In his latest gem-encrusted masterpiece, Tom Friedman takes aim at a basic mathematical concept when he declares that”average is over.” He then proceeds to demonstrate that he doesn’t understand how averages work. I’ve been arguing for a while now that “average is over.” It has to be when every boss has cheaper, easier, faster access […]
Continue reading →So in response to this Michelle Goldberg interview with Vox, I want to point you in the direction of this piece I wrote awhile back. To put it simply: Goldberg is simply incorrect about who the people expressing “anti-liberal” sentiment are, and in fact, they are far more a part of the Clintonite triangulation lineage […]
Continue reading →You know, when I think about the rage against the snobs, I think of a time– I want to say I was 11, maybe 12, so that puts us at like 1993 or 1994– when my father took me around to show me the old black box theaters he used to work in during his […]
Continue reading →I really had a ton of fun with this one, chatting with Alexis Madrigal of the Atlantic about the technology media, online education, and artificial intelligence. Please check it out, and feel free to share.
Continue reading →I like Bob Dylan’s music a lot, and I do agree that there’s a history of lifting from other musicians in the folk and blues traditions that have inspired him. However, it makes me squeamish how many people in this article are working overtime to excuse Dylan for lifting large portions of his (National Book […]
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Continue reading →One of the most obvious ways in which the status quo is defended in this country is through the inconsistent way in which general rules are derived from particular examples, when it comes to countries and ideologies and social systems. For a perfect example of this, consider this piece in City Journal, which purports to […]
Continue reading →So there’s a new piece in the New York Times magazine about college graduation rates, and how they are associated with student socioeconomic factors. The writer, Paul Tough, argues that these differences in graduation rates are largely attributable to economic differences. I wouldn’t contest the point; in fact I’m very glad to see him making it. But […]
Continue reading →This Molly Ball piece on the fight over GMO labeling is a perfect example of how culture war gets into everything, and more, how that culture war is ultimately operating at a different level than partisan or ideological politics. I don’t really care about this issue. It seems, from my perfectly amateur vantage, that there’s […]
Continue reading →So I’m going to re-up this piece I wrote about why “correlation does not causation” leads to a research nihilism that is more of a problem than mistaking correlation for causation. I’m doing it because of the viral proliferation of this website from Tyler Vigen, a Harvard law student. The website does what every statistics […]
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