tysonzni
Contagion in Mass Killings and School Shootings (2015)
Curiosity Detects Unusually High Methane Levels
Why Data Science Teams Need Generalists, Not Specialists
Re:Key Values – Find Engineering Teams That Share Your Values
on Saturday February 23, 2019 @04:24PM (#19235561)
I think it makes sense to ask companies to explicitly list cultural values they prioritize the most as well as what they value the least. Evaluating/creating a company culture is in a way really about understanding what the tradeoffs and sacrifices are.
Re:A Famous Photo of Chernobyl’s Most Dangerous Radioactive Material (...
on Saturday February 23, 2019 @12:16PM (#19234258)
Related wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elephant%27s_Foot
High-Speed Rail’s Central Valley Segment Is Not Stranded
Student Loan Relief or Paid Vacation? These Workers Get a Choice
Business secrets from terrible people
The Nuclear Power Plant of the Future May Be Floating Near Russia
Augur Prediction Market Data
Walmart's Fintech Partner Helps Break Paycheck-To-Paycheck Cycle
Re:I Helped Design the ‘Machine Learning President’ Game
on Wednesday June 27, 2018 @04:32PM (#17411600)
Is the game for members only?
Re:China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data
on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @10:12PM (#17193459)
No it does not. From NIH study: (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5026916/)
>We use high-quality linked Social Security and Medicare records to estimate life tables for the older U.S. population over the full range of birth regions. In 2000–2009, the foreign-born had a 2.4-year advantage in life expectancy at age 65 relative to the U.S.-born, with Asian-born subgroups displaying exceptionally high longevity. Foreign-born individuals who migrated more recently had lower mortality compared with those who migrated earlier. Nonetheless, we also find remarkable similarities in life expectancy among many foreign-born subgroups that were born in very different geographic and socioeconomic contexts (e.g., Central America, western/eastern Europe, and Africa).
Re:China overtakes U.S. for healthy lifespan: WHO data
on Wednesday May 30, 2018 @09:12PM (#17193227)
I don't know how China collect its public health statistics, but its economics numbers have been extensively studied. And the consensus is that its official GDP growth figures were overstated historically (by as much as 67%), but had been mostly accurate post-1996.
Study: https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/s...
TensorFlow for R
Smart Compose: Using Neural Networks to Help Write Emails
Re:Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home
on Friday May 11, 2018 @05:25AM (#17045930)
Yeah you're right. Randomization at least ensures internal validity of the study as applied to people who are interested in WFH. Whether it generalizes to others is an open question.
As flat prices soar in Hong Kong, investors park money down in the lot
Re:Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home
on Friday May 11, 2018 @04:27AM (#17045752)
The paper mentioned how randomization (a lottery draw on odd/even birth dates) was done among employees who expressed interest. So it is a randomized experiment.
Re:Study Shows a Productivity Boost of Working From Home
on Friday May 11, 2018 @04:23AM (#17045733)
According to the paper, the random selection was done on participants who expressed interest.
> Approximately half of the employees (503) were interested, particularly those who had less education and tenure, their own rooms, and faced longer commutes. Of these, 249 were qualified to take part in the experiment by virtue of having at least six months’ tenure, broadband access, and a private room at home in which they could work. After a lottery draw, those em- ployees with even-numbered birthdays were selected to work from home, and those with odd-numbered birthdates stayed in the office to act as the control group.
Re:Write Emails Faster with Smart Compose in Gmail
on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @02:37PM (#17023480)
In the new equilibrium of people sending lots of automated emails, how would the receiver of an email distinguish between a canned response and a real response? I suspect the incentive to properly signal your email as real can reduce adoption of "Smart Compose" for non-trivial communication. So that leaves us with use cases like scheduling meetings, quick updates or alerts - most of which are already automated in some extent through notification and logging.
Re:Using Prediction Markets to Track Information Flows: Evidence from...
on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @02:21PM (#17023293)
You're right. But I think the single-value, hyper-transparent nature of prediction market can create an institutional feedback loop that's more powerful than what arises from the diverse, individually held opinions that others don't know about.
Re:Using Prediction Markets to Track Information Flows: Evidence from...
on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @12:00AM (#17018717)
How do you deal with the cultural challenge of convincing people there's value and selfish benefits to having more transparency?
I've noticed that in large organizations certain information are held by a small number of people who may be reluctant to share them for political reasons. Another challenge with internal prediction markets is the possibility that knowing the "probability" of an project-related outcome reduces morale and hence creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that further reduces the chance of success. Appreciate your insights.
Interviewing is a noisy prediction problem
Unlocking the Business Secrets of Escape Rooms
Re:Relative's DNA from genealogy websites cracked East Area Rapist case
on Friday April 27, 2018 @12:20AM (#16938433)
Interesting point - I highly doubt the suspect was a "prior suspect". But in this case I believe investigators were able to find additional evidence after they matched the DNA. So in Bayesian terms, multiple updates (DNA match + location match + suspect appearance match + other physical evidence) were made to their prior.
Additionally, I think investigators tend to act more carefully in a high profile case than in a typical case, so I expect that they possess some additional conclusive evidence.
Re:Boeing and Airbus, the new ‘super duopoly’
on Thursday April 26, 2018 @10:52PM (#16938128)
It sounds like Peter Thiel's argument about how natural monopolies can afford to invest heavily in R&D because they're financially comfortable. And how competitive industries supposedly don't offer the same room for research. I think he's mistaken on this but nonetheless it's a compelling argument in some cases.
Here's his essay where he expands on it: https://www.wsj.com/articles/peter-thiel-competition-is-for-...
Re:Boeing and Airbus, the new ‘super duopoly’
on Thursday April 26, 2018 @09:36PM (#16937785)
Increasing returns to scale isn't the only way unit costs can go down. Competitive forces typically incentivize companies to come up with new ways to increase productivity and reduce cost. Having even one competitor is enough to meaningfully reshape the incentives of a monopolist. But you may well be right about the negative utility of having 4 vs 3 companies in this particular industry.
Re:Relative's DNA from genealogy websites cracked East Area Rapist case
on Thursday April 26, 2018 @09:16PM (#16937646)
Lots of people in the DNA databases are relatives to someone who lived in Sacramento.
The lead came from the police searching through DNA databases which identified some set of relatives who were suspicious, but they later obtained the DNA from the suspect himself which was an exact match to what was gathered from crime scenes.