Dan Seel
@danseel.bsky.social
Economic sociologist, PhD candidate, Wisconsin Badger, writing on: labor, elites, and power in the American South, also the transition debate.
"Above this ridge, new peaks will rise"
🌹🍉🦡
"Above this ridge, new peaks will rise"
🌹🍉🦡
Reposted by Dan Seel
when the AI bubble bursts and we have hundreds of extra GWs of capacity on the grid, power will then be too cheap to meter and the hall–héroult process will be essentially free. i propose spinning up the aluminum industry and providing a weekly ration of aluminum billets to all americans
A few important points here
- Generative AI supercharged data centre growth: lobbyist and substacker lines pretending like this is just streaming are false
- Even when you consider much of the projected growth is speculative, the *likely* projects are still MASSIVE
media.licdn.com/dms/document...
- Generative AI supercharged data centre growth: lobbyist and substacker lines pretending like this is just streaming are false
- Even when you consider much of the projected growth is speculative, the *likely* projects are still MASSIVE
media.licdn.com/dms/document...
December 4, 2025 at 7:28 PM
when the AI bubble bursts and we have hundreds of extra GWs of capacity on the grid, power will then be too cheap to meter and the hall–héroult process will be essentially free. i propose spinning up the aluminum industry and providing a weekly ration of aluminum billets to all americans
Reposted by Dan Seel
🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]
November 24, 2025 at 4:31 PM
🚨We analyzed 138 million geocoded property tax records to quantify how municipal boundaries spatially overlap onto economic segregation in every US metro area—creating disparities in localities’ ability to fund public goods. And we made an interactive map of our results! [1/16]
Reposted by Dan Seel
Ken Burns Revolution documentary drinking game where you take a shot every time you recognize the author of a primary source before the narrator tells you.
November 24, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Ken Burns Revolution documentary drinking game where you take a shot every time you recognize the author of a primary source before the narrator tells you.
Reposted by Dan Seel
“Sooner or later, one has to take sides, if one is to remain human.”
—Graham Greene, The Quiet American
—Graham Greene, The Quiet American
November 20, 2025 at 5:12 PM
“Sooner or later, one has to take sides, if one is to remain human.”
—Graham Greene, The Quiet American
—Graham Greene, The Quiet American
Reposted by Dan Seel
worth noting that the $30.2 million deficit the school is facing can be traced to ballooning admin salaries, real estate, and admin benefits, according to the economics department's analysis. the salaries for the actual professors is in line with or *below* the school's revenue growth
November 19, 2025 at 4:33 PM
worth noting that the $30.2 million deficit the school is facing can be traced to ballooning admin salaries, real estate, and admin benefits, according to the economics department's analysis. the salaries for the actual professors is in line with or *below* the school's revenue growth
I've done a decent amount of historical research on documents turned over in litigation and it never ceases to amaze me how many people are willing to write out "hey would you like to commit a felony with me"
November 12, 2025 at 4:46 PM
I've done a decent amount of historical research on documents turned over in litigation and it never ceases to amaze me how many people are willing to write out "hey would you like to commit a felony with me"
Reposted by Dan Seel
BREAKING: We won!
Today the 3rd Circuit Court ordered the @post-gazette.com to restore our contract it illegally tore up 5 years ago. That’s our health care, PTO, right to a 40-hr. work week, short-term disability and so much more we’ve struck for 3+ years.
pghguild.com/2025/11/10/p...
Today the 3rd Circuit Court ordered the @post-gazette.com to restore our contract it illegally tore up 5 years ago. That’s our health care, PTO, right to a 40-hr. work week, short-term disability and so much more we’ve struck for 3+ years.
pghguild.com/2025/11/10/p...
November 10, 2025 at 5:48 PM
BREAKING: We won!
Today the 3rd Circuit Court ordered the @post-gazette.com to restore our contract it illegally tore up 5 years ago. That’s our health care, PTO, right to a 40-hr. work week, short-term disability and so much more we’ve struck for 3+ years.
pghguild.com/2025/11/10/p...
