It appears, by inciting a mob to storm the Capitol building, Trump may have gone too far. I want to put out a hot take, because I fear it will be easy to forget, as the years go by, the aura of invulnerability that Trump had until about 3:00 this afternoon. For four years, it … Continue reading Reflections on January 6th
A Practical Guide to Estimating COVID-19 Travel Risk
I. Introduction I've had a lot of conversations with friends about traveling over the holidays. There have also been articles written about the risk of traveling. Of course, at the end of the day, people need to make their own decisions, but how are they supposed to do that? How are regular people supposed to … Continue reading A Practical Guide to Estimating COVID-19 Travel Risk
Reflections on Kellogg Biotech Case Competition
Back in January, I had the privilege of participating in the Kellogg Biotech Case competition (link). It was the first time I've participated in a case competition, and although this is a touch overdue, I wanted to share my reflections on the experience, particularly my thoughts on the methodology, now that I have the benefit … Continue reading Reflections on Kellogg Biotech Case Competition
Social Science should be Funny
A popular theory is that humor is created by the violation of expectation, or "incongruity". For example, take a pun. When a veterinarian's office adopted a pig, they named him Chris P. Bacon. This caused a news anchor to lose his shit, and it was amazing. According to incongruity theory, the name Chris P. Bacon … Continue reading Social Science should be Funny
Kicking off the MBA Diary
I Just over two months ago, I started an MBA program at the Yale School of Management. I started the MBA program for reasons that I’ve come to learn are fairly common: I wasn’t satisfied with my career, and the MBA seemed like the best way to pivot, given that I possess only the vaguest … Continue reading Kicking off the MBA Diary
A productive post on productivity
I've been grappling with an issue at work-- I think I care about the ability to communicate effectively more than other people, and yet I feel like I struggle more with it than they do. Here, the obvious explanation is probably correct: that I suffer from a form of "performance anxiety", which is to say that … Continue reading A productive post on productivity
On Game of Thrones, Season 8
As of tonight, the phenomenon that is Game of Thrones can be evaluated in its entirety, and I wanted to take the chance to get down a hot take. My focus is not on the final episode, but the one previous, since it contained the the last significant plot development. Tonight's episode is spent managing … Continue reading On Game of Thrones, Season 8
Russia Hacked the Election!
Well, no, not really. The story, as far as I can tell, is that unnamed sources in the CIA believe that Russian agents hacked the emails of prominent Democrats and made their contents public in order to influence the election. Even if 100% true, to call this “hacking the election” is profoundly misleading, and would … Continue reading Russia Hacked the Election!
Ambiguity and Politics: Part 1
Although it is often called an optical illusion, this well-known image of a rabbit/duck technically isn't. Optical illusions are images designed to trick your visual systems into perceiving something that isn't there, such as motion in a static image. By contrast, the rabbit-duck is an ambiguous image. It plays with your head because it can … Continue reading Ambiguity and Politics: Part 1
Looking back on the election
On election day, I flipped to facebook, and saw an event: "Laugh at Trump tower on November 9th". A couple thousand people were going. I smiled to myself and tabbed over to 538. Nate Silver's model gave Trump somewhere between 25% and 30% chance of victory. Roughly the odds of two coin flips coming up heads, I … Continue reading Looking back on the election
