Brett Lantz has spent more than 10 years using innovative data methods to understand human behavior. A trained sociologist, he was first enchanted by machine learning while studying a large database of teenagers' social networking website profiles. Since then, Brett has worked on interdisciplinary studies of cellular telephone calls, medical billing data, and philanthropic activity, among others. When not spending time with family, following college sports, or being entertained by his dachshunds, he maintains http://dataspelunking.com/, a website dedicated to sharing knowledge about the search for insight in data.
This book could not have been written without the support of my friends and family. In particular, my wife, Jessica, deserves many thanks for her endless patience and encouragement. My son, Will, who was born in the midst of the first edition and supplied much-needed diversions while writing this edition, will be a big brother shortly after this book is published. In spite of cautionary tales about correlation and causation, it seems that every time I expand my written library, my family likewise expands! I dedicate this book to my children in the hope that one day they will be inspired to tackle big challenges and follow their curiosity wherever it may lead.
I am also indebted to many others who supported this book indirectly. My interactions with educators, peers, and collaborators at the University of Michigan, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Central Florida seeded many of the ideas I attempted to express in the text; any lack of clarity in their expression is purely mine. Additionally, without the work of the broader community of researchers who shared their expertise in publications, lectures, and source code, this book might not have existed at all. Finally, I appreciate the efforts of the R team and all those who have contributed to R packages, whose work has helped bring machine learning to the masses. I sincerely hope that my work is likewise a valuable piece in this mosaic.