Today the 3rd Circuit Court ordered the @post-gazette.com to restore our contract it illegally tore up 5 years ago. That’s our health care, PTO, right to a 40-hr. work week, short-term disability and so much more we’ve struck for 3+ years.
pghguild.com/2025/11/10/p...
I do really appreciate that the ASA grant application form takes direct aim at Ohio State's weird affectation 🦡🦡🦡
November 3, 2025 at 4:49 PM
I do really appreciate that the ASA grant application form takes direct aim at Ohio State's weird affectation 🦡🦡🦡
Reposted by Dan Seel
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
SV spent a decade chasing the organic adoption high of smartphones and social media, only to fake it with astroturfed garbage: crypto, NFTs, metaverse, and now AI-Slop. Hard to see them getting real hype ever again.
It seems like the only way tech companies are able to compel AI usage is by coercion in performance review processes?
(via The Information "AI Agenda" newsletter)
(via The Information "AI Agenda" newsletter)
October 30, 2025 at 4:49 PM
SV spent a decade chasing the organic adoption high of smartphones and social media, only to fake it with astroturfed garbage: crypto, NFTs, metaverse, and now AI-Slop. Hard to see them getting real hype ever again.
Reposted by Dan Seel
A stat we don't talk about enough: Newspapers have lost 77% of their jobs over the last 20 year, more than any of the 532 other industries tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
October 27, 2025 at 11:54 PM
A stat we don't talk about enough: Newspapers have lost 77% of their jobs over the last 20 year, more than any of the 532 other industries tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
beating my higher ed drum: this includes Higher ed reform which must decentralize power from trustees/admin to faculty, students, staff & alumni governance. Start with collaborationist universities and move outwards from there. Institutions that cave to pressure should face real consequences.
I think that the next step in the civil resistance campaign to Trump should be inflicting punishment on elites and institutions who cave. They need to understand that there are costs to compliance
approximately seven million people were out in the streets protesting last week. these people need to grow a spine. www.ft.com/content/1377...
October 24, 2025 at 2:00 PM
beating my higher ed drum: this includes Higher ed reform which must decentralize power from trustees/admin to faculty, students, staff & alumni governance. Start with collaborationist universities and move outwards from there. Institutions that cave to pressure should face real consequences.
I found this bizarre study yesterday while looking through some Philip Morris documents and I can't stop thinking about it...
October 24, 2025 at 1:22 PM
I found this bizarre study yesterday while looking through some Philip Morris documents and I can't stop thinking about it...
Everyone wants to streamline bureaucracy, but maybe we'd get better results by making it *harder* for university admins to chase fads. Imagine the money we'd save with a mandatory cooling-off period before launching a "Center for Blockchain Studies" or dumping millions into the latest edtech toy.
In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.
October 17, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Everyone wants to streamline bureaucracy, but maybe we'd get better results by making it *harder* for university admins to chase fads. Imagine the money we'd save with a mandatory cooling-off period before launching a "Center for Blockchain Studies" or dumping millions into the latest edtech toy.
Reposted by Dan Seel
"when people say that it is the job of college professors to keep students engaged but that we can also not ban devices, I want to sigh performatively—how, exactly, am I supposed to keep them hooked when Hollywood can’t keep them hooked?" musgrave.substack.com/p/a-post-lit...
A Post-Literate Society is a Too-Literal Society
Directness is a virtue and subtlety is lost
musgrave.substack.com
October 15, 2025 at 1:51 PM
"when people say that it is the job of college professors to keep students engaged but that we can also not ban devices, I want to sigh performatively—how, exactly, am I supposed to keep them hooked when Hollywood can’t keep them hooked?" musgrave.substack.com/p/a-post-lit...
Reposted by Dan Seel
Probably best to chase it indefinitely
October 15, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Probably best to chase it indefinitely
Reposted by Dan Seel
This may just be the best CS paper I’ve read this year. Just read the abstract and first para of the intro! The rest of the intro is really wild too, but very very good:
dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
October 14, 2025 at 1:12 PM
This may just be the best CS paper I’ve read this year. Just read the abstract and first para of the intro! The rest of the intro is really wild too, but very very good:
dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...
