Theodore Alysandratos
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thalysandratos.bsky.social
Theodore Alysandratos
@thalysandratos.bsky.social
1.2K followers 970 following 3.5K posts
Person mit Migrationshintergrund | Citizen of nowhere | Leveraging (quasi) randomness | Econ | Panathinaikos | Heidelberg

https://sites.google.com/site/thalysandratos/home
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thalysandratos.bsky.social
Theodore Alysandratos @thalysandratos.bsky.social · Dec 20
Debating even the most heinous ideas seems instinctively appealing.

"You need to engage in the battle of ideas to convince those you disagree with or their followers that they're wrong", etc.

But, there may not be persuadable! Not legitimising or giving them exposure might be best.
Reposted by Theodore Alysandratos
bfletcherwatson.bsky.social
Eleven years ago, I wrote to Tom Stoppard to ask about this coup de théâtre from 1949. It took me down an unexpected rabbit hole - in memory of Stoppard, here's what I found.
"Years and years ago, there was a production of The Tempest, out of doors, at an Oxford college on a lawn, which was the stage, and the lawn went back towards the lake in the grounds of the college, and the play began in natural light. But as it developed, and as it became time for Ariel to say his farewell to the world of The Tempest, the evening had started to close in and there was some artificial lighting coming on. And as Ariel uttered his last speech, he turned and he ran across the grass, and he got to the edge of the lake and he just kept running across the top of the water — the producer having thoughtfully provided a kind of walkway an inch beneath the water. And you could see and you could hear the plish, plash as he ran away from you across the top of the lake, until the gloom enveloped him and he disappeared from your view. And as he did so, from the further shore, a firework rocket was ignited, and it went whoosh into the air, and high up there it burst into lots of sparks, and all the sparks went out, and he had gone. "When you look up the stage directions, it says, 'Exit Ariel.”
November 30, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Reposted by Theodore Alysandratos
draliceevans.bsky.social
“Marie-Gabrielle Capet (1761–1818) came from a lower-class background. Her father was a servant.

This self-portrait is quite remarkable. Staring right at the viewer, this woman is making her own selfie, effectively saying:

"I'm here, I matter, I'm a painter"
November 30, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by Theodore Alysandratos
jakemgrumbach.bsky.social
Has this been posted yet
2+7= _ I caNnot aNswer this qwestion, as it is agaiNst My reLigious principles. ٠١٨٨ IT'S WORTH A SHOT. aMI, 7 january 1986 NAITION
December 1, 2025 at 3:32 AM
thalysandratos.bsky.social
I discovered our central IT is offering a locally hosted version of Llama 70B and Qwen 30B coding.

Unless I've missed some big announcement, given how little it's been advertised, it seems like someone at IT is having fun with a big homelab.

Tbf, it works pretty well. Kudos!
November 30, 2025 at 3:28 PM
thalysandratos.bsky.social
I understand why the press is covering the conference of the new party by Corbyn and Sultana.

