Paul Goldberg

@paulwgoldberg.bsky.social

680 followers 390 following 250 posts

Professor of Computer Science, Oxford University. Research interest in Algorithmic Game Theory, also Computational Complexity.
Also interested in good urbanism & cartoons
https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/paul.goldberg/index1.html .. more

Videos

Paul Goldberg is a geologist specializing in geomorphology and geoarchaeology who had done extensive worldwide field researches.

Source: Wikipedia

History 32%

Geology 23%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Paul Goldberg

Robin Kothari @robinkothari.bsky.social · 17h

Congrats to Matt Kovacs-Deak, Daochen Wang, and (undergraduate student!) Rain Zimin Yang on resolving the 30+ year old conjecture (by Lance Fortnow) in query complexity on rational degree vs. degree. What's more, the proof is like ~2 pages if you know the standard tools of query complexity!

Reposted by Paul Goldberg, Margot C. Finn

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 3d

Interesting discussion between @jburnmurdoch.ft.com and & @sarahoconnorft.ft.com on what developments in AI like Claude Code might mean for social science, including the risk it will lead to an increase in low quality work
www.ft.com/content/9183...

always clear that this is true. As economics professor Joshua Gans muses, when you reduce the cost of doing something, people will do more of it, but this tends to mean a reduction in the quality of the marginal activity that gets done.
In social science this could mean more low-quality research: writing up second-rate ideas that wouldn't have been acted upon if it required more effort. This is consistent with what we've seen in job applications, and is supported by a paper published last month (before the new agentic tools) finding that researchers who use LLMs publish many more papers, but much of the additional work is relatively low quality, and Al dilutes the signals previously used to spot valuable work.

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · 4d

I agree X is looking fairly indestructible and Bluesky poses no immediate challenge to it. But no longer feel like visiting X and prefer not to be seen to be supporting it in its present form

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · 4d

As far a Grok is concerned, its original sin was that it undermined the original function of Twitter, which was a facility for people to interact with each other, as opposed to, say, interacting with chatbots.

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · 4d

I disabled my X account last month and now it's permanently gone. I had been moderately active on Twitter for a few years. Twitter had its problems, but also had a certain spark, which was extinguished when it became X. I found myself feeling mournful whenever I logged on.
1/2

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · 5d

Not to worry, the Resolution Foundation reckons that higher business costs are just what we need to wipe out inefficient “zombie” businesses

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Collapse of ‘zombie’ UK firms forecast to fuel unemployment in 2026

Businesses being hit by rising cost of interest rates, energy costs and wages, says Resolution Foundation

www.theguardian.com

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · 9d

Thanks for you replies but you're portraying immigration as an all-or-nothing thing: we either have it or we don't. There needs to be a more nuanced approach to the topic: how much immigration, what sort of immigration. To be clear, I'm not suggesting we try to do without it.

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · 9d

But a population can never be perfectly stable. For a social model to be sustainable, it must be able to tolerate some modest shrinkage, right?

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · 9d

The problem with your post is that it leads to the conclusion that UK society cannot function without endless population growth. That's clearly an unsustainable model.

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · 11d

I was recently travelling business class, kid-free, found myself feeling nostalgic for travelling in economy class while holding a a baby

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · 12d

I have a great idea for a nom de plume, now all I need is a decent idea for a book

Reposted by Paul Goldberg, Tom Shakespeare, Helen King , and 2 more Paul Goldberg, Tom Shakespeare, Helen King, Cathy N. Davidson, Mary Burke

Ariaa® @ariaa.bsky.social · 12d

My friends in Austria sent this and I can't stop watching...wait for the end. 🤗💜

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · 12d

"Such findings open the door to new urban policies that balance immediate individual satisfaction with the collective optimisation of city life — what economists call the “price of anarchy”."

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 12d

How to unclog our cities ft.trib.al/hK32dgY | opinion

How to unclog our cities

Instant deliveries take their toll on urban centres but rewarding a few minutes’ delay can help

ft.trib.al

Reposted by Paul Goldberg

The Economist @economist.com · 12d

Brexit has deepened the British economy’s flaws and dulled its strengths. The question is what to do about it econ.st/4qwSix0

Photo: Magnum

Reposted by Paul Goldberg

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 12d

How to unclog our cities ft.trib.al/hK32dgY | opinion

How to unclog our cities

Instant deliveries take their toll on urban centres but rewarding a few minutes’ delay can help

ft.trib.al

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · 18d

Yes, I'd go with local time of poster

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · 19d

My guess: mostly, the stuff one posts earlier in the day is more important than stuff posted later. OK, right now it's getting late, but my above post was the first one I posted today, so no problem there...

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · 19d

My big idea for BlueSky is a facility that lets you follow someone while setting a limit N on the number of their posts you see from them in any one day. How about you just get shown their first N posts in a day. Thay way the followee can prioritise which posts he wants most widely seen.

Reposted by Paul Goldberg

CompSciOxford @compscioxford.bsky.social · 24d

The MSc AI for Business provides the skills & cutting-edge knowledge needed to manage AI systems that drive value in organisations. Be part of the first cohort, apply by 8 January to start in October 2026: www.cs.ox.ac.uk/pmp/study/ai...

An image of a man wearing a smart blue jumper and white collar, looking hopefully off into the distance. There is text in blue boxes on the left reading 'Technical expert and strategic leader’ and ‘MSc AI for Business’, beneath this there is white text reading ‘Join the first cohort’ ‘Apply by 8 January’. The background is a blurry brown-beige wall, and there are connected blue dots and lines that looks like a computer board.

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · 26d

Not for all of us. My opinion: you cite a paper, you‘ve read it.

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · 26d

Call me old fashioned but if you cite a paper, you supposed to have read it.

Reposted by Paul Goldberg

The Economist @economist.com · 26d

That the Republican state senators in Indiana who rejected a gerrymandering bill had the people and common sense on their side does not diminish their demonstration of character

A vote against gerrymandering shows why political courage is rare

Yet it is particularly valuable now

econ.st

Reposted by Ricard V. Solé, Paul Goldberg

Eva Miranda @evamirandag.bsky.social · 27d

Classical billiards can compute.

With Isaac Ramos, we show that 2D billiard systems are Turing complete, implying the existence of undecidable trajectories in physically natural models from hard-sphere gases to celestial mechanics.
Determinism ≠ predictability. 🎱🧠 @upc.edu @ricardsole.bsky.social

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · 28d

Pro tip: next time you invite an academic to give a talk, put them up in a nice resort hotel afterwards. The room should contain a photo of the speaker in mid-spiel. The photo should be made of fine chocolate.

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · 29d

Cheers! I did an ERASMUS exchange as a student in 1989 and so like to think of myself as an "early adopter" of ERASMUS. It's great to see it come back.

Reposted by Paul Goldberg

Anneliese Dodds MP @anneliesedoddsmp.bsky.social · 29d

Brilliant to hear Britain will be rejoining Erasmus. This is a really huge win for young people up and down the country, opening up new opportunities to study and train abroad! 🇪🇺 🇬🇧

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · Dec 15

Er, that’s the dystopia that voters are increasingly concerned about

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · Dec 13

That's quite an elegant depiction of political polarisation!

Paul Goldberg @paulwgoldberg.bsky.social · Dec 7

There's no one-size-fits-all answer to the question, of course. It depends mainly on whether you self-identify as an employee, or whether you have ambitions to move up.

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