Caleb Watney

Come Work with IFP | IFP IFP is currently hiring — join the team!

🚨 We're hiring!

Join @ifp.bsky.social’s metascience team to rethink how science gets funded and organized.

Fellow & Senior Fellow roles open — $3K referral bonus if we hire your recommendation.

Apply by May 11:

ifp.org/come-work-wi...

@calebwatney.bsky.social of Institute for Progress on much-needed reforms of US funding for investments in science that make a lot more sense than DOGE slash-and-burn. via @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/o...

Opinion | DOGE Needs a Different Playbook for Science We need less administrative bloat in science.

Smart piece on need for more risk-taking in US science www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/o... by @calebwatney.bsky.social of @ifp.bsky.social

(Learn more abt IFP’s smart sci/med ideas — including some stuff by me & others on clinical trials — on their website.)

🎯🎯🎯
marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevo...

A very interesting argument from @mtabarrok.bsky.social that credential inflation in education (without corresponding real gains in human capital) has made the Great Stagnation look a bit worse than it actually is.
www.maximum-progress.com/p/is-the-gre...

Training Scientists in Low and Middle Income Countries The evidence is thin but it probably works

New post, coauthored with Caroline Fry! mattsclancy.substack.com/p/training-s...

A Census for Science The potential of metascience rests on its promise to offer an unparalleled account of the determinants of scientific and technological progress. Whereas earlier efforts to understand progress have rel...

macroscience is back today with @calebwatney.bsky.social thinking about how data limits the promise of metascience, and arguing for the need for a census-style effort in the space

www.macroscience.org/p/a-census-f...

I enjoyed having the opportunity to testify a few days ago before the House Science Committee on the areas where federal AI R&D funding can go the furthest:
progress.institute/where-can-fe...

My mom is reading Dune because she wants to connect with me and have me explain the plot 😭

New spring 2023 Journal of Economic Perspectives issue: housing/urban economics, universal health insurance, mental health, + a bonus teaching-oriented piece on event study models from Doug Miller: aeaweb.org/issues/721

How YIMBYs Won Montana A wave of legislation designed to reform local zoning rules and boost housing is sweeping this GOP-led state, thanks to an unusual left-right coalition of supporters.

Montana is on track to adopt perhaps the most ambitious state-level YIMBY reform package yet: legalizing duplexes, establishing as-of-right permitting, and requiring that zoning be informed by realistic assessments of housing need, among many reforms.

Why Does Nuclear Power Plant Construction Cost So Much? - Institute for Progress The source of clean energy shouldn't be displaying "negative learning" over time

Everything you could possible want to know about nuclear power plant construction costs 🏗️⚡
https://progress.institute/nuclear-power-plant-construction-costs/

Core econtwitter subgraph is looking great 1/

@calebwatney.bsky.social
@heidiwilliams.bsky.social
@ryanradia.bsky.social
@josephpolitano.bsky.social
@birb.bsky.social
@neoliberal.bsky.social
@novosad.bsky.social
@wojtek.kopczuk.com
@basilhalperin.bsky.social
@instrumenthull.bsky.social

Anyone have any hot takes on buying a couch?

Had a blast at @calebwatney.bsky.social / @alecstapp.bsky.social / EIG conference in Lancaster, PA

Bluesky - Apps on Google Play See what's next

📢 Android is finally here! 🎉

Google takes a while to update their search so here’s the direct link:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=xyz.blueskyweb.app&hl=en_US

Ty 🙏

Make a proper Android app @bsky.app