ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Generalized Dirichlet distribution

Okay kiddo, let me try to explain to you what a generalized Dirichlet distribution is! Imagine you have a big bag of colored marbles, but you don’t know how many marbles there are in total or how many different colors there are. Now you want to predict the probability of picking a certain combination of colors from the bag. The generalized Dirichlet distribution helps you do that!

To make it simpler, think of a smaller bag with only three different colors: red, blue, and green. Let’s say you are trying to predict the probability of picking two red marbles, three blue marbles, and one green marble. This would be a specific combination out of all the possible ones you could get, right?

The generalized Dirichlet distribution helps you estimate the probability of getting any combination of colors from the bag. It uses something called a parameter, which helps you describe the distribution of colors in the bag. This parameter is made up of a series of numbers that represent the relative proportions of each color in the bag.

So let’s say you estimate that the bag has twice as many blue marbles as red marbles, and three times as many green marbles as blue marbles, and a total of 36 marbles. This would result in a specific parameter for our generalized Dirichlet distribution. Using this parameter, you can predict the probability of getting any possible combination of colors from the bag, like two red marbles, three blue, and one green.

I hope that helps, kiddo! Basically, the generalized Dirichlet distribution helps you predict the probability of getting different combinations of things, based on what you know about the relative proportions of those things.