Abusing linear regression makes the baby Gauss cry… It’s true that fitting lines on log-log graphs is what Pareto did back in the day when he started this whole power-law business, but “the day” was the 1890s. There’s a time and a place for being old school; this isn’t it. - Cosma Shalizi
Great link, thanks! I can’t tell, though, whether this caution extends to graphs of change over time, in addition to sets of (supposedly independent) data points with a conjectured power law.
Yeah, temporal sequence complicates things. But if you liked the link here are the related (less accessible but more useful?) links with the paper and code justifying and implementing better statistical tests for data that “looks interesting” on log-log paper.
Abusing linear regression makes the baby Gauss cry… It’s true that fitting lines on log-log graphs is what Pareto did back in the day when he started this whole power-law business, but “the day” was the 1890s. There’s a time and a place for being old school; this isn’t it. - Cosma Shalizi
Great link, thanks! I can’t tell, though, whether this caution extends to graphs of change over time, in addition to sets of (supposedly independent) data points with a conjectured power law.
Yeah, temporal sequence complicates things. But if you liked the link here are the related (less accessible but more useful?) links with the paper and code justifying and implementing better statistical tests for data that “looks interesting” on log-log paper.