're being told the truth, and when you're being told lies? Having a good understanding of statistics puts you in a strong position. You're much better equipped to tell when statistics are inaccurate or misleading. In other words, studying statistics is a good way of making sure you don't get fooled.

Learn more about the good and evil sides of Statistics in Head First Statistics, now available!

Posted by Caitrin McCullough on Friday, Sep 5 Permalink | Comments (0)

Underappreciated Talent

Thanks to my friend Catherine for this little gem. The guy's name is Guy Wright, and he's a modern master when it comes to yo-yo's. That's right, yo-yo's. It's a frustrating, often solo journey to work hours a day mastering a skill that you know only a few select people will ever appreciate; most people will look down on the oddball person who chooses a "childish" activity outside of the mainstream. Throwing a perfect spiral, driving a car in a circle really fast, and hitting a tiny dimpled ball out of a small make-believe beach are much more worthy "grown-up" pursuits.

If I sound a tiny bit bitter, it's because I've walked in Guy Wright's shoes...still do, in fact. I was a skateboarder back when skateboarding very much wasn't cool. As I continued skateboarding throughout the end of high school and even college, it wasn't uncommon for my parents to brag to other people about my computer abilities, even though I was undoubtedly more talented on the skateboard. But that's how it goes - I didn't blame them. What are the odds they would meet someone who would be impressed by the fact that their college-aged son could do a stalefish air or crail slide revert. Unless they happened to run into Frank Hawk (Tony's late Dad), the odds were pretty close to zero.

Now I'm older and skateboarding is nearly in vogue. It's almost possible to even get respect as a skateboarder these days. But it will probably never be respected in the same way as mainstream sports, and that's OK. In fact, that's a good thing. I think Guy Wright the yo-yo man sums it up best: "I'd rather see the world remain a more interesting place than everybody know about all this stuff and none of it be special to anyone." I couldn't agree more. Do what you love, even if you're the only one who appreciates it...yo-yo on!

This post is syndicated from MichaelMorrison.com.

Posted by Michael Morrison on Tuesday, Jul 29 Permalink | Comments (1)

How do you improve your test performance?

While all Head First books teach you how to kick butt at a certain topic, some of them are specifically geared to help you pass an exam. Head First Servlets & JSP helps you pass the SCWCD exam, for example, while Head First EJB gets you through the SCBCD exam. Our most recent test-oriented book, Head First PMP, prepares readers for the Project Management Professional© Exam with tips defeating the trickiest questions.

One of the best ways to prepare for an exam is to practice taking it. If you answer similar questions under an appropriate time limit, you're not only testing your knowledge of the subject, you're also making sure you can represent that knowledge in the way the test demands. Unfortunately, because practice exams are so valuable to learners, they're often really expensive. We didn't like this —so we decided to offer a full 200-question PMP practice exam for free in conjunction with Head First PMP—no purchase necessary. At first we made it available as a PDF download, but now we've gone a step further: now you can take the PMP exam on Head First Labs as if you were taking the real thing. You can take a few questions at a time to warm up, and the 4-hour full exam when you're ready.

We'd love feedback about the test interface. Does it help you learn? What would make it even better? Even if you're not studying for the PMP exam, this test is a fun way to see how much you know about the latest tenets of project management. You can post comments here or to the Head First PMP Forum here.

As we develop more web features for future books, we want to hear from you. How do you prepare for tests or certification exams? What's helped you the most? What was a waste of your time?

Posted by Caitrin McCullough on Wednesday, Jul 16 Permalink | Comments (0)

The Road to Programming is sometimes paved with Web Pages

I am often asked how I first got started in programming. Recently, I was interviewed by Girls Gone Geek, a weekly podcast on technology from a women's perspective, and they asked if I got started by creating web sites. The Girls clearly have no idea how old I am! (Shhh...) I actually started programming long before the Web was a twinkle in Tim Berners-Lee's eye, but their question got me thinking, and I realized that creating a web site is a good way to get started on your way to programming.

Now, you might be thinking, "Writing HTML and CSS is not the same thing as programming", and that's technically true. But once you've put together a basic web page, you'll have learned a lot about how the web works under the covers, and you'll be able to tackle some simple programming concepts. The next logical step is to learn a bit of Javascript, so you can create some cool effects on your web page. Before you know it, you'll be learning Ajax, and then a server side programming language like PHP or Java, and then you'll need a database, so you'll learn some SQL... and ta da! You're a web programmer. I work with several people who have taken an interesting path to programming. One friend has an advanced degree in music and is now a business data analysis expert; another started out wanting to be a farmer, became a web application programmer, and is now a serious Java programmer.

For those of you who have no interest in the mechanics of web pages, there are lots of programs out there, like Adobe Dreamweaver and Microsoft Expression, that will help you create a web page without having to know how HTML and CSS really work. But if you want to know what's happening under the covers so you can learn about how web pages really work, and eventually write some Javascript and do more advanced programming, I definitely recommend writing your own HTML and CSS from scratch. You can use a simple editor like TextEdit (on the Mac) or TextPad (on Windows). No need for anything fancy.

Read more...

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Posted by Elisabeth Freeman on Thursday, Jul 10 Permalink | Comments (9)

Brain Basics from Matthew MacDonald

Your Brain: The Missing Manual (order it from O'Reilly / Read it online at Safari) recently came out from O'Reilly Media, and there's tons of great stuff in there. Since we're all about learning theory at Head First, this stuff is right up our alley. We thought we'd share some of our favorite excerpts with you over the next few months.

A First Look at Your Brain

It's time to meet your brain.

Lurking in the space between your ears is a very soft, reddish, jelly-like organ. (If you were expecting your brain to be firm and deep grey, like a wrinkled walnut, you are no doubt thinking of a preserved brain. The living brain is much squishier, and it's covered in deep red arteries.)

The average human brain weighs in at about three pounds. By comparison, an elephant's brain tips the scale at 11 pounds while a cat's brain—brace yourself, cat lovers—is a mere ounce. Bigger animals tend to have bigger brains, and some scientists suggest that a high brain-to-body weight ratio distinguishes the smart species from the dullards. In other words, the larger the brain is as a percentage of body weight, the smarter the creature. This calculation puts a few of our favorite animals at the top of the list (like dolphins and chimpanzees), but it needs a bit of fudgery to deal with really small animals (like birds and mice), which would otherwise appear to be raging geniuses.

Of course, size isn't everything. Although all mammals have some strikingly similar brain hardware (and, to a lesser extent, so do all creatures that have any sort of brain), there are key anatomical differences. To really understand your brain, you need to dig deeper.

Click through for more inside-your-brain info.

Continue reading "Brain Basics from Matthew MacDonald" »

Posted by Caitrin McCullough on Wednesday, Jul 2 Permalink | Comments (0)