Blog Posts – Paul Johnson

A slightly worn 'Diverted Traffic' road sign leaning against a black bollard
on the pavement beside the road.

Automating Netlify Redirects in Quarto Using Lua

Save yourself from yourself by generating website redirects using a Lua script.

Netlify

Quarto

Web Development

Lua

A Derbystar Bundesliga match ball sitting on the turf of a football pitch.

Testing Transfermarkt’s Squad Market Values

Get in losers, we’re going validating.

Football Analytics

Statistics

Machine Learning

R

An old Corona typewriter on a wooden table, with a pair of hands resting
on the keys about to type.

How to Write About Data Science (Effectively)

Writing about data science like you have interacted with another human being before.

Writing

Scientific Communication

A red sign outside a restaurant that has the outline of a burger, with
Burgers written in place of the patty.

Predicting Bob’s Burgers Episode Ratings

Proving that machine learning can be effective for even the dumbest of problems.

Machine Learning

Hyperparameter Optimisation

Python

Pink fireworks explode above Syndey Harbour Bridge at nighttime, celebrating
New Years Eve, in the background, with the harbour in the foreground, filled
with boats watching the firework display.

Resolutions for the Poster’s Reformation

It’s a brand new year. All our past failures are 2024’s problem. Do not, under any circumstances, accept responsibility for your actions. 2025 is our year.

Me Me Me

Updates

A photograph of many €100 bank notes layered on top of each other.

Analysing Money’s Effect on Football Using Multilevel Regression

What if I told you that we can use statistics to laugh at the silly football teams too?

Multilevel Regression

Statistics

Football Analytics

R

A photo of a black and white scoreboard with orange text, in Russian, on a
rusted metal frame, in a built up urban environment, with a white and blue
concrete building filling the background.

Calculating a Football Team’s Strength of Schedule

It may not be the metric you want, but it’s also not the metric you need.

Football Analytics

Statistics

R

An AI generated image of a small boy's silhouette, stood in a field facing a
large sign that appears to say Missing Data (but is distorted as is typically
the case with text produced by generative models).

Missing Data Matters (Part II) - Solutions

Dealing with your missing data is like eating your greens. You only do it so you can judge others that don’t.

Missing Data

Imputation

Statistics

R

An AI generated image of a red milk carton that has a creepy, slightly distorted
outline of a face on the side of the carton, with text underneath the person's
face appearing to say Data Missing (in the typically gibberish way that generative
models draw text). The carton stands in front of a white-tiled wall and casts
an ominous shadow on a white countertop.

Missing Data Matters (Part I): Mechanisms

Missing values hate him! See how this data scientist turned NAs into NOs using this one simple trick!

Missing Data

Statistics

R

Setting up Netlify Redirects With Quarto

Configuring Netlify redirects when building Quarto websites using continuous deployment.

Netlify

Quarto

Web Development

R

A blackboard with a many diagrams and mathematical operations drawn on it.

Developing Offensive Ratings Using Desirability Functions

Ranking football players using desirability2 and multivariate optimisation.

Optimisation

Football Analytics

R

A photograph of a glass ceiling inside a building, taken from directly beneath.

A Cheatsheet for Building Multilevel Models in R

A short introduction to basic multilevel modelling syntax in R (using lme4, brms or rstanarm).

Multilevel Regression

Statistics

R

A woman in a mermaid costume lays in a bathtub that is filling up with water.

Rendering Mermaid Diagrams on a Hugo Website Using Quarto

We all deserve to draw fancy-looking diagrams without suffering severe emotional trauma.

Mermaid

Hugo

Quarto

Markdown

Setting up a Hugo Website with Quarto

Combine the individual strengths of Hugo and Quarto to build a portfolio website and share code.

Hugo

Quarto

Markdown

A hand-drawn portrait of Thomas Bayes.

Resources for Learning Bayesian Statistics

Learning Bayesian statistics is a real sicko move. Here are some resources that will provoke your worst instincts. Yes… Ha Ha Ha… Yes!

Bayesian Statistics

Statistics

A light blue toy robot.

Combining Tidymodels & Caret for Machine Learning in R

Can you use tidymodels and caret together? Yes. But should you? Unclear.

Machine Learning

Caret

Tidymodels

R

A cat sat in a cardboard box with their head poking out of the top of the box.

Make More Packages!

How (and why) to learn basic package development in R, for data scientists.

Packages

R

A British police car drives down a busy street with people walking on either
side of the car.

Making Myself Accountable

An opportunity to make promises I won’t keep so that strangers on the internet can judge my poor work ethic.

Me Me Me

Updates

Reuse