ISIR 2017 Montreal – poster + poster talk
For sound academic damage control reasons, I was given a poster at ISIR this year. So, I improvised and did a very brief poster talk. More!?: Poster Paper
Free trade: yay or not? (Review of Free Trade Doesn’t Work: What Should Replace It and Why)
Recently, I decided it was time for catching up on my to-read list. I try to read >=30 books a year, and I was behind, owing to spending a lot of time on company work. I also wanted to avoid reading too much of the same stuff. Two reasons. First, I want to avoid getting […]
Getting Logitech G502 to work on Linux Mint 18.1
So, Logitech software only works for Windows. Unfortunately, the sensitivity is extremely high by default, making the mouse much less useful. The extra buttons also have no function, which is annoying. So, I wanted to fix this. The mouse actually saves the setting on itself, meaning that the settings are plug-and-play-able. Meaning that my G502 […]
Race and exam pass rates (data dump)
In the SSC subreddit, someone reposted that data showing the strong race bias in the admission process for medicine. I reposted it on Twitter with some snark, to the usual effect: How racism looks like. I recommend keeping this in mind when you choose a doctor. t.co/0RzYyaT1gq pic.twitter.com/ftVX5uvMDg — Emil OW Kirkegaard (@KirkegaardEmil) June 23, […]
There’s a lot more to the Mendelians
There’s a highly interesting new paper out: The Genetic Basis of Mendelian Phenotypes: Discoveries, Challenges, and Opportunities (Mendelians are also known as monogenic disorders because they are inherited in patterns that follow Mendel’s laws.) Abstract: Discovering the genetic basis of a Mendelian phenotype establishes a causal link between genotype and phenotype, making possible carrier and […]
Regression Modeling Strategies (2nd ed.) – Frank Harrell (review)
www.goodreads.com/book/show/10753824-regression-modeling-strategies I heard some good things about this book, and some of it is good. Surely, the general approach outlined in the introduction is pretty sound. He sets up the following principles: Satisfaction of model assumptions improves precision and increases statistical power. It is more productive to make a model fit step by step (e.g., […]
New paper out: Admixture in Argentina (with John Fuerst)
We have a new big paper out: Kirkegaard, E. O. W., & Fuerst, J. (2017). Admixture in Argentina. Mankind Quarterly, 57(4). Retrieved from mankindquarterly.org/archive/issue/57-4/4 Abstract Analyses of the relationships between cognitive ability, socioeconomic outcomes, and European ancestry were carried out at multiple levels in Argentina: individual (max. n = 5,920), district (n = 437), municipal […]
Against CFAR
Note: snarky, critical. Happy to be proven wrong. Edit: after writing this, I found some more evidence, but it’s not particularly convincing either. CFAR, The Center for Applied Rationality, is connected to the Less Wrong/rationalist movement. They offer courses where one can: 4-day immersive trainings in applied rationality; form accurate beliefs; learn to get these […]
LessWrong, MIRI etc. meltdown
What happens if you take a bunch of socially inept, above average intelligence, and mentally ill people and have them try to do stuff together? Sounds like a disaster. Well… lesswrong.com/lw/p23/dragon_army_theory_charter_30min_read/ One comment, which I repost here because some are advocating for censorship, is very telling: Comment author: 18239018038528017428 26 May 2017 08:43:41PM * 22 […]
The race and intelligence question is solvable
In reply to: nautil.us/issue/48/chaos/what-both-the-left-and-right-get-wrong-about-race www.geneticshumanagency.org/gha/origin-of-race-differences-in-intelligence-is-not-a-scientific-question/ There’s a new kind of ‘environmentalist’ (rather, anti-hereditarian) defense in town, or at least, one that’s not commonly seen. It goes like this: This is the first of a series of blog posts about race and intelligence. My opinions on this topic are, I think, the least popular arguments I […]