Writing
For other outlets, as well as notes on collective behavior, statistics, and technology.
Published elsewhere
AI, peer review and the human activity of science
Why the slog of human judgment in peer review is where science happens—and what AI can’t replace.
Create an IPCC-like body to harness benefits and combat harms of digital tech
A call for an intergovernmental panel to synthesize evidence on digital technologies.
What Generative AI Reveals About the Limits of Technological Innovation
Generative AI makes plain how little guardrail we have for technologies that reshape society.
TikTok’s API Guidelines Are a Minefield for Researchers
Why TikTok’s research API terms leave little room for publishable independent science.
Twitter Is Not Rocket Science—It’s Harder
Managing a social network is not an engineering problem you can solve by moving fast and breaking things.
On Elon Musk’s Vision of Twitter as a Hive Mind
Treating Twitter as a cybernetic super-intelligence misunderstands how collectives actually work.
A High-Speed Scientific Hive Mind Emerged from the COVID Pandemic
How the pandemic forced science into rapid, open collaboration—and where that model still failed.
The Ignorance of the Crowd
Collective wisdom is real—but so are the conditions under which crowds go badly wrong.
Why Did Donald Trump Get Elected? Ask the Bees
Nest-site choice in honeybees as a lens on elections, social media, and fragile crowd wisdom.
Notes
The Absurdities and Indignities of False Discovery Rates in Social Science
As if multiple comparison corrections weren't complicated enough.
I did not want to write another blog post.
The Preregistration Revelation Part II
I did not want to write this blog post.
The Preregistration Revelation
The Preregistration Revelation
On preregistration, open science, and when “contrarian” takes go sideways.
Replication failures from fishy science
The title is not what it seems.
Rigor Desiderada
Why Sleuthing Needs Standards
Retire the P-Curve (On Twitter)
It's past time to stop circling P-values