Simon Christmas

I wanted to repost every part of this excellent thread. This one will do. Amen.

Qualitative research isn't a consolation prize for when we can't get 'real' numbers. It's a different way of knowing; one that captures complexity, context, and meaning that statistics alone cannot provide.

Typographical tracking. Smart. Also a bit creepy. :)

Well this is very delightful. Went to the bookshop to get this - which is already exciting - and on getting home realised it’s signed by @dannybate.bsky.social himself.

How excited am I? (Clue: more than very.)

All morning R4 has been saying that this will be the first time the head of the Church of England has prayed with the Pope *certainly* since the Reformation and *possibly* ever. I, meanwhile, am screaming at the radio and reaching for the green ink…

Yep

I am so glad that, when I was prompted by a PC-UK campaign to speak to my GP, he introduced me to the evidence and let me make a more informed decision.

People are not average #532. This train seat has little wings to support your head which are in fact digging into my shoulders.

Maybe just stick ersatz on everything. They ersatz-lie and ersatz-cheat.

Is there anything Aristotle *didn't* already think about?

Andy Street is spot on. Birmingham is a brilliant city. Vibrant, diverse, wonderful.

I can think of plenty of places in the UK where Robert Jenrick could go and see *only* white faces; but I doubt he’d complain about a “lack of integration” if he went to them, or worry that that they were “not the kind of country he wants to live in”.

In discussion with a computer scientist from the University of Cambridge last night:

Me: "you've described some of the things that AI is good at. How would you describe the category of things it's not good at?

**pause**

Him: "Anything where it has to be right".

This and this again. Just astonishing to watch parties on all sides of this debate blather on as if no one else in the world had even thought of ID.

Colleague tried out using AI to summarise summaries she herself had written of relevant papers (which she had identified and read). Even in that limited use the result was disappointing and in a few cases misleading, and we went back to doing our own “summary summary”.

Ooh. I’ll read later. Thanks. (FWIW, my standard line I trot out is that the problem with the phrase “behaviour change” is that it dodges the question of who is the subject of the verb “change”.)

Similar. And if “hahaha” is satisfactory, “LOLZ” is… 🤮

Always feel a bit self-conscious using emoticons, but 😂

He would probably have liked one of these Visigothic iPads.

I’d suggest this isn’t that creative or a “could”. I think it’s already happening, at least in areas I’ve worked in. Needs more promotion, though, definitely - and I don’t anticipate that coming from the Nudge Unit!

One observation on: “More creatively, it could involve raising awareness of ubiquitous attempts to shape decision-making, and equipping citizens with the psychological and deliberative toolkit to define and implement – individually and collectively – their own behaviour change agenda.” [1/2]

Unless they’re revolting peasants

Enough already. Those people Reform are gunning for - they’re not the abstract, faceless creatures of fever dreams. They’re your neighbours, your friends, the people who cure and care and carry for you.

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As a rule of thumb, I suspect they can be useful for use cases which require Large Language Models (what it says on the tin) and not Large Knowledge Models.

I was prompted by this to read the comments section too, and now wish I hadn’t.

The UK’s problems aren’t caused by immigration [FREE TO READ] It’s not hard to see how so many came to worry about the issue. But the data isn’t there

Alexander von Humboldt taught us to try to understand the world both by looking at the data, and by going out, looking carefully and trusting our own senses.
With this in mind, I wonder what he'd have made of our debate about immigration?
on.ft.com/4pkDIJ8

Interview: Helen Castor The tragic reigns of Richard II and Henry IV and the challenges of medieval history

Ahead of the paperback publication of Helen Castor’s fabulous The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV, I’ve reposted my interview with her from the top of the year.

Bernardino had a thing for sweaty gym locker smells maybe? (Deodorant is such a turn off.)