William M. Briggs

Scientists Discover Way To Increase Publication Count

Anybody who has spent any time in a university library amidst the papers of his specialty knows that the absolute last thing which is needed is more of them. Journals…

Statistics

Krauthammer’s Wrong: NSA Spying Not Equivalent To Policing

Charles Krauthammer ought to be taken seriously. He said yesterday from his daily perch that he wasn't concerned about NSA spying on Americans because there hasn't been any or many…

Culture Statistics

You Do Too Have Something To Hide

"Let them look at my phone records. I have nothing to hide. They can read all my emails. There's nothing there worth reading." We hear this primarily from the young,…

Culture

Smartness Is False And Oppresive: Zeus–Update

Aristophanes was right. He said, "Open your mouth and shut your eyes and see what Zeus will send you." In other words, no need to be smart and think when…

Statistics

Data Mining, PRISM, NSA & False Positives: Update

Remember how---this is a really brief history lesson--remember how the NSA, CIA, FBI, and many other of those lettered agencies with their ever-increasing budgets, super-sophisticated computers, genius brain mathematicians, statisticians,…

Philosophy Statistics

What Should Philosophers Of Statistics Do?

A while back, far longer than it should have been, D.G. Mayo asked me to stop by her place and comment on a couple of posts. But laziness and excessive…

Philosophy Statistics

Never Say “Caused By Chance”

One of the services of this blog is grammatical guidance. In that spirit, here are phrases which should be forbidden, and will be once I am in charge (all highlights…

Book review Culture

George Weigel’s Evangelical Catholicism, A Brief Review

Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church, George Weigel. The Good Old Days may never have existed, but surely there were better days. Worse days, too. It is also…

John M on The Only Metric That Matters: Or, Pinker’s FollyMarch 17, 2026
"How many souls make it to Heaven" is an attribute that can't be expressed with variable data.
Brian (bulaoren) on The Only Metric That Matters: Or, Pinker’s FollyMarch 17, 2026
As it happens, Stephen Pinker and I were at the same university, around the same time. No, I don't recall…
bob sykes on The Only Metric That Matters: Or, Pinker’s FollyMarch 17, 2026
Humanism might be a better guide, if you are a high-IQ Greek philospher like Aristotle, or even Nietzsche. But for…
Uncle Mike on The Only Metric That Matters: Or, Pinker’s FollyMarch 17, 2026
"...the only metric that matters is how many souls make it to Heaven..." This metric is tough to measure. There's…
JH on The Only Metric That Matters: Or, Pinker’s FollyMarch 17, 2026
What Pinker missed was that if a religion is true, then living by its tenets is best. What does it…

William M. Briggs

The Only Metric That Matters: Or, Pinker’s Folly

Lancet Discovers Public Health Is Politics

Class 82: Be More Uncertain (About Models)

On Not Reading

The Great Smoothing: Another Reason Not To Fear (or trust) AI

A Synchronicity Or Coincidence? What Is Behind Curious Events?

Class 81: The Second Biggest Error In Time Series

The Paper Test Shows Why AGI Is Not Possible: And Why The Brain Is Different In Kind

Researcher Imagines Weather With No Human Influence: Concludes Climate Change Hurts Incomes

Faith Deposited: Why Godless Science Fails

Class 80: Granger Causality; Per Se & Accidental Time Series; Stationarity

Scientists Seeking To Escape Criticism Run To The Warmth & Comfort Of Bluesky

The Loss of Ephemera — Guest Post by The Blonde Bombshell

Class 79: Time Series Example

The Importance Of Not Making Decisions

Don’t Take The ‘Long-Covid’ Alzheimer’s Study Seriously

AI Is Driving Many Crazy: Our Latest Panic

Class 78: The Attempt To Turn Correlation Lead Into Causation Gold In Time Series

Desperate Need For Equality: AP Exam Performance

Some Sanity: Experts Sued For Creating Gender Delusions

Why The Recent Claims Of AGI Fail: Plus, A New Test For AGI