Original research notes and reflections from a social scientist on using AI in survey research, text-as-data methods and everyday research workflows. Issues cover survey panel quality in the age of AI agents, benchmarking a new fast annotation model against LLMs, and practical use of dictation with command-line coding agents.
Website: https://www.pixelsandpatterns.org
A blog by economist Robin Hanson that applies economic reasoning and Bayesian priors to questions about human belief, morality, culture, and the long-term future. Readers get original, contrarian arguments, often with proposals such as prediction-market-based governance.
Short philosophical essays that use ideas from science, game theory and social dynamics to examine how simplification, collective behavior and hidden assumptions shape human understanding. Each issue builds a single counterintuitive argument, such as Braess's paradox or pluralistic ignorance, and draws broader conclusions about civilization.
A newsletter on statistical genetics that critically examines heritability claims, academic policy and the use of AI in research. Readers get data-driven analysis of published datasets and hands-on experiments from a practicing researcher.
Original essays applying social science methods and data analysis to questions about politics, culture and demographics, such as fertility differences by social attitudes and the effects of AI on signalling. Readers get worked empirical analysis using survey datasets alongside economic-style conceptual arguments.
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