...Am I the only person that didn't know phonics wasn't implemented? I attended poor, rich, public, and private schools as a kid, and they all had it. Perhaps my family got incredibly lucky?
Another historical building in my district has been converted into housing! Meanwhile, the two lots from the most recent historical buildings that were cleared for demolition are still empty with no permits for building on record. Clearly this is anecdotal at best, though my tendency to disagree with virtually every housing-solution doesn't leave much leeway for fixes. I can at least be confident that my opinion will never be swayed on fire safety policies.
Re: Silicon Valley resisting nativist sentiment, there's more of that than you're allowing. In the Trump era, I witnessed people who couldn't renew their visas and had to transfer out of the US (or leave the company), and the cost of living and land use policies have been leading employers to prioritize hiring in other countries simply because it's vastly cheaper and there are good talent pools to be had.
It's still true that Silicon Valley is the biggest center of talent, venture capital and ideas for technology, and will be for a long time, but I think its magical status is gone for good. With the firehose of free money turned down to a trickle, all the little bits of friction about the Bay Area start to get a lot more noticeable and make tech companies pay attention to the boring stuff like, you know, actually making money. That really puts a damper on the innovation and creativity that can flourish in a more freewheeling economy. But who knows, maybe this is temporary and things will turn around, if Congress doesn't figure out how to put the lid on the technocrats first.
I’m coming late to the comments so someone else may have already made this point but San Diego is consistently problem solving oriented as a city and county in California and I have always assumed that it’s a result of the military influence on the community. San Francisco is really excellent at paralysis from making the perfect the enemy of the good and San Diego is exemplary in implementing the good enough solution in a reasonable timeframe.
Re Mayor Johnson’s response to the disruptions in Chicago last weekend, Matt makes a great point about his complete whiff on a free opportunity to build credibility with his opponents. I guess you could blame the increasing polarization for every politician’s reluctance to pivot to “the middle”, but he will be mayor for the next four years, and his base is still riding the high of his victory. Why not throw a bone to the concerns of those who voted for Vallas?
On how to read an article, I highly recommend Carl Bergstrom & Jevon West's Calling Bullshit (excellent website on the book here: https://www.callingbullshit.org ). I teach an intro to quantitative analysis course for master's students and use it as a supplemental text. A bit older and focused on Pharma and medicine are Ben Goldacre's Bad Pharma and Bad Science, which came out of his decade or so writing about both for the Guardian.
On what to teach in schools, I disagree. I'm an MD who's tried somewhat to keep up for over 30 years. There's a great deal to indicate utter caution when reviewing the results of a single study. Plus your response assumes most of us (I'm strictly a practitioner; & I include laypersons) have the wherewithal to understand methodologies. I received an email of a recent discussion of self-controlled case series design to study vaccine injuries in young people. I absolutely failed Einstein's maxim about 6 year olds. I believe in science 100% but navigating results remains challenging and sometimes relies on a (flawed) eminence basis for most of us.
Topics I believe would be much more valuable include numeracy and financial literacy, and some basic civics.
I disagree strongly that there are no policy reasons why the US has a Silicon Valley and Europe does not. EU labor markets are far more rigid than US labor markets, and it shows. High-end engineering talent can be amazingly productive but it's also very difficult to tell ahead of time whether any one particular hire will work out, so you need to be able to pay a lot but cut your losses if necessary. You also need to be able to quickly pivot your business if conditions change. All of this is made much harder by European labor rules. As a result, US software developers are paid 2X+ their counterparts in the EU/UK, and all of the major software companies are located here.
One of the new kid transfers to 9th grade from a Catholic school introduced himself on his first day in his new high school like this:
"Hello, my name First_Middle_Last I enjoy following politics and I am *fascinated* by the art of calligraphy". Still one of the funniest things I've ever witnessed in real time.
Regarding footnote #3: the claim was that parachutes do NOT reduce death when jumping out a plane.
Of course, assuming the the study was actually performed, it also faces a huge problem with sample size -- as so many medical studies do. Even more important than RCT/experiment/quasi-experiment/observation/self-report is the representativeness of the sample. There simply are far more important and generalizable lessons about how to read a study -- assuming one can get past lack of subject matter expertise -- than what Matt has listed.
Given his own obvious lack of training in this area, this is not surprising.
I think the tiny homes answer may have missed a detail in terminology - in discussing homelessness, Tiny Houses generally doesn't refer to cute little ADUs or trailers, at least on the west coast it's referring to moving people out of tents and into what are essentially sheds with small shared amenity blocks.