However, I can't help but feel that they're wasting precious resources on an inconsequential development. Resources they could allocate to more worthwhile endeavours.
November 30, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by Theodore Alysandratos
ageofoddish.bsky.social
Does anyone want a survivorship bias shortbread
My hand holding a shortbread cookie in the shape of an airplane. There are red sprinkles in the pattern of the survivorship bias plane. A plate of the same cookies.
November 29, 2025 at 4:50 AM
Reposted by Theodore Alysandratos
socarxiv.bsky.social
In light of record submission rates and a large volume of AI-generated slop, SocArXiv recently implemented a policy requiring ORCIDs linked in the OSF profile of submitting authors, and narrowing our focus to social science subjects. Today we are taking two more steps:
/1
November 27, 2025 at 2:54 PM
thalysandratos.bsky.social
Was the Budapest memorandum a verbal agreement?
November 27, 2025 at 7:26 PM
thalysandratos.bsky.social
"research breakthroughs, not compute, will drive the next wave of progress" -> 👇
Snow Jon Snow GIF
ALT: Snow Jon Snow GIF
media.tenor.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Reposted by Theodore Alysandratos
yairwallach.bsky.social
While the situation in Gaza remains desperate, the biggest short term risk is in the West Bank. The settlers'+IDF relentless campaign of terror, and the PA weakness could lead to sudden collapse and dramatic escalation in ethnic cleansing and carnage.
hannesbaumann.bsky.social Hannes Baumann @hannesbaumann.bsky.social · 7d
Sobering findings of @ecfrmena.bsky.social report by @tahanimustafa.bsky.social & @hlovatt.bsky.social about Palestinian politics in the West Bank. ecfr.eu/publication/...
November 25, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by Theodore Alysandratos
paulgp.com
Looks like we're in the worst year in since 2015.
November 24, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Reposted by Theodore Alysandratos
umakarma.bsky.social
Oh. Oh dear. Well, it’s a nudge alright, but not a “take a break” one.
kashhill.bsky.social Kashmir Hill @kashhill.bsky.social · 8d
One of the changes that OpenAI has made to make ChatGPT safer is a "take a break" nudge. There's something quite interesting about the design here. Which thing does it make you want to click?
The message that OpenAI shows to people who have been using ChatGPT for many hours.
November 24, 2025 at 4:10 PM
thalysandratos.bsky.social
Two papers published at ~the same time and I think should be read together:

Diversifying Society’s Leaders? The Determinants and Causal Effects of Admission to Highly Selective Private Colleges academic.oup.com/qje/advance-...

Identity Politics www.econometricsociety.org/publications...
Abstract We use anonymized admissions data from several colleges linked to income tax records and SAT and ACT test scores to study the determinants and causal effects of attending Ivy-Plus colleges (Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, Duke, and Chicago). Children from families in the top 1% are more than twice as likely to attend an Ivy-Plus college as those from middle-class families with comparable SAT/ACT scores. Two-thirds of this gap is due to higher admissions rates for students with comparable test scores from high-income families; the remaining third is due to differences in rates of application and matriculation. In contrast, children from high-income families have no admissions advantage at flagship public colleges. The high-income admissions advantage at Ivy-Plus colleges is driven by three factors: (1) preferences for children of alumni, (2) weight placed on non-academic credentials, and (3) athletic recruitment. Using a new research design that isolates idiosyncratic variation in admissions decisions for waitlisted applicants, we show that attending an Ivy-Plus college instead of the average flagship public college increases students- chances of reaching the top 1% of the earnings distribution by 50%, nearly doubles their chances of attending an elite graduate school, and almost triples their chances of working at a prestigious firm. The three factors that give children from high-income families an admissions advantage are uncorrelated or negatively correlated with post-college outcomes, whereas academic credentials such as SAT/ACT scores are highly predictive of post-college success. Presidential Address: Identity Politics We offer a theory of changing dimensions of political polarization based on endogenous social identity. We formalize voter identity as in Bonomi, Gennaioli, and Tabellini (2021), but add parties that compete on policy and spread stereotypes to persuade voters. Parties are historically connected to different social groups, whose members are more receptive to the party messages. An endogenous switch from class to cultural identity accounts for three major changes: (i) growing cultural conflict between voters and parties; (ii) dampening of redistributive conflict, despite rising inequality; (iii) a realignment of lower class voters from the left to the right. The incentive of parties to spread stereotypes is a key driver of identity‐based polarization. Using survey data and congressional speeches, we show that—consistent with our model—there is evidence of (i) and (ii) in the voting realignment induced by the “China Shock” (Autor, Dorn, Hanson, and Majlesi (2020)).
November 24, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Reposted by Theodore Alysandratos
brendannyhan.bsky.social
"The high-income admissions advantage at Ivy-Plus colleges is driven by....(1) preferences for children of alumni, (2) weight placed on non-academic credentials, and (3) athletic recruitment" which are "uncorrelated or negatively correlated with post-college outcomes" unlike SAT/ACT scores
November 23, 2025 at 9:29 PM
thalysandratos.bsky.social
Haha, if ever there was a pivotal vote!
nome.bsky.social Nome @nome.bsky.social · Mar 12
I say almost - but this was a ludicrous plan, right? It's not like it had a chance of succeeding? Just one of those nonsense bills that dies in committee?

