Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
@mattansb.msbstats.info
Statistics lecturer | Freelance statistical consultant & research analyst | #rstats dev @easystats.github.io
home.msbstats.info
(He/Him)
home.msbstats.info
(He/Him)
Pinned
1k followers! Calls for a re-introduction:
Statistics lecturer, freelance stats consultant, & #rstats dev @easystats.bsky.social 📊
I try to help social scientists make better inferences from their data & communicate their findings 👨🏫
Hope to bring the #stats twitter/R community vibes over to bsky!
Statistics lecturer, freelance stats consultant, & #rstats dev @easystats.bsky.social 📊
I try to help social scientists make better inferences from their data & communicate their findings 👨🏫
Hope to bring the #stats twitter/R community vibes over to bsky!
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
Belated but hopefully still exciting #rstats news: bridgesampling version 1.2-1 has just arrived on CRAN: cran.r-project.org/package=brid...
We now finally provide cmdstanr support (!) plus Monte Carlo Standard Error (MCSE), both thx to Giorgio Micaletto and @avehtari.bsky.social!
We now finally provide cmdstanr support (!) plus Monte Carlo Standard Error (MCSE), both thx to Giorgio Micaletto and @avehtari.bsky.social!
bridgesampling: Bridge Sampling for Marginal Likelihoods and Bayes Factors
Provides functions for estimating marginal likelihoods, Bayes factors, posterior model probabilities, and normalizing constants in general, via different versions of bridge sampling (Meng & Wong, ...
cran.r-project.org
November 19, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Belated but hopefully still exciting #rstats news: bridgesampling version 1.2-1 has just arrived on CRAN: cran.r-project.org/package=brid...
We now finally provide cmdstanr support (!) plus Monte Carlo Standard Error (MCSE), both thx to Giorgio Micaletto and @avehtari.bsky.social!
We now finally provide cmdstanr support (!) plus Monte Carlo Standard Error (MCSE), both thx to Giorgio Micaletto and @avehtari.bsky.social!
What a little gemstone from {tidytext} to order axes *within* facets!
#rstats
juliasilge.github.io/tidytext/ref...
#rstats
juliasilge.github.io/tidytext/ref...
November 19, 2025 at 10:36 AM
What a little gemstone from {tidytext} to order axes *within* facets!
#rstats
juliasilge.github.io/tidytext/ref...
#rstats
juliasilge.github.io/tidytext/ref...
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
No! Clearly the world consists of infinitely many small likelihoods and a massive prior simplex over them!
Skub
The Perry Bible Fellowship
share.google
November 19, 2025 at 6:51 AM
No! Clearly the world consists of infinitely many small likelihoods and a massive prior simplex over them!
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
I had to check what I recommend in my book. And Poison priors (right) are also cursed. I'm working on something new with Gelman and Vehtari, so will make a note to review our examples for some consistency in these contexts.
November 18, 2025 at 3:07 PM
I had to check what I recommend in my book. And Poison priors (right) are also cursed. I'm working on something new with Gelman and Vehtari, so will make a note to review our examples for some consistency in these contexts.
The default prior for the intercept in both {rstanarm} and {brms} are very wide.
Counterintuitively - being on the logit scale, this is actually translates to a **strong** prior that p(y=1) is near 1 or near 0.
Always check your priors!
#rstats
Counterintuitively - being on the logit scale, this is actually translates to a **strong** prior that p(y=1) is near 1 or near 0.
Always check your priors!
#rstats
November 18, 2025 at 2:01 PM
The default prior for the intercept in both {rstanarm} and {brms} are very wide.
Counterintuitively - being on the logit scale, this is actually translates to a **strong** prior that p(y=1) is near 1 or near 0.
Always check your priors!
#rstats
Counterintuitively - being on the logit scale, this is actually translates to a **strong** prior that p(y=1) is near 1 or near 0.
Always check your priors!
#rstats
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
Today a student told me they found an "old" article from the 2000s 💀
November 17, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Today a student told me they found an "old" article from the 2000s 💀
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
Doctor says, 'Dont worry, parser design is simple. Great programmer Kate Compton has written the parser you seek’
November 16, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Doctor says, 'Dont worry, parser design is simple. Great programmer Kate Compton has written the parser you seek’
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
My #rstats cheat code for today is the binom.confint function in the binom package that will spit out *12* different ways of calculating a CI for a proportion.
Also, this is why you use R for statistics...
(and of course the correct CI method is bayes 😎)
Also, this is why you use R for statistics...
(and of course the correct CI method is bayes 😎)
November 16, 2025 at 2:52 AM
My #rstats cheat code for today is the binom.confint function in the binom package that will spit out *12* different ways of calculating a CI for a proportion.
Also, this is why you use R for statistics...
(and of course the correct CI method is bayes 😎)
Also, this is why you use R for statistics...