It's honestly quite bizarre - in cities where SROs are illegal and even fancy micro apartments for college grads caused massive outrage, the city is building these facilities that nowhere near meet their own standards for human habitation.
Today's comments show an interesting mix of complaining about NIMBYs being totally selfish and "I've got mine, Jack" and raging about this whole tipping thing.
This may not be a good look for all the free subscribers checking in for the first time.
Re "tiny homes:" In some cases, "tiny homes" for the homeless are not in fact what we think of as homes. They're sheds, with electricity but not plumbing. They have doors that lock, and sanitary facilities in separate buildings. In California, rows of these cabins are being put up on unused public land to house homeless people.
My state senator, Josh Becker, is trying to pass a bill to allow these units to count as housing for state housing goal purposes.
Flat wrong on LA always electing NIMBYs. The YIMBY groups in LA support the progressive insurgents and quasi-insurgents on City Council (and the current Mayor), who have mostly swept the board in their races and now form a pretty substantial bloc. The same was broadly true of state legislative races in LA. I'm guessing Matt's confused on this issue either because he's not paying attention, thinking about MUCH smaller beach cities in the area, or using a heuristic of "centrists good, leftists bad" but it's just not the case.
On chicago weather, the official sensor stations are at O’Hare, 13 miles from the lake. While the warmer lake temps in late fall mean warmer air temps than official for most of the population (who live closer to the lake), spring can feature 30 degree differential between official and observed. As the sun warms inland that air rises and bitterly lake air fills the void. So while April and may look comparable to the east coast, it’s a continuation of winter in chicago. It’s more like 5 months of winter
"It is probably not a coincidence that the most riot-afflicted major American city is also the whitest major American city; typical 21st-century American cities have a substantial “Black establishment” of middle-class homeowners, church leaders, and politicians who have normal, non-edgy views on the merits of looting."
The similar demographics and demographic histories of Portland, Seattle, and Minneapolis probably go a long way towards explaining how things are going in those three places.
...Am I the only person that didn't know phonics wasn't implemented? I attended poor, rich, public, and private schools as a kid, and they all had it. Perhaps my family got incredibly lucky?
Another historical building in my district has been converted into housing! Meanwhile, the two lots from the most recent historical buildings that were cleared for demolition are still empty with no permits for building on record. Clearly this is anecdotal at best, though my tendency to disagree with virtually every housing-solution doesn't leave much leeway for fixes. I can at least be confident that my opinion will never be swayed on fire safety policies.
Re: Silicon Valley resisting nativist sentiment, there's more of that than you're allowing. In the Trump era, I witnessed people who couldn't renew their visas and had to transfer out of the US (or leave the company), and the cost of living and land use policies have been leading employers to prioritize hiring in other countries simply because it's vastly cheaper and there are good talent pools to be had.
It's still true that Silicon Valley is the biggest center of talent, venture capital and ideas for technology, and will be for a long time, but I think its magical status is gone for good. With the firehose of free money turned down to a trickle, all the little bits of friction about the Bay Area start to get a lot more noticeable and make tech companies pay attention to the boring stuff like, you know, actually making money. That really puts a damper on the innovation and creativity that can flourish in a more freewheeling economy. But who knows, maybe this is temporary and things will turn around, if Congress doesn't figure out how to put the lid on the technocrats first.
I’m coming late to the comments so someone else may have already made this point but San Diego is consistently problem solving oriented as a city and county in California and I have always assumed that it’s a result of the military influence on the community. San Francisco is really excellent at paralysis from making the perfect the enemy of the good and San Diego is exemplary in implementing the good enough solution in a reasonable timeframe.
Re Mayor Johnson’s response to the disruptions in Chicago last weekend, Matt makes a great point about his complete whiff on a free opportunity to build credibility with his opponents. I guess you could blame the increasing polarization for every politician’s reluctance to pivot to “the middle”, but he will be mayor for the next four years, and his base is still riding the high of his victory. Why not throw a bone to the concerns of those who voted for Vallas?
On how to read an article, I highly recommend Carl Bergstrom & Jevon West's Calling Bullshit (excellent website on the book here: https://www.callingbullshit.org ). I teach an intro to quantitative analysis course for master's students and use it as a supplemental text. A bit older and focused on Pharma and medicine are Ben Goldacre's Bad Pharma and Bad Science, which came out of his decade or so writing about both for the Guardian.