Reposted by Dan Seel
NEW -
Inflation and Incumbent Support: Experimental Evidence from the 2024 US Presidential Election - https://cup.org/3JaiZYj
"priming Americans to think about inflation reduced support for the incumbent party"
- Selim Erdem Aytaç, @danielmcdowell.bsky.social & David A. Steinberg
#OpenAccess
Inflation and Incumbent Support: Experimental Evidence from the 2024 US Presidential Election - https://cup.org/3JaiZYj
"priming Americans to think about inflation reduced support for the incumbent party"
- Selim Erdem Aytaç, @danielmcdowell.bsky.social & David A. Steinberg
#OpenAccess
October 13, 2025 at 8:30 AM
NEW -
Inflation and Incumbent Support: Experimental Evidence from the 2024 US Presidential Election - https://cup.org/3JaiZYj
"priming Americans to think about inflation reduced support for the incumbent party"
- Selim Erdem Aytaç, @danielmcdowell.bsky.social & David A. Steinberg
#OpenAccess
Inflation and Incumbent Support: Experimental Evidence from the 2024 US Presidential Election - https://cup.org/3JaiZYj
"priming Americans to think about inflation reduced support for the incumbent party"
- Selim Erdem Aytaç, @danielmcdowell.bsky.social & David A. Steinberg
#OpenAccess
Reposted by Dan Seel
Does a new generation of social scientists have to publish more to achieve less? (from 2019)
blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci... Intuition says "yes", and so says data for sociology.
blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci... Intuition says "yes", and so says data for sociology.
October 13, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Does a new generation of social scientists have to publish more to achieve less? (from 2019)
blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci... Intuition says "yes", and so says data for sociology.
blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci... Intuition says "yes", and so says data for sociology.
Reposted by Dan Seel
Again, it is worth keeping in mind when comparing the rate of discoveries that public funding for medicine and the sciences is orders of magnitude larger than for the humanities. We work slow in part because we work on a shoestring.
October 13, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Again, it is worth keeping in mind when comparing the rate of discoveries that public funding for medicine and the sciences is orders of magnitude larger than for the humanities. We work slow in part because we work on a shoestring.
Reposted by Dan Seel
damn. hoping it at least signifies something
It is a tale
Told by an idiot
Told by an idiot
October 10, 2025 at 4:09 AM
damn. hoping it at least signifies something
one of the minor frustrations of the 2020s internet is how many sites now don't respect boolean commands in search, like they'd rather give you a bunch of unrelated content to sift through than turn up only a handful of results
October 3, 2025 at 1:44 PM
one of the minor frustrations of the 2020s internet is how many sites now don't respect boolean commands in search, like they'd rather give you a bunch of unrelated content to sift through than turn up only a handful of results
Reposted by Dan Seel
I have a piece out today comparing the current ARG bailout to MX 1994 (quite different); ECB behavior in 2010s (closer as it targets voters); current BZ tariffs (ding-ding-ding--it's a market intervention that's also an intervention in domestic politics).
www.barrons.com/articles/arg...
www.barrons.com/articles/arg...
Argentina Gets a Bailout, Brazil Gets the Stick. What Unites Them.
The Trump administration’s judgements are rooted in political style, Karthik Sankaran writes in a guest commentary.
www.barrons.com
September 29, 2025 at 9:36 PM
I have a piece out today comparing the current ARG bailout to MX 1994 (quite different); ECB behavior in 2010s (closer as it targets voters); current BZ tariffs (ding-ding-ding--it's a market intervention that's also an intervention in domestic politics).
www.barrons.com/articles/arg...
www.barrons.com/articles/arg...
if I had a nickel for every time a "factory [that] went overseas" actually went to the South, I'd probably be able to self-fund my dissertation.
September 29, 2025 at 3:38 PM
if I had a nickel for every time a "factory [that] went overseas" actually went to the South, I'd probably be able to self-fund my dissertation.