The function

$$C(\boldsymbol{\beta})=\frac{1}{n}\left\{\left(\boldsymbol{y}-\boldsymbol{X}\boldsymbol{\beta}\right)^T\left(\boldsymbol{y}-\boldsymbol{X}\boldsymbol{\beta}\right)\right\},$$

can be linked to the variance of the quantity $y_i$ if we interpret the latter as the mean value. When linking (see the discussion below) with the maximum likelihood approach below, we will indeed interpret $y_i$ as a mean value

$$y_{i}=\langle y_i \rangle = \beta_0x_{i,0}+\beta_1x_{i,1}+\beta_2x_{i,2}+\dots+\beta_{n-1}x_{i,n-1}+\epsilon_i,$$

where $\langle y_i \rangle$ is the mean value. Keep in mind also that till now we have treated $y_i$ as the exact value. Normally, the response (dependent or outcome) variable $y_i$ the outcome of a numerical experiment or another type of experiment and is thus only an approximation to the true value. It is then always accompanied by an error estimate, often limited to a statistical error estimate given by the standard deviation discussed earlier. In the discussion here we will treat $y_i$ as our exact value for the response variable.

In order to find the parameters $\beta_i$ we will then minimize the spread of $C(\boldsymbol{\beta})$, that is we are going to solve the problem

$${\displaystyle \min_{\boldsymbol{\beta}\in {\mathbb{R}}^{p}}}\frac{1}{n}\left\{\left(\boldsymbol{y}-\boldsymbol{X}\boldsymbol{\beta}\right)^T\left(\boldsymbol{y}-\boldsymbol{X}\boldsymbol{\beta}\right)\right\}.$$

In practical terms it means we will require

$$\frac{\partial C(\boldsymbol{\beta})}{\partial \beta_j} = \frac{\partial }{\partial \beta_j}\left[ \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=0}^{n-1}\left(y_i-\beta_0x_{i,0}-\beta_1x_{i,1}-\beta_2x_{i,2}-\dots-\beta_{n-1}x_{i,n-1}\right)^2\right]=0,$$

which results in

$$\frac{\partial C(\boldsymbol{\beta})}{\partial \beta_j} = -\frac{2}{n}\left[ \sum_{i=0}^{n-1}x_{ij}\left(y_i-\beta_0x_{i,0}-\beta_1x_{i,1}-\beta_2x_{i,2}-\dots-\beta_{n-1}x_{i,n-1}\right)\right]=0,$$

or in a matrix-vector form as

$$\frac{\partial C(\boldsymbol{\beta})}{\partial \boldsymbol{\beta}} = 0 = \boldsymbol{X}^T\left( \boldsymbol{y}-\boldsymbol{X}\boldsymbol{\beta}\right).$$