ABOUT THIS EPISODE
On this episode of Quality Time with MoreSteam, Thomas DeMarco joins host Dan Swartwout. Thomas holds a master's degree in Mathematical and Statistical Sciences with a concentration in Applied Statistics. He is also MoreSteam's principal statistician. Thomas started his career helping engineers and operators at Eastman Chemical figure out what their data was actually saying, and he has been doing some version of that ever since. Many statisticians stay in the math, but Thomas would rather be where the work is happening.
Thomas and Dan talk about why teams get into trouble when they skip the basics and reach for tools they cannot explain. You will also find out how Thomas can make a word like "orthogonality" feel like something you already understand, which is a pretty good trick. It turns out a lot of "scary" statistics work the same way. Once somebody explains a concept the right way, you wonder why it ever felt hard.
By the end of the conversation, you may stop worrying about whether you are using the right model and start asking something more useful. Do the people closest to the work actually understand what the numbers are telling them?
In this episode, you will hear about:
0:49 - Meet Thomas
3:15 - Being an industrial statistician at a chemical company
4:30 - What Thomas does at MoreSteam
5:41 - Thomas and EngineRoom
7:54 - Getting stuck on advanced statistics
11:47 - Making advanced statistics easier
15:34 - Using statistics to make software better for the end user
18:08 - What's next for Thomas and statistics at MoreSteam
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