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Gelman writes a useful overview on causality and statistical learning (caveat lector: I have only read through Angrist and Pischke’s book, among the three Gelman mentiones; that one is very well written, but aimed at junior graduate students at best: hence, the book’s tag “an empiricist’s companion” is overselling it; and that has nothing to do with Josh Angrist kindly “advising” me to change my PhD topic/focus, sometime in my beginning graduate years, because ‘nobody serious would be interested in structural modelling’ :-)). I guess I would position myself more within the “minority view” set, represented here by Heckman (I wouldn’t say that is really a “minority” within Economics alone, by the way), but the usefulness of these debates cannot be questionned. And an outsider’s (to Economics) opinion, such as Gelman’s, is always more than welcome. Related, the WSJ talks about statistical time travelling to answer interesting counterfactuals; I have a feeling I’ll stick to my structural guns for now…
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An excellent article on the junior meritocracy and the perils of standardized testing at very young ages. I share most of the worries expressed therein and indeed agree that the marshmallow test would say at least as much, and probably more, than a standardized intelligence test, in the case of toddlers. My general take is that young humans have much more complex personalities than usually warranted, in ways that elude any catch-all type of tests: after all, some even fall in love at 3 years old.
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The perfect, employer-focused, resume. Uses creativity somewhat differently than its more modern counterparts; I am sure Leonardo would be the one to get all the flyouts and job offers today, as his modern CV were obviously recession-proof.
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The ubiquitous problem with such academic et al rankings (which I brought over and over, including in earlier posts and articles, particularly concerning the academic ranking obsession in Romania, where they also– still! — have problems understanding that a publication ‘anywhere in ISI’ can be total nonsense) is that they try to rank overall, ie. over all disciplines, often over (too) long periods of time etc. The only meaningful hierarchies in science are those done on specific disciplines and, even better, subdisciplines, and over shorter periods of time, thus revealing top new places etc. Then, inter alia, one would not be able to claim that biological sciences are advantaged, since there would be a within-discipline focus. I haven’t heard a single serious (but plenty of marginal) scientist(s) stressing the relevance of the rank of her/his university/institution over that of her/his department/research group. Politicians and journalists should take note, too.
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The perfect chef? That is intriguing enough: I would certainly like to know whether one can trace his whereabouts anywhere around Chicago, in the near future. And the (allegedly) perfect place for the greatest wine— Rekondo, San Sebastian– for the far(ther) future.
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Gastronomic sacrilège: where have all the great cheeses gone– roquefort, camembert, brie de Meaux, Saint-Félicien, gruyère, comté, münster, pont l’évêque, cantal, reblochon, tomme de Savoie, crottin de chavignol?! Worse, together with the cheese, soon gone might be oysters, and epsilon common sense… Quo vadis, France?
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Searching for the perfect chess player, human or machine… Put your money on AI; leave poker for humans.
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The most exciting scientific upshot I’ve heard about in a great while: explaining the tip-of-the-tongue moments. It comes finally clear (although at this stage I understand it is still just speculative/conjectural, and needs more testing) why polyglots (such as I like to consider myself…) have more of a problem in remembering specific words than people who use a single language: “ […] this kind of forgetfulness is due to infrequency of use; basically, the less often you use a word, the harder it is for your brain to access it.” Good, I will feel much better when invoking ‘lapsus memoriae’ next time :-).
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The quest for the better, simpler, (American) living times: old, but superb Daily Show clip, via Tabarrok, on MR
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How very true, though my feeling is that the battle for the brightest junior (and not only) Economists is far from over. It is sadly not Europe overall that might offer an alternative for European economists (not a chance: for starters, Europe needs to cut that embarrasing red tape where academics depend on useless, worthless, ridiculous bureacrats, and to think of attractive real wages… ), but Canada and Australia, which look more and more like worthy competitors to the USA (top; the bulk is way worse than pretty much anywhere in western Europe) places (related, earlier).
Nobody is denying that, with the caveat that there are European places where improvement is hard to be noticed. But indeed, let us say Scandinavia and Northern Europe in general, might be different. The problem is that you have to judge this relative to other parts, so it is not just the improvement here, but what is the status quo here versus status quo somewhere else, as you well know. And
However, you have to admit that the situation in Europe improved a lot compared to what it used to be. In Scandinavia that is particularly true. Having seen both worlds, I think I do not regret my choice for doing research in Denmark. <br />A Danish economist
Ana: comentariul tau nu prea intersecteaza tema (colectia de teme) a postului, dar, enfin, pana la urma nu am de ce sa refuz sa-l postez… Ai fi putut sa ma contactezi direct, adresele mele de email sunt publice.
Buna,<br /> Numele meu este Ana Zidarescu, redactor http://www.evz.ro, editia online a ziarului Evenimentul Zilei. Caut romani stabiliti in strainatate pentru interviuri, in ideea de a promova diaspora romaneasca, tinerii romani şi experientele lor in lume, antreprenori, profesori, liber profesionisti etc. Daca esti de acord, nu ezita sa ma contactezi. Nu sunt in cautarea senzationalului, insa cred ca
M&M: Not that anyone was in doubt about that :-).
Yummy marshmallows, I also like them :)<br />MM.