When each proud fighter brags

Remembering Max Chiswick, may his memory be a blessing.

Donations 2022-2024

editorial note: This post is incomplete, but I'm publishing it in its current form in the hopes that it'll be helpful to other people thinking about their end-of-year donation decisions. While I, as ever, recommend that every serious donor use a donor advised fund to allow

Drug development costs can range over two orders of magnitude

A clinical trial is a statistical problem multiplied by a logistical problem; some drugs are dramatically easier to study than others.

Poker is a bad game for teaching epistemics. Figgie is a better one.

Editor's note: Somewhat after I posted this on my own blog, Max Chiswick cornered me at a conference and gave me a whole new perspective on this topic. I now believe that there is a way to use poker to sharpen epistemics that works dramatically better than anything

Asimov on building robots without the First Law

From Caves of Steel, pp. 160-161 in my version. “Why can’t a robot be built without the First Law? What’s so sacred about it?” Dr. Gerrigel looked startled, then tittered, “Oh, Mr. Baley.” “Well, what’s the answer?” “Surely, Mr. Baley, if you even know a little about