Jonathan Huggins

Assistant Professor of Statistics + Computing & Data Sciences at Boston University | dad, rower, he/him | @StatisticsBU | @BU_CDS | @BU_Computing | @BU_Tweets

[Jonathan Huggins @jhhhuggins]

1/N New preprint w/ Jeff Miller tackling a persistent practical issue w/ Bayes: when your assumed model is wrong (which it basically always is!), the posterior can yield self-contradictory and over-confident results. We offer a simple, easy-to-use solution https://t.co/275ZLnEPO1

[Bryan Cheong @bryancsk]

I'm Bayesian but like the Gaussian Process sort not the ones in Berkeley, California

[M. Nolan Gray 🥑 @mnolangray]

Thanks to a series YIMBY reforms—and high-quality administration—in San Diego, the city has been in the midst of a building boom, even as construction has plummeted elsewhere. The result? Rents are down six months in a row.

[YIMBYLAND @YIMBYLAND]

A better world is possible!

[YIMBYLAND @YIMBYLAND]

Dog, this looks amazing.

[Alicia, Courtyard Urbanist @UrbanCourtyard]

Americans EXCEL at dense, walkable urbanism when they're designing ski resorts

[Jonathan Huggins @jhhhuggins]

@roydanroy Congratulations! An exciting new chapter

[Dan Roy @roydanroy]

Big announcement time...

Today is my last day as Research Director at the Vector Institute.

It has been my incredible privilege over the past 2.5 years to serve the Vector community and help build an institution that supports world-class ML research and real-world impact.

[Dan Roy @roydanroy]

Too close to home?

Junior researcher: I’m publishing papers at NeurIPS, my students are happy, but my chair says I’m “not impactful enough.” I don’t know what that means.

Senior researcher: What did you tell them you accomplished last year?

Junior: 3 top-tier papers, a new theoretical result on regret bounds, and an invited talk.

Senior: And what did they hear?

Junior: That I published 3 papers?

Senior: They heard “I added to the publication count, but didn’t bring in grants or visibility for the department.”

Junior: But regret bounds are impactful!

Senior: To who?

Junior: To… theorists?

Senior: Your chair spends 20 minutes a month justifying your position to the dean. Can they use regret bounds to argue for funding?

Junior: …probably not.

Senior: What external metrics did your work move?

Junior: One collaboration, one best paper award, and some citations. We don’t really track grant impact.

Senior: There’s the problem. Half your contributions are invisible by design.

Junior: But theory is necessary. The field would break without it.

Senior: I believe you. The dean doesn’t care.

Junior: That seems unfair.

Senior: It is unfair. It’s also how academia works. Chairs get grilled on grants, rankings, and prestige, not the long-run stability of ML theory.

Junior: So what should I do?

Senior: Reframe. “Secured $500K in funding to explore foundational algorithms” sounds better than “proved a tighter regret bound.”

Junior: But I don’t have that funding.

Senior: Then you’re fighting academic reality without weapons.

Junior: I don’t have time to write grants and still publish.

Senior: Most junior faculty don’t. That’s the trap — you get judged on impact but don’t get impact resources.

Junior: So what do I do?

Senior: Acknowledge the game is rigged, then play it anyway.

Junior: Meaning?

Senior: Build collaborations that attract funding. Tie your theory to hot applied areas. Translate your results into language deans understand.

Junior: That feels political.

Senior: Everything above a certain level is political. The choice isn’t political vs pure. It’s visible vs irrelevant.

Junior: What if my chair still doesn’t care?

Senior: Then you’ve learned your chair doesn’t know how to evaluate theory. That’s a different problem — one you solve by finding a better environment.

Junior: This is harder than just proving good theorems.

Senior: Proving good theorems is table stakes. Surviving academia while proving good theorems — that’s the actual job.

[Dylan Foster 🐢 @canondetortugas]

Microsoft Research New York City is seeking applicants for multiple Postdoctoral Researcher positions in ML/AI!

These are positions for up to 2 years, starting in July 2026.

Application deadline: October 22, 2025

[Jonathan Huggins @jhhhuggins]

@economeager Love it!

[Rodney Brooks @rodneyabrooks]

"Every so often a new AI development comes along and great excitement ensues as people stumble over themselves convinced that the key to intelligence has been unlocked." Me writing about AI overhype 37+ years ago. Old dogs, old tricks. Yes, I did look like that. https://t.co/kcA9zcmNeU

[Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @Noahpinion]

You can just be a liberal

You don't have to be a "progressive" or a leftist

Liberalism is good, it works

[sam @sam_d_1995]

this is actually incredible

[JD Ross @justindross]

Something that actually makes housing cheaper:

[YIMBYLAND @YIMBYLAND]

Legalize "point access block" apartments like this country-wide and watch the housing crisis disappear faster than you can say 'not in my backyard'.

[Hunter📈🌈📊 @StatisticUrban]

Hairless cats are highly underrated

Pictured is Yoda, a very stupid name but I was young when I named him

[Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler]

RE: Abundance Discourse

Some regulations are bad and should be reformed. Markets sometimes serve poor and working people's interests. We should judge policies by their outcomes, not their proponents' stated intentions. Good things are good. Bad things are bad.

[David Pfau @pfau]

From the other site. It's harder to see the impact here since so many scientists fled, but the NIH cuts are having a real impact. Whole labs are shutting down, careers are ending. Pediatric cancer research ffs.

[Jonathan Huggins @jhhhuggins]

@COPSSNews @ArthurGretton @LesterMackey Congratulations @LesterMackey!! Very well deserved!

[COPSS @COPSSNews]

🙌🎉Our 2025 recipient of the COPSS Presidents' Award, is Lester Mackey! This award is given annually to a young member of the statistical community in recognition of outstanding contributions to the profession of statistics.