On what to teach in schools, I disagree. I'm an MD who's tried somewhat to keep up for over 30 years. There's a great deal to indicate utter caution when reviewing the results of a single study. Plus your response assumes most of us (I'm strictly a practitioner; & I include laypersons) have the wherewithal to understand methodologies. I received an email of a recent discussion of self-controlled case series design to study vaccine injuries in young people. I absolutely failed Einstein's maxim about 6 year olds. I believe in science 100% but navigating results remains challenging and sometimes relies on a (flawed) eminence basis for most of us.
Topics I believe would be much more valuable include numeracy and financial literacy, and some basic civics.
I disagree strongly that there are no policy reasons why the US has a Silicon Valley and Europe does not. EU labor markets are far more rigid than US labor markets, and it shows. High-end engineering talent can be amazingly productive but it's also very difficult to tell ahead of time whether any one particular hire will work out, so you need to be able to pay a lot but cut your losses if necessary. You also need to be able to quickly pivot your business if conditions change. All of this is made much harder by European labor rules. As a result, US software developers are paid 2X+ their counterparts in the EU/UK, and all of the major software companies are located here.
Also corp. bankruptcy laws.
Hardly.
I had a calligraphy elective in 7th grade and that provided me no joy or utility then or since
One of the new kid transfers to 9th grade from a Catholic school introduced himself on his first day in his new high school like this:
"Hello, my name First_Middle_Last I enjoy following politics and I am *fascinated* by the art of calligraphy". Still one of the funniest things I've ever witnessed in real time.
Regarding footnote #3: the claim was that parachutes do NOT reduce death when jumping out a plane.
Of course, assuming the the study was actually performed, it also faces a huge problem with sample size -- as so many medical studies do. Even more important than RCT/experiment/quasi-experiment/observation/self-report is the representativeness of the sample. There simply are far more important and generalizable lessons about how to read a study -- assuming one can get past lack of subject matter expertise -- than what Matt has listed.
Given his own obvious lack of training in this area, this is not surprising.
I think the tiny homes answer may have missed a detail in terminology - in discussing homelessness, Tiny Houses generally doesn't refer to cute little ADUs or trailers, at least on the west coast it's referring to moving people out of tents and into what are essentially sheds with small shared amenity blocks.
https://www.seattle.gov/council/issues/past-issues/tiny-house-villages
It's honestly quite bizarre - in cities where SROs are illegal and even fancy micro apartments for college grads caused massive outrage, the city is building these facilities that nowhere near meet their own standards for human habitation.
Today's comments show an interesting mix of complaining about NIMBYs being totally selfish and "I've got mine, Jack" and raging about this whole tipping thing.
This may not be a good look for all the free subscribers checking in for the first time.
Re "tiny homes:" In some cases, "tiny homes" for the homeless are not in fact what we think of as homes. They're sheds, with electricity but not plumbing. They have doors that lock, and sanitary facilities in separate buildings. In California, rows of these cabins are being put up on unused public land to house homeless people.
My state senator, Josh Becker, is trying to pass a bill to allow these units to count as housing for state housing goal purposes.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/bayarea/heatherknight/article/tiny-cabin-housing-homeless-17852739.php
Flat wrong on LA always electing NIMBYs. The YIMBY groups in LA support the progressive insurgents and quasi-insurgents on City Council (and the current Mayor), who have mostly swept the board in their races and now form a pretty substantial bloc. The same was broadly true of state legislative races in LA. I'm guessing Matt's confused on this issue either because he's not paying attention, thinking about MUCH smaller beach cities in the area, or using a heuristic of "centrists good, leftists bad" but it's just not the case.
On chicago weather, the official sensor stations are at O’Hare, 13 miles from the lake. While the warmer lake temps in late fall mean warmer air temps than official for most of the population (who live closer to the lake), spring can feature 30 degree differential between official and observed. As the sun warms inland that air rises and bitterly lake air fills the void. So while April and may look comparable to the east coast, it’s a continuation of winter in chicago. It’s more like 5 months of winter
"It is probably not a coincidence that the most riot-afflicted major American city is also the whitest major American city; typical 21st-century American cities have a substantial “Black establishment” of middle-class homeowners, church leaders, and politicians who have normal, non-edgy views on the merits of looting."
The similar demographics and demographic histories of Portland, Seattle, and Minneapolis probably go a long way towards explaining how things are going in those three places.