Making Decisions, 2nd Edition

Rating:
Summary: What an awful book...
Review: Dennis Lindley is a strong believer in the subjective approach to probability that is called Bayesian. He has written texts on probability and statistics that presents strong arguments for why he believes it is the only correct way to formulate a theory of probability and to coherently apply probabilty to problems in statistical inference.

Statistical decision theory developed in the 1940s and 1950s as a way to incorporate statistical methods in general decision making processes. Abraham Wald helped develop the classical (frequentist) approach to this in the late 1940s.

Frequentist and Bayesian approaches have then developed in the 20th Century. In this book Lindley uses a basic urn model for probability as a starting point for an elementary introduction into the Bayesian approach to decision making. He presents the basics of utility theory which is the Bayesian approach to scoring potential decisions, so as to determine the "best" decision.

Rating:
Summary: Bayesian approach to decision theory
Review: Dennis Lindley is a strong believer in the subjective approach to probability that is called Bayesian. He has written texts on probability and statistics that presents strong arguments for why he believes it is the only correct way to formulate a theory of probability and to coherently apply probabilty to problems in statistical inference.

Statistical decision theory developed in the 1940s and 1950s as a way to incorporate statistical methods in general decision making processes. Abraham Wald helped develop the classical (frequentist) approach to this in the late 1940s.

Frequentist and Bayesian approaches have then developed in the 20th Century. In this book Lindley uses a basic urn model for probability as a starting point for an elementary introduction into the Bayesian approach to decision making. He presents the basics of utility theory which is the Bayesian approach to scoring potential decisions, so as to determine the "best" decision.

Rating:
Summary: What an awful book...
Review: I'm currently a student at the University of California, San Diego. I feel that this book is an awful piece of writing that does not explain things clearly. Many of my colleagues feel that this is one of the most awful books that have been forced on us as well.