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roystgnr comments on Open Thread August 31 - September 6 - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: Elo 30 August 2015 09:26PM

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Comment author: roystgnr 01 September 2015 06:29:57PM *  3 points [-]

Were any of Silver's previous predictions generated by making a list of possibilities, assuming each was a coin flip, multiplying 2^N, and rounding? I get the impression that he's not exactly employing his full statistical toolkit here.

Comment author: IlyaShpitser 01 September 2015 06:53:01PM *  1 point [-]

Isolated demands for rigor -- what do you think Adams is doing? (I think he's generating traffic.)


But sure, I agree, that's more of a reasonable prior than an argument. There's more info on the table now.

Comment author: tut 02 September 2015 01:07:14PM 2 points [-]

What Adams does is that he looks at Silver's estimate, says that it is way too low and then takes 1 minus Silver's estimate as his own estimate just to make a point. He does not attempt any statistical analysis and the 98% figure should not be taken seriously.

Comment author: Vaniver 02 September 2015 01:30:57PM 0 points [-]

what do you think Adams is doing?

What Adams has said he's doing is simulating the future along the mainline prediction--i.e. nothing too weird happens--and under his model, Trump is guaranteed to win. Then he says "well, maybe something weird will happen" and drops that confidence by 2%, instead of a more reasonable 30% (or 50%).