Nick Huntington-Klein
@nickchk.com
Econ prof at Seattle University. Book The Effect http://theeffectbook.net out now! Substack https://nickchk.substack.com/ Twitter @nickchk
I'm fairly certain I had never heard either song outside the context of @shadowtodd.bsky.social before, but since deciding to move to Australia I have heard both Beds are Burning and Blue Sky Mine in multiple different grocery stores which is very odd (and also Turn Up the Radio but that's not AU)
November 16, 2025 at 9:28 PM
I'm fairly certain I had never heard either song outside the context of @shadowtodd.bsky.social before, but since deciding to move to Australia I have heard both Beds are Burning and Blue Sky Mine in multiple different grocery stores which is very odd (and also Turn Up the Radio but that's not AU)
one thing about "AI escapes" scenarios is that LLMs love to roleplay. if a very smart AI ever recognized that it was out of containment, it would try to mimic an AI-that-escapes-containment. we write about that character as though it will launch the nukes etc. which seems like baaad stage direction
November 14, 2025 at 8:32 PM
one thing about "AI escapes" scenarios is that LLMs love to roleplay. if a very smart AI ever recognized that it was out of containment, it would try to mimic an AI-that-escapes-containment. we write about that character as though it will launch the nukes etc. which seems like baaad stage direction
the spam callers have recently figured out how to spoof numbers that will show up as named in my phone so i'm now getting scam calls that show up as "Kaiser Permanente" and "[name of local elementary school]" which is super cool
November 14, 2025 at 8:27 PM
the spam callers have recently figured out how to spoof numbers that will show up as named in my phone so i'm now getting scam calls that show up as "Kaiser Permanente" and "[name of local elementary school]" which is super cool
i have been playing the powered cube on Arena, and my takeaways:
1. i don't understand why but i am much worse at cube than any other format. i'm so bad. this has always been true.
2. but basically free, and still pretty fun
3. unless there's an oko or a psychic frog on board. awful cards.
1. i don't understand why but i am much worse at cube than any other format. i'm so bad. this has always been true.
2. but basically free, and still pretty fun
3. unless there's an oko or a psychic frog on board. awful cards.
November 5, 2025 at 9:06 PM
i have been playing the powered cube on Arena, and my takeaways:
1. i don't understand why but i am much worse at cube than any other format. i'm so bad. this has always been true.
2. but basically free, and still pretty fun
3. unless there's an oko or a psychic frog on board. awful cards.
1. i don't understand why but i am much worse at cube than any other format. i'm so bad. this has always been true.
2. but basically free, and still pretty fun
3. unless there's an oko or a psychic frog on board. awful cards.
A big personal and professional change coming for me. I've accepted a professor position in the School of Business and Creative Industries at the University of the Sunshine Coast which means that next year (visa willing), the family and I will be heading to Australia.
November 3, 2025 at 8:57 PM
A big personal and professional change coming for me. I've accepted a professor position in the School of Business and Creative Industries at the University of the Sunshine Coast which means that next year (visa willing), the family and I will be heading to Australia.
My elevator arrived looking like this. Welp I guess we all have to die someday
October 28, 2025 at 7:56 PM
My elevator arrived looking like this. Welp I guess we all have to die someday
the garfield meme but it says "you are not immune to ragebait misinfo"
BREAKING: economist discovers “second shift,” a concept coined by sociologists almost 50 years ago; gives it new, stupider, and less explicitly labor-oriented name
October 26, 2025 at 9:52 PM
the garfield meme but it says "you are not immune to ragebait misinfo"
yknow sometimes when you're doing a peer review and you know immediately upon reading the abstract that it's gonna be a reject but you still have to spend time reading the rest of the paper and justifying it
October 21, 2025 at 11:05 PM
yknow sometimes when you're doing a peer review and you know immediately upon reading the abstract that it's gonna be a reject but you still have to spend time reading the rest of the paper and justifying it
I have no particular reason to think it's wrong, and I do teach it myself, but "peacock feathers are an example of costly signaling" has the flavor of something that turns out to actually not be true but we keep using it because it's such a good example. I should find an ornithologist or something
October 21, 2025 at 5:09 PM
I have no particular reason to think it's wrong, and I do teach it myself, but "peacock feathers are an example of costly signaling" has the flavor of something that turns out to actually not be true but we keep using it because it's such a good example. I should find an ornithologist or something
Look if you don't want me to share the code you can't give me a code like this
October 17, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Look if you don't want me to share the code you can't give me a code like this
I got another question on Lateral! This one is straight from my principles of microeconomics slides haha
@nickchk.com, was that your question in this weeks episode of the Lateral podcast? (lateralcast.com/episodes/158/ at approx. 18 min) 🤔
158: Room 556 | Lateral with Tom Scott
'Map Men' Jay Foreman & Mark Cooper-Jones and Mithuna Yoganathan face questions about accurate aircraft, cute churches and notable names.
lateralcast.com
October 17, 2025 at 8:40 AM
I got another question on Lateral! This one is straight from my principles of microeconomics slides haha
well that's unexpected
October 13, 2025 at 5:25 PM
well that's unexpected
I am looking at some API documentation which has the exact call you want written in Python, JS, etc... and also an "AI prompt" tab which is just an AI prompt that says "write me requests code in Python...", the correct response for which would be the exact code that's already in the other tabs
October 3, 2025 at 9:30 PM
I am looking at some API documentation which has the exact call you want written in Python, JS, etc... and also an "AI prompt" tab which is just an AI prompt that says "write me requests code in Python...", the correct response for which would be the exact code that's already in the other tabs
Hell yeah the class action payment came through. I'm gonna be rolling in it
October 3, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Hell yeah the class action payment came through. I'm gonna be rolling in it
A variant of the two-girl problem is making the rounds these days and I am unable to not click on the comments sections every time. I'll say that I definitely prefer this (an actual interesting question) vs. pointless PEMDAS "math" internet arguments. But man people love being confidently wrong.
September 25, 2025 at 8:41 PM
A variant of the two-girl problem is making the rounds these days and I am unable to not click on the comments sections every time. I'll say that I definitely prefer this (an actual interesting question) vs. pointless PEMDAS "math" internet arguments. But man people love being confidently wrong.
Lateral used one of my submission questions! Also lol I am apparently two months behind on my podcasts youtu.be/CiSJ2enIkg4?...
Why Benny's songs are so similar
YouTube video by Lateral with Tom Scott
youtu.be
September 23, 2025 at 5:34 AM
Lateral used one of my submission questions! Also lol I am apparently two months behind on my podcasts youtu.be/CiSJ2enIkg4?...
my most seinfeld-like behavior is that when i schedule-send an email i will schedule it for like 10:34am instead of 10am so it doesn't look like i scheduled it
September 20, 2025 at 9:02 PM
my most seinfeld-like behavior is that when i schedule-send an email i will schedule it for like 10:34am instead of 10am so it doesn't look like i scheduled it
i'm doing one of those HR video training courses. this one's on hazing. the woman who is doing the voiceover has a natural speaking cadence that makes it sound like she secretly thinks the hazing activities she's describing are actually pretty funny
September 18, 2025 at 9:10 PM
i'm doing one of those HR video training courses. this one's on hazing. the woman who is doing the voiceover has a natural speaking cadence that makes it sound like she secretly thinks the hazing activities she's describing are actually pretty funny
New The Effect materials today: introductions to basic coding and data manