From Correlation to Causation through stories and math

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Correlation and causation are two concepts that people often mixup in their minds. I must admit that I myself have been guilty about this, and it unlikely that I would ever entirely grow out of it as it is wired deeply into our psychology. Let me use this article to briefly emphasise what the concepts of correlation and causation means, some interesting stories that have emerged from people misunderstanding these concepts and an algorithm that attempts to find causal relationship using correlation information. Here is a story that I heard a professor of mine, Prof. Dr. Ernst-Jan Camiel Wit, tell us during a lecture. There was a school that was involved in a study to see if providing free mid-day meals to students, which they could choose to be subscribed to this or not. At the end of the study, both the students who subscribed to it and did not where tested for different health indicators. It was observed that the students who chose to have meals from the programme had poorer health
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First stop - Zurich!

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I started my journey last night at around 11 PM IST from India and reached Zurich at around 2 PM CET today. The journey in itself was a bit hectic as I have been carrying four different bags that weight abotu 43 kilograms in total. However, I find Doha and Zurich airports to be nice. Furthermore, I like the concept of the 24 hour pass that one could use to travel anywhere withtin the city via any mode of public transportation - trains, busses, boats!

Tonight, I am staying at Aswin's place tonight. Aswin was my Junior at IIT Patna and he is doing his master's at ETH now. I shall be going to Lugano tomorrow as I wouldn't be able to collect the keys to my apartment if I reach in the night.

I have also contact Anupam, my batchmate from IIT Patna, who is working at Google Zurich office. We may go out a bit to explore the city.

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