61st Cong. 2nd sess. H.R. 23261, also known as the Hippo Bill. It failed, as near as I can find, by ONE VOTE.

It... it almost happened, y'all.
November 24, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Theodore Alysandratos
mancinisscarf.bsky.social
November 23, 2025 at 11:36 AM
thalysandratos.bsky.social
I took the plunge with atomic budgie. Wish me luck.
November 21, 2025 at 9:18 PM
thalysandratos.bsky.social
Not at all surprised, but it reminds me of someone saying that they find LLMs most conducive to learning when they're close enough to the correct answer to put them on the right track, but also wrong enough for them to recognise the error.
us.theconversation.com The Conversation U.S. @us.theconversation.com · 11d
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.

Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Theodore Alysandratos
kevinzollman.com
I posted this thread on Twitter ages ago, and I was reminded of it. So I thought I'd reproduce it here.

I'm rereading Friedman's "The Methodology of Positive Economics" for my undergrad philosophy of economics class. The influence of the logical positivists is striking in that essay.
November 20, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Theodore Alysandratos
uncleduke1969.bsky.social
squirrel: *points gun*
me: what do you want me to do?
squirrel: *gestures at sign*
me: alright, i get it *opens book drop*
squirrel: *makes hurry-up motion*
me: NOT A SQUIRREL!
squirrel: *disappears into book drop*
me: *whispers* forgive me, keith
Sign on a library book drop sign requesting people to yell "NOT A SQUIRREL" to confirm they are human and not a squirrel trying to steal Keith's lunch.
November 19, 2025 at 1:41 PM
thalysandratos.bsky.social
Has Chomsky issued any apologies about his association with Epstein?
November 20, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Reposted by Theodore Alysandratos
joolia.bsky.social
the nuzzi story is fun and all but at the center of it is the elevation of a man who has dedicated his life to making children catch preventable diseases to a position where he can enact harm at enormous scale
ddiamond.bsky.social Dan Diamond @ddiamond.bsky.social · 12d
CDC has overhauled its website to assert that “the claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim”
Autism and Vaccines QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS PAGE 2 OF 9 | ALL PAGES J For Everyone NOV. 19, 2025 KEY POINTS • The claim "vaccines do not cause autism" is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism. • Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities. HHS Research on Plausible Biologic Mechanisms between Vaccines and Autism HHS will evaluate plausible biologic mechanisms between early childhood vaccinations and autism. Mechanisms for further investigation include the impacts of aluminum adjuvants, risks for certain children with mitochondrial disorders, harms of neuroinflammation, and more. * The header "Vaccines do not cause autism" has not been removed due to an agreement with the chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that it would remain on the CDC website.
November 20, 2025 at 3:19 AM
thalysandratos.bsky.social
In light of the emails between a convicted child abuser and several presumably very smart people, I'd like to craft the following adage: Never attribute to stupidity what can be attributed to arrogance.
November 19, 2025 at 8:12 AM
thalysandratos.bsky.social
Amodei is in favour of stricter AI regulation. This may be because Anthropic is more risk averse/responsible than OpenAI. There's a reason they split after all.

But, it may also be, at least partially, that Amodei, as an incumbent, wants to use regulation to deter entry.
November 18, 2025 at 11:26 AM
thalysandratos.bsky.social
I've been the recipient of racist abuse, so let me redirect this abuse to others. Tale as old as time.
sundersays.bsky.social Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 14d
- It is entirely legitimate for the Home Secretary to highlight the overt racism that she receives for taking part in public life.

- Everybody should oppose that racism against her, whatever their politics.

- But it is important to make several other points about this argument about racism.
November 18, 2025 at 8:03 AM