Discounting the future less
A bird in the hand In the absence of a conveniently pithy definition from elsewhere on the internet, to discount the future means to place… Read More »Discounting the future less
Processes (ways to get stuff Done)
“If it was easy for them to have made a meaningful improvement, they would have done so already.”: Megan Stevenson on social change and constraints
(Still) recommended. Perhaps there is something unique about the people studied by RCTs in the criminal legal space that could limit generalizability. For instance, the… Read More »“If it was easy for them to have made a meaningful improvement, they would have done so already.”: Megan Stevenson on social change and constraints
Cascades, tides and shifting stars in social interventions: Megan Stevenson on cause, effect and the limits of RCTs
Recommended. A wide-lens view on more than fifty years of RCTs in the criminal legal space reveals a few common themes: most interventions don’t work,… Read More »Cascades, tides and shifting stars in social interventions: Megan Stevenson on cause, effect and the limits of RCTs
Hadley Wickham defines Tidy Data
For non-specialists: If you’ve ever wondered why it’s so hard to get all the data points you want into a simple, workable database and what… Read More »Hadley Wickham defines Tidy Data
Richard Hamming on working with the door open
… what you consider to be good working conditions may not be good for you. There are many illustrations of this point. For example, working… Read More »Richard Hamming on working with the door open
Donella Meadows on systems thinking: elements, interconnections, purposes
You can understand the relative importance of a system’s elements, interconnections, and purposes by imagining them changed one by one. Changing elements usually has the… Read More »Donella Meadows on systems thinking: elements, interconnections, purposes
James Yorke: fifty years of chaos (theory)
Almost fifty years ago, when my student T. Y. Li and I wrote a math paper titled “Period 3 Implies Chaos”, I could not predict… Read More »James Yorke: fifty years of chaos (theory)
Statistical Rethinking: Richard McElreath on Bayes in the Garden of Forking Data
I’ve had a few goes at understanding Bayesian statistics and feel like I haven’t really grasped it. This video from Richard McElreath (lectures accompanying a… Read More »Statistical Rethinking: Richard McElreath on Bayes in the Garden of Forking Data
Gerald Weinberg: Three Laws of Consulting
The First Law of Consulting: In spite of what your client may tell you, there’s always a problem. The Second Law of Consulting: No matter… Read More »Gerald Weinberg: Three Laws of Consulting
Working Supple; or, On not taking up the slack
What if an hour (two?) of most of your working days remained doggedly unscheduled? Call it slack, or flex, or room to breathe: space for… Read More »Working Supple; or, On not taking up the slack