Chris Said

Data Science at @ThePropelApp. Formerly: Stitch Fix, Opendoor, Twitter, Facebook, neuroscience.

[David Coman-Hidy @davidcomanhidy]

I've been working on farm animal protection for a while now, and I haven't seen anything quite like what's happening around the Save Our Bacon Act.

People who have never organized before, including some genuinely prominent voices, are hosting events, calling senators, and fundraising from friends. And those of us who have been here a while, across many ideological divides and every strategic disagreement, are showing up together.

We've always punched above our weight (out of necessity!), but this feels substantively very different. The political and social cost of supporting this barbarism is finally rising.

[Chris Said @Chris_Said]

Link to post
https://t.co/Fh2ZFk0gEo

[Chris Said @Chris_Said]

What ever happened to Dr. Oz?

Read my new blog post to learn about his surprisingly competent tenure at CMS, and how he is reshaping Medicare and Medicaid.

Link below...

[Lewis Bollard @Lewis_Bollard]

Three powerful pieces on the Save Our Bacon Act dropped this weekend: from @NickKristof, @kathleenparker, and @Noahpinion.

This is much needed. The mainstream media has been silent on what may be the greatest legislative threat to animal welfare in a generation.

There's been a grassroots revolt against the Act on X -- led by conservatives. But only one network has covered it: Fox, thanks to @TomiLahren.

This is exactly what the pork industry wants. It knows the Act is deeply unpopular. Its paid-for politicians can only pass it if they're never forced to defend it publicly.

They were hoping you wouldn't notice. They're now hoping you'll stay quiet. Prove them wrong.

[Crémieux @cremieuxrecueil]

One of the saddest things about the increase in AI writing is the loss of uniqueness.

I gathered people's earlier papers if they had them. When they start using AI to write their work, it all sounds alike, not like how they once wrote.

All writing is adopting one boring voice.

[Paul Novosad @paulnovosad]

One of our society's worst brainworms is this compulsive tearing down of anyone who tries to do anything good.

Bill Gates is the most ethical and pro-social billionaire that we have. If all the billionaires were like him, our world would be better in many many ways.

[Chris Said @Chris_Said]

@kvallier Honestly some of their language is inadvertently humanizing

[Simon Grimm @Simon__Grimm]

The 'rolling dice' model for recessions is much more intuitive than the boom-bust cycle.

Take Germany. Its travails are explained by several negative shocks: the nuclear shutdown, the gas crisis, Chinese competition, all hitting an economy that is performant but inflexible.

[Lewis Bollard @Lewis_Bollard]

Great news: the Senate farm bill base text won't include the Save Our Bacon Act, which would wipe out state bans on pork from crated pigs.

Senate Ag Chair John Boozman said it's too controversial to include. That's thanks to everyone who called and posted about this.

But the fight's not over. Iowa's Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst will likely now try to add the SOB Act to the bill as a committee amendment.

Keep the calls to your senators going: [phone]. Tell them: no farm bill with the Save Our Bacon Act in it. We can win this.

Photo credit: WeAnimals.

[Arpit Gupta @arpitrage]

Good Will Hunting 2: a group of mathematicians urge a promising plumber aspirant to pursue this lucrative career

[Josh Barro @jbarro]

I feel like a new “Don’t Block the Box” enforcement surge would be popular across the political spectrum. It’s traffic enforcement, but it’s also pro-car because it speeds up traffic.

[Dwarkesh Patel @dwarkesh_sp]

In 2022, I cold emailed @bryan_caplan about how much I liked his books. I was a college Sophomore. COVID had hit - I was stuck at home and very bored.

I wasn't expecting him to respond, but he wrote back an encouraging message.

That gave me enough temerity to ask him to be inaugural guest of a podcast I was thinking of starting. And he gave a total rando kid a good amount of his time.

Even more generously, that summer, he allowed me to join him for lunch nearly every day, and from these daily debates with him, I learned a lot about how to ask interesting questions and evaluate different viewpoints.

Grateful to call Bryan a friend and a mentor.

[Chris Said @Chris_Said]

Gotta give credit to Jacobin for publishing this. I enjoyed reading it.

[Jacobin @jacobin]

Even supercomputers won’t solve the problems inherent to central planning.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t need to replace capitalism with something better: https://t.co/ua3b5AAwnN

[Animal Equality @AnimalEquality]

🚨 BREAKING: Kroger, one of the largest grocers in the world, has chosen to leave hens in cages. They promised to end this cruelty. Today, we're launching a campaign to hold @kroger accountable. No more rotten egg promises.

#kroger #krogerhealth #wearekroger

[Kelsey Piper @KelseyTuoc]

https://t.co/MrrYy687yx

[Alec Stapp @AlecStapp]

Until recently, AI slop on here has been ~mostly limited to engagement farming accounts in developing countries.

But now I'm starting to see high-status people in the tech industry post 3,000-word slop articles that get >1 million views. Zero shame/self-awareness.

Bleak stuff.

[Chris Said @Chris_Said]

@AaronBergman18 All boats rise

[David Shor @davidshor]

@RichardHanania The post 1990 era was one of uncapping - uncapped donations and uncapped media consumption - effectively granting vast political power to the people most susceptible to fundraising emails and news feed algorithms

[Chris Said @Chris_Said]

https://t.co/xlouiMOiMk

[Nathan Witkin @NateWitkin]

Two very important caveats to the (excellent) new working paper on school phone bans from Alcott et al. (https://t.co/kdaIn5myaI).

First, the treatment—Yondr pouch adoption—only led to a .3 log point drop (~26%) in phone visits by year 2 (pg. 28, screenshot 1). I neither find it surprising this didn’t yield a significant effect on test scores, nor think it’s sufficient to rule out such an effect either with more time, or a stricter intervention.

Second, it’s a huge deal that a drop this small led to significant increases in subjective well-being across middle and high school, in the former’s case of a whole (school-level) SD in year 1 (pg. 33 and pg. 50, screenshots 2 and 3)! The latter is to my knowledge the largest well-being effect ever found for a phone-use intervention.

Very, very hard to see how anyone could use this study to argue against phone bans, rather than for them.

[Chris Said @Chris_Said]

I gotta admit I expected an effect from these school-wide bans.

[Scott Lincicome @scottlincicome]

New @nberpubs: "The Effects of School Phone Bans: National Evidence from Lockable Pouches" https://t.co/Al403lL2TT