Nick

Software engineer. Newcomb’s Paradox one-boxer. Interested in forecasting, chess, functional programming.

[Alex Beal 🆎 @beala]

Ever get frustrated trying to edit long threads on here? I built a thing! (1/2)

[Nick @nvanderw]

@JgaltTweets Looks fun, approved

[Nick @nvanderw]

@dam13nmatthews @dawuss @DannyDutch @stephanierieger if you hear a story like that you should be pretty skeptical. acronyms are among the most common false etymologies, see e.g. https://t.co/4IZMRKtyin

[Nick @nvanderw]

@JgaltTweets That's probably true. Both the Scottish and Irish systems of PR came out of major reforms in 1998 (Scotland Act and Good Friday Agreement). I suspect it's hard to move to PR in an incrementalist way because both establishment parties will see their seats decrease.

[Nick @nvanderw]

Why does the English-speaking world favor the worst electoral system (FPTP) in the world of representative governments? https://t.co/wluhFpXi4N

[Nick @nvanderw]

@JgaltTweets You mean unlikely right?

[Nick @nvanderw]

@JgaltTweets I just approved an upcoming question on whether UK parliament will use proportional representation: https://t.co/wtupmWCnGQ

[Nick @nvanderw]

@BartoszMilewski gotta be careful where you smoke!

[Nick @nvanderw]

@binarybits It’s a really bad feature!

[Nick @nvanderw]

My take on an implementation of Meek's algorithm for STV counting https://t.co/NYjNf852Tf

[Nick @nvanderw]

My overall sense from looking into these electoral systems/writing computer implementations is that incurring the complexity of STV only makes sense if you can't do party lists for some reason. e.g. I think StackExchange's use of STV makes sense https://t.co/MWztRH7CgB

[Nick @nvanderw]

@JgaltTweets I'm not sure that's actually bad if so... anyway that sort of dysfunction doesn't sound so bad from the US perspective, where we can't get anything done because of our wacky presidential system, and there actually are $20 bills lying on the ground politically speaking

[Nick @nvanderw]

@JgaltTweets Do PR systems with coalition governments turn out to be especially dysfunctional in that way? I wonder if they just better approximate median voter preferences, so there isn't as much arbitrage to capture by moving policy one way or another.

[Nick @nvanderw]

@JgaltTweets Changing how we elect single-member districts seems like a total sideshow to me. How about... not having single member districts

[Nick @nvanderw]

@JgaltTweets I'm not sure what the voters' reasons were but AV/IRV with single member districts is still pretty bad compared to STV or party lists! Not sure I would support it either. Look at recent AK results that defeated Palin -- R's cast majority of votes but elected a D!