47MLE vs MAP: what exactly does the prior buy you, and when does it matter in an applied model?▼mediumGoogleDatabricksScale1 replies◆ premiumMAP is MLE plus a prior, and that prior is not academic decoration: it is the same thing as regularization, and it is what stops a model from making confident nonsense out of three data points. The connection that makes this an applied answer, not a stats-class recitation.Open full answer →
63Which metric do you use to evaluate a ranking system, and why?▼medium★ EssentialGoogleMetaAmazon2 replies◆ premiumAccuracy is meaningless for ranking, the whole point is the order. The real question behind the question is whether your relevance is graded or binary and whether one good result is enough, because that picks the metric. Then the trap: your offline NDCG can climb while online engagement falls.Open full answer →