Mathew Kiang
mathewkiang.com
Mathew Kiang
@mathewkiang.com
switch(
sample(x = 1:3, n = 1, prob = c(.05, .1, .85)),
tweet_joke(),
tweet_plot(),
dont_tweet()
)
Two years in a row — start of a tradition?
November 27, 2025 at 9:46 PM
I use Slack for precisely one thing.
September 24, 2025 at 5:27 PM
I'm just saying I've never took the day off work, went for a bike ride, enjoyed the summer inversion and then regretted it.
August 8, 2025 at 8:31 PM
August 5, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Making travel decisions at this point in my career:
July 31, 2025 at 4:33 AM
The people change but the coffee stays the same.
June 10, 2025 at 6:21 PM
When your child is reading a pick-your-own-adventure book and asks how many different ways you can get to the various endings, and you've got too much time on your hands...
June 3, 2025 at 4:27 AM
Key result 2: We won't see the full impact of policies being made today for years. Our model suggests measles would become commonplace in about 20 years — sooner with lower vaccination rates.

As vaccines are attacked, they'll say, "See? Told you it'll be fine." Reader: it won't be fine.
April 24, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Key result 1: We are right on the precipice of disaster for measles. Just a small drop (e.g., 10%) would result in millions of cases over 25 years and return to a world where measles is commonplace.

But there's good news! Just a 5% increase would bring us back above the critical threshold!
April 24, 2025 at 4:19 PM
The two types of academics at conferences these days:
April 24, 2025 at 1:26 AM
I got bit by the weirdest R bug I've seen yet... Turns out seq() and c() don't produce the same representation of 0.85?
April 3, 2025 at 9:00 PM
When your coauthor asks if you think you'll hear back about a manuscript under review today and you've got too much time on your hands...

("Hopefully we won't hear back until at least Thursday...")
March 18, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Me, watching the Census, NIH, CDC, and FDA get dismantled while trying to make rent.
March 4, 2025 at 8:46 PM
They capped the NIH indirect cost.

This isn't a surprise — they very literally said they would do this last year. That our institutions didn't have a plan and seem unequipped to fight back is... disappointing.
February 8, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Maturing is going from using torrents to download movies and music to using torrents to download CDC data.
February 2, 2025 at 4:25 AM
Every ECR text group right now...
January 24, 2025 at 7:29 PM
I mean... this is how I cope.
January 23, 2025 at 3:36 PM
There are some prolific traffic violators out there. One vehicle owes nearly a quarter million (!!) in fines, spread across 2800 citations. All prolific violators get their citations (mostly) in downtown.

In 2024, the top 0.1% (~500 cars) accounted for 3% of *all tickets*. 50% belong to just 15%.
January 7, 2025 at 4:32 AM
For example, most citations happen around noon on weekdays... But notice the bumps *within* each hour? Turns out the parking officers heap to the nearest 0 or 5 minute mark. Also, oddly, more parking tickets happen earlier in the hour (?).
January 7, 2025 at 4:29 AM
Almost got run over the other day. He had a memorable license plate so I looked it up when I got home and found out he had over 20 parking violations in 2024 alone! This, obviously, sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole.

For example, did you know SF issues ~5000 citations a day?
January 7, 2025 at 4:26 AM
I was inspired by @lisahornung.bsky.social to try to generate my own "Year in Review" using the Strava API, R, and ggplot.

Needs some work and a lot of polish but I think the bulk of the code is there.
December 12, 2024 at 8:36 PM
US Census projection model is just like "shrug I dunno -- just LOCF it... lol"
November 28, 2024 at 3:10 AM
Spent the day doing a thing:

www.strava.com/activities/1...
November 25, 2024 at 2:37 AM
Parental deaths due to drugs have been increasing steadily over the whole time period — reflecting the larger overdose crisis in the US. In contrast, parental deaths due to firearms have been fairly stable with a sustained increased risk among Black youth that accelerated in ~2015.
May 4, 2024 at 8:18 PM
In a new paper lead by Ben Schlüter, we estimated about *1.2 million* youth (<18y) in the US have lost a parent due to drugs or guns since 1999. In 2020, drugs and guns accounted for about one in four parental deaths — about double the proportion in 1999.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
May 4, 2024 at 8:16 PM