David Wachsmuth

Just lurking mostly!

The Overhead: Decommodifying Housing - Spacing National THIS EPISODE: Decommodifying Housing On previous episodes of this series, we’ve talked about the impact of an over-financialized housing market. It adds to the affordability crisis, and leads to evict...

On our @spacingradio.bsky.social housing series The Overhead, we talk about decommodifying housing. Housing is big money, and it’s leading to unaffordable rents and displacement. Is there an alternative? spacing.ca/national/202...

From Bits to Embeddings – A Critical Introduction to Information Theory A comprehensive introduction to classical information theory as conceived by Claude Shannon and its connections to neural networks and large language models today.

I wrote a comprehensive introduction to basic information theory, with added context from social scientists of the cybernetics movement (Gregory Bateson) & later (Katherine Hayles). It covers everything from bit encoding to comparative metrics like cross-entropy.

mikaelbrunila.com/information-...

What an amazing and terrifying story from @nickhunebrown.bsky.social !

😩😩😩

Really thought we might see a George Bell drop kick there!

Reflections from CAEH 2025: A Sector United for the Right to Housing This week, the Balanced Supply of Housing team attended the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH) conference, and we left energized, inspired, and reminded of something crucial: we are part of…

"For housing-first to succeed, we need housing first"—key insight from our BSH panel at #CAEH2025

With fed budget next week and $13B committed to affordable #housing and homelessness, the sector is mobilized.

Full reflections:

Carney should appoint Vladdy to be the new special envoy on trade!

If you are interested in data, large language models (LLMs), and historical/critical accounts of technology, go check out @mikaelbrunila.bsky.social's new article out in @bigdatasoc.bsky.social!

Chapter three from my thesis is finally out in @bigdatasoc.bsky.social! I explore the parallels between the "bit" and the "embeddings" that are a foundational structure in Large Language Models, showing how the latter endow tech companies with what I call "cosine capital."

bsky.app/profile/bigd...

This is something that Montreal, for all its public realm successes, also hasn’t managed to pull off. So many beautiful parks starving for a simple coffee stand!

This is a known phenomenon in the (admittedly small!) literature on rental price stickiness. Here’s my quick write up of the question from a forthcoming paper on STRs and long-term rents.

New article: Martine August and I's paper on financial landlords and rents in Toronto is out in @economyandspace.bsky.social! We show how financial landlords charge the highest rents, rent premiums, and rent increases out of all types of landlords. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Listen to the Overhead Episode 11: Tracking Evictions Across Canada Evictions are a problem for renters across the country, but they're difficult to quantify and many go unreported. Hear from BSH researchers Alexandra Flynn and David Wachsmuth for more on the topic.

In my new role at Dal Legal Aid, I’ve been thinking a lot about evictions lately. And what I’ve been finding is that there is a dearth of data in Canada about the level and nature of evictions in Canada. This podcast episode is all about what we *do* know…(it’s not great)

bsh.ubc.ca/episode-11-t...

So well deserved!!! Congrats, Craig!

Ship it!!

Looks awesome, and proud to see 66.7% of panelists are McGill MUP grads!

The Overhead: Tracking Evictions Across Canada - Spacing National THIS EPISODE: Tracking Evictions Across Canada Evictions are a problem for renters across the country. As we explored in the last episode: part of tackling the housing crisis requires improving “secur...

We have a new episode of The Overhead for you! How do evictions change from province to province? Are evictions caused by poverty, or do they cause poverty? All that and more: spacing.ca/national/202... @bshnode.bsky.social

What can we learn about eviction policy by comparing provinces and municipalities? Be the first to hear from experts Alexandra Flynn and @davidwachsmuth.bsky.social on the challenges of tracking evictions in our latest episode of the Overhead with @spacingradio.bsky.social.

https://buff.ly/3D78t0W

This is such an excellent and perceptive essay on the politics of AI. Historicization and politicization in one package. Highly recommended!

I'm so happy to see my dear friend @sethjprins.bsky.social;;s new book!

When it comes to measuring cause and effect, Seth is one of the clearest, more rigorous thinkers out there. Don't sleep on this text!

Also pretty striking how QC and BC are building proportionally so much more multifamily than anywhere else—about 10-1 in both cases

Huge congrats, @jasonthorne.bsky.social !

We put together a starter pack of some of our favourite commentators and policymakers on housing in Canada (those who have made the jump to bluesky!) Follow these folks for meaningful engagement on housing in Canada.
go.bsky.app/LrYY3kV

Another revised All Things Urban and Housing @bsky.app Starters Pack 3.0!...at least from my perspective + bias

Welcome @davidwachsmuth.bsky.social + @jdhulchanski.bsky.social !!!

go.bsky.app/3hpC7aT