(and of course the correct CI method is bayes 😎)
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
No. I don't teach at the moment. Search committees are free to slide into my DMs, though
November 8, 2025 at 4:13 PM
No. I don't teach at the moment. Search committees are free to slide into my DMs, though
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
I've done a lot of work in Python this fall, and it hasn't endeared me to the language at all. Why does stuff have to be so complicated when you're doing it in Python?
blog.genesmindsmachines.com/p/python-is-...
blog.genesmindsmachines.com/p/python-is-...
Python is not a great language for data science. Part 1: The experience
It may be a good language for data science, but it’s not a great one.
blog.genesmindsmachines.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:16 PM
I've done a lot of work in Python this fall, and it hasn't endeared me to the language at all. Why does stuff have to be so complicated when you're doing it in Python?
blog.genesmindsmachines.com/p/python-is-...
blog.genesmindsmachines.com/p/python-is-...
This year I'm teaching an advanced stats course for our psych grad students, and I want to squeeze as much causal stuff as I can - but there's just too much!
ATE, DAGs, confounder selection, table 1 & 2 fallacies, collider bias, ...
What else should I squeeze in there?
ATE, DAGs, confounder selection, table 1 & 2 fallacies, collider bias, ...
What else should I squeeze in there?
November 13, 2025 at 11:30 AM
This year I'm teaching an advanced stats course for our psych grad students, and I want to squeeze as much causal stuff as I can - but there's just too much!
ATE, DAGs, confounder selection, table 1 & 2 fallacies, collider bias, ...
What else should I squeeze in there?
ATE, DAGs, confounder selection, table 1 & 2 fallacies, collider bias, ...
What else should I squeeze in there?
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
For sale: randomized controlled trial, never conducted
November 11, 2025 at 9:47 AM
For sale: randomized controlled trial, never conducted
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
Great teaching case! On the Bad Science Bingo Card 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 31, and 36 are strong contenders for a prize for this article detectingbadscience.wordpress.com/bad-science-...
Bad Science Bingo
Here are 36 potential flaws in research reports. Can you find them all? For each flaw, a short description is below. Follow the link for an elaborate description and visualization. Conflicts of Int…
detectingbadscience.wordpress.com
November 9, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Great teaching case! On the Bad Science Bingo Card 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 31, and 36 are strong contenders for a prize for this article detectingbadscience.wordpress.com/bad-science-...
Random* YouTubing led me to this very cool website about testing RNGs!
*Maybe?
#stats
random.tastemaker.design
*Maybe?
#stats
random.tastemaker.design
Randomness Testing Guide
Test the randomness of random number generators.
random.tastemaker.design
November 8, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Random* YouTubing led me to this very cool website about testing RNGs!
*Maybe?
#stats
random.tastemaker.design
*Maybe?
#stats
random.tastemaker.design
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
You can now find a recording of my course "Introduction to Bayesian Statistics in R & brms" on youtube.
Slides & code available here: github.com/benjamin-ros...
#Rstats
Slides & code available here: github.com/benjamin-ros...
#Rstats
Introduction to Bayesian Statistics in R & brms - YouTube
The course offers a straightforward and practical approach to applied statistics using Bayesian inference for ecologists.
www.youtube.com
November 7, 2025 at 2:18 PM
You can now find a recording of my course "Introduction to Bayesian Statistics in R & brms" on youtube.
Slides & code available here: github.com/benjamin-ros...
#Rstats
Slides & code available here: github.com/benjamin-ros...
#Rstats
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
The advances we've made in statistics, experimental study design, and causal inference over the past century are remarkably useful for understanding our world. But there is never been a push to make people use them like we are seeing with generative AI. Perhaps take a moment to consider why.
November 7, 2025 at 9:07 AM
The advances we've made in statistics, experimental study design, and causal inference over the past century are remarkably useful for understanding our world. But there is never been a push to make people use them like we are seeing with generative AI. Perhaps take a moment to consider why.
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
Do you teach #rstats? Do your students complain about how lame and old-fashioned dplyr is? Don't worry: I have the solution for you: github.com/hadley/genzp....
genzplyr is dplyr, but bussin fr fr no cap.
genzplyr is dplyr, but bussin fr fr no cap.
GitHub - hadley/genzplyr: dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap
dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap. Contribute to hadley/genzplyr development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Do you teach #rstats? Do your students complain about how lame and old-fashioned dplyr is? Don't worry: I have the solution for you: github.com/hadley/genzp....
genzplyr is dplyr, but bussin fr fr no cap.
genzplyr is dplyr, but bussin fr fr no cap.
The AI revolution is here..?
In a show my kid is watching:
Cute cat is gifted with a dancing robot to dance with.
Cockatoo steals the robot because it wants someone to dance with.
How I thought the story would resolve: cockatoo & cat dance together.
How the story resolved: the share the robot.
In a show my kid is watching:
Cute cat is gifted with a dancing robot to dance with.
Cockatoo steals the robot because it wants someone to dance with.
How I thought the story would resolve: cockatoo & cat dance together.
