Chapter 2. Approaching Simple Linear Regression

Having set up all your working tools (directly installing Python and IPython or using a scientific distribution), you are now ready to start using linear models to incorporate new abilities into the software you plan to build, especially predictive capabilities. Up to now, you have developed software solutions based on certain specifications you defined (or specifications that others have handed to you). Your approach has always been to tailor the response of the program to particular inputs, by writing code carefully mapping every single situation to a specific, predetermined response. Reflecting on it, by doing so you were just incorporating practices that you (or others) have learned from experience.

However, the world is complex, and sometimes your experience is not enough to make your software smart enough to make a difference in a fairly competitive business or in challenging problems with many different and mutable facets.

In...