Statistical modeling: the three cultures

Understand

Two decades ago, Leo Breiman identified two cultures for statistical modeling.

• The data modeling culture (DMC) refers to practices aiming to conduct statistical inference on one or several quantities of interest.
• The algorithmic modeling culture (AMC) refers to practices defining a machine-learning (ML) procedure that generates accurate predictions about an event of interest.
• Breiman argued that statisticians should give more attention to AMC than to DMC, because of the strengths of ML in adapting to data.