I don’t want to make a habit of this, but . . . I was curious what Easterbrook would write as a follow-up to his recent Huntsman puff, and here’s what he came up with: Tired of cookie-cutter political contests … Continue reading
Dear Reuters editor: Thanks for reading my blog and correcting the erroneous numbers in Easterbrook’s column from the other day. I’m pretty sure you got the corrections from my blog because in your corrections you used the exact same links … Continue reading
I don’t know when I’ve seen political writing quote so misinformed as this. It’s a bizarre mixture of cliches, non-sequitors, and outright mistakes. The author is Gregg Easterbrook and he’s writing for Reuters. First, the cliches: Right now Romney seems … Continue reading
The above, of course, is from xkcd. In contrast, Freakonomics went contrarian cool a bunch of years ago with “A Headline That Will Make Global-Warming Activists Apoplectic,” featuring a claim of “about 30 years of global cooling” and a preemptive … Continue reading
Palko writes: Track records matter. Like it or not, unless you’re actually working with the numbers, you have to rely to some degree on the credibility of the analysts you’re reading. Three of the best ways to build credibility are: … Continue reading
I read this op-ed by Tom Scocca and I have some thoughts. To start with, as the above title indicates, the topic is very “meta.” Scocca’s article is a response to an open letter which is a response to criticisms … Continue reading
It’s the fallacy of thinking that, just cos you’re good at something, that everyone should be good at it, and if they’re not, they’re just being stubborn and doing it badly on purpose. I thought about this when reading this … Continue reading
In a recent discussion thread, I mentioned how I’m feeling charitable toward David Brooks, Michael Barone, and various others whose work I’ve criticized over the years, because their responses have been so civilized and moderate. Consider the following range of … Continue reading
So. There are erroneous analyses published in scientific journals and in the news. Here I’m not talking not about outright propaganda, but about mistakes that happen to coincide with the preconceptions of their authors. We’ve seen lots of examples. Here … Continue reading
It’s tough being a blogger who’s expected to respond immediately to topics in his area of expertise. For example, here’s Scott “fraac” Adams posting on 8 Oct 2016, post titled “Why Does This Happen on My Vacation? (The Trump Tapes).” … Continue reading
OK, why am I writing this? We all know that New York Times columnist David Brooks deals in false statistics, he’s willing and able to get factual matters wrong, he doesn’t even fact-check his own reporting, his response when people … Continue reading
In a further discussion of the discussion about the discussion of a paper in Administrative Science Quarterly, Thomas Basbøll writes: I [Basbøll] feel “entitled”, if that’s the right word (actually, I’d say I feel privileged), to express my opinions to … Continue reading
Sports researcher Dave Berri had a disagreement with a remark in our recent discussion of Malcolm Gladwell. Berri writes: This post [from Gelman] contains the following paragraph: Similarly, when Gladwell claimed that NFL quarterback performance is unrelated to the order … Continue reading
The other day, Nicholas Christakis wrote an article in the newspaper criticizing academic social science departments: The social sciences have stagnated. . . . This is not only boring but also counterproductive, constraining engagement with the scientific cutting edge and … Continue reading
Gregg Easterbrook may not always be on the ball, but I 100% endorse the last section of his recent column (scroll down to “Absurd Specificity Watch”). Earlier in the column, Easterbrook has a plug for Tim Tebow. I’d forgotten about … Continue reading
Carl Bialik of the Wall Street Journal writes: I’m working on a column this week about numerical/statistical tips and resolutions for writers and people in other fields in the new year. 2013 is the International Year of Statistics, so I’d … Continue reading
In response to my comments on his recent opinion article on the the human tendency to overvalue information presented as stories, Reid Hastie writes: Andrew (and Commenters) … I’d like to try to clarify some of the statements and implications … Continue reading
After I recently criticized Gregg Easterbrook for assigning Obama an implausible 90+% chance of beating Mitt Romney, some commenters thought I was being too critical, that I should cut Easterbrook some slack because he just was speaking metaphorically. In other … Continue reading
Gregg Easterbrook: Gingrich is a wild card. He probably would end up a flaming wreckage in electoral terms, but there’s a chance he could become seen as the man unafraid to bring sweeping change to an ossified Washington, D.C. There’s … Continue reading
We interrupt our usual program of Ed Wegman Gregg Easterbrook Niall Ferguson mockery to deliver a serious update on our statistical computing project. Stan (“Sampling Through Adaptive Neighborhoods”) is our new C++ program (written mostly by Bob Carpenter) that draws … Continue reading