Probability calculations are frustratingly unintuitive. Our brains are too eager to take shortcuts and get the wrong answer, instead of thinking through a problem and calculating the probability correctly. To make this issue obvious and aid in developing intuition, it can be useful to work through classical problems from applied probability. These problems, such as […]
Probability for a single random variable is straight forward, although it can become complicated when considering two or more variables. With just two variables, we may be interested in the probability of two simultaneous events, called joint probability: the probability of one event given the occurrence of another event called the conditional probability, or just […]
Probability quantifies the uncertainty of the outcomes of a random variable. It is relatively easy to understand and compute the probability for a single variable. Nevertheless, in machine learning, we often have many random variables that interact in often complex and unknown ways. There are specific techniques that can be used to quantify the probability […]
Probability density is the relationship between observations and their probability. Some outcomes of a random variable will have low probability density and other outcomes will have a high probability density. The overall shape of the probability density is referred to as a probability distribution, and the calculation of probabilities for specific outcomes of a random […]
The probability for a continuous random variable can be summarized with a continuous probability distribution. Continuous probability distributions are encountered in machine learning, most notably in the distribution of numerical input and output variables for models and in the distribution of errors made by models. Knowledge of the normal continuous probability distribution is also required […]
The probability for a discrete random variable can be summarized with a discrete probability distribution. Discrete probability distributions are used in machine learning, most notably in the modeling of binary and multi-class classification problems, but also in evaluating the performance for binary classification models, such as the calculation of confidence intervals, and in the modeling […]
Probability can be used for more than calculating the likelihood of one event; it can summarize the likelihood of all possible outcomes. A thing of interest in probability is called a random variable, and the relationship between each possible outcome for a random variable and their probabilities is called a probability distribution. Probability distributions are […]
Uncertainty involves making decisions with incomplete information, and this is the way we generally operate in the world. Handling uncertainty is typically described using everyday words like chance, luck, and risk. Probability is a field of mathematics that gives us the language and tools to quantify the uncertainty of events and reason in a principled […]
Applied machine learning requires managing uncertainty. There are many sources of uncertainty in a machine learning project, including variance in the specific data values, the sample of data collected from the domain, and in the imperfect nature of any models developed from such data. Managing the uncertainty that is inherent in machine learning for predictive […]
Probability is a field of mathematics that quantifies uncertainty. It is undeniably a pillar of the field of machine learning, and many recommend it as a prerequisite subject to study prior to getting started. This is misleading advice, as probability makes more sense to a practitioner once they have the context of the applied machine […]