How the story resolved: the share the robot.
November 7, 2025 at 11:46 AM
The AI revolution is here..?
In a show my kid is watching:
Cute cat is gifted with a dancing robot to dance with.
Cockatoo steals the robot because it wants someone to dance with.
How I thought the story would resolve: cockatoo & cat dance together.
How the story resolved: the share the robot.
In a show my kid is watching:
Cute cat is gifted with a dancing robot to dance with.
Cockatoo steals the robot because it wants someone to dance with.
How I thought the story would resolve: cockatoo & cat dance together.
How the story resolved: the share the robot.
Today's challenge: build a model with fixed parameters (that do not need to be estimated) that can still be used with #tidymodels functionality.
I found a solution (that didn't require setting up a new type of model) - will post some code later - but I wonder how @topepo.bsky.social would do this?
I found a solution (that didn't require setting up a new type of model) - will post some code later - but I wonder how @topepo.bsky.social would do this?
November 4, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Today's challenge: build a model with fixed parameters (that do not need to be estimated) that can still be used with #tidymodels functionality.
I found a solution (that didn't require setting up a new type of model) - will post some code later - but I wonder how @topepo.bsky.social would do this?
I found a solution (that didn't require setting up a new type of model) - will post some code later - but I wonder how @topepo.bsky.social would do this?
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
time travel assassination targets
normal people: Hitler, Stalin, Leopold II
data analysts: whoever invented dates
normal people: Hitler, Stalin, Leopold II
data analysts: whoever invented dates
November 3, 2025 at 3:12 PM
time travel assassination targets
normal people: Hitler, Stalin, Leopold II
data analysts: whoever invented dates
normal people: Hitler, Stalin, Leopold II
data analysts: whoever invented dates
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
This is irresponsible, short-minded and unwise. Knowledge is not something that is injected or attached to our brains. It is acquired with practice and reasoning. Retrieving information from a source is not understanding. Accumulating data is not knowledge. You are promoting a generation of dumb.
November 3, 2025 at 4:18 PM
This is irresponsible, short-minded and unwise. Knowledge is not something that is injected or attached to our brains. It is acquired with practice and reasoning. Retrieving information from a source is not understanding. Accumulating data is not knowledge. You are promoting a generation of dumb.
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
Hell NO!
Stop this nonsense. Doctoral training did not change in nature because we got computers instead of typewriters and calculators.
"As machines get better at data analysis and writing tasks, doctoral training must evolve to make the most of artificial-intelligence outputs."
shorturl.at/fUQcm
Stop this nonsense. Doctoral training did not change in nature because we got computers instead of typewriters and calculators.
"As machines get better at data analysis and writing tasks, doctoral training must evolve to make the most of artificial-intelligence outputs."
shorturl.at/fUQcm
PhD training needs a reboot in an AI world
As machines get better at data analysis and writing tasks, doctoral training must evolve to make the most of artificial-intelligence outputs.
shorturl.at
November 3, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Hell NO!
Stop this nonsense. Doctoral training did not change in nature because we got computers instead of typewriters and calculators.
"As machines get better at data analysis and writing tasks, doctoral training must evolve to make the most of artificial-intelligence outputs."
shorturl.at/fUQcm
Stop this nonsense. Doctoral training did not change in nature because we got computers instead of typewriters and calculators.
"As machines get better at data analysis and writing tasks, doctoral training must evolve to make the most of artificial-intelligence outputs."
shorturl.at/fUQcm
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
Actually, we recently spooked away some ghosts with warnings and other scary things (with @semihaktepe.bsky.social)
October 30, 2025 at 7:00 AM
Actually, we recently spooked away some ghosts with warnings and other scary things (with @semihaktepe.bsky.social)
Reposted by Mattan S. Ben-Shachar
Now I'm also looking for a research software engineer to implement a pile of research results to R packages loo, posterior, bayesplot, projpred, priorsense, brms or/and Python packages ArviZ, Bambi and Kulprit. Apply by email with no specific deadline (see contact info at users.aalto.fi/~ave/)
I'm now also looking for a postdoc with strong Bayesian background and interest in developing Bayesian cross-validation theory, methods and software. Apply by email with no specific deadline (see contact information at users.aalto.fi/~ave/).
Others, please share
Others, please share
I'm looking for a doctoral student with Bayesian background to work on Bayesian workflow and cross-validation (see my publication list users.aalto.fi/~ave/publica... for my recent work) at Aalto University.
Apply through the ELLIS PhD program (dl October 31) ellis.eu/news/ellis-p...
Apply through the ELLIS PhD program (dl October 31) ellis.eu/news/ellis-p...
November 3, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Now I'm also looking for a research software engineer to implement a pile of research results to R packages loo, posterior, bayesplot, projpred, priorsense, brms or/and Python packages ArviZ, Bambi and Kulprit. Apply by email with no specific deadline (see contact info at users.aalto.fi/~ave/)