If I had to run with the toolbox analogy, I would say that I think of Bayes not as a hammer but more of a 3D printer connected to a tool generator program.
Fasteners are designed to be used with a specific tool (nail & hammer, screw & screwdriver). Imagine, rather, you are trying to use an alien’s box of fasteners – none of them are designed to work with your tools. You might be able to find a tool which works ok, perhaps even pretty well. This is more like the case with a standard statistics toolbox.
If you enter the precise parameters of any fastener (even alien fasteners, whitworth bolts and torx screws) into your tool generator program then your 3D printer will produce the perfect tool for fastening it.
Depending on how well you need to do the job, you might use a similar tool and not bother 3D printing out a completely new tool every time. However, the fastening job will only be done as well as the tool you are using matches the perfect 3D printed tool. Understanding how your tool differs from the perfect tool helps you analyse how well fastened your work will be.
At times you may not know all of the parameters to put into the tool generator but estimating the parameters as best you can will still print (in expectation) a better tool than just picking the best one you can find in your toolbox.
This seems a little forced as an analogy but it’s the best I can come up with!
If I had to run with the toolbox analogy, I would say that I think of Bayes not as a hammer but more of a 3D printer connected to a tool generator program.
Fasteners are designed to be used with a specific tool (nail & hammer, screw & screwdriver). Imagine, rather, you are trying to use an alien’s box of fasteners – none of them are designed to work with your tools. You might be able to find a tool which works ok, perhaps even pretty well. This is more like the case with a standard statistics toolbox.
If you enter the precise parameters of any fastener (even alien fasteners, whitworth bolts and torx screws) into your tool generator program then your 3D printer will produce the perfect tool for fastening it.
Depending on how well you need to do the job, you might use a similar tool and not bother 3D printing out a completely new tool every time. However, the fastening job will only be done as well as the tool you are using matches the perfect 3D printed tool. Understanding how your tool differs from the perfect tool helps you analyse how well fastened your work will be.
At times you may not know all of the parameters to put into the tool generator but estimating the parameters as best you can will still print (in expectation) a better tool than just picking the best one you can find in your toolbox.
This seems a little forced as an analogy but it’s the best I can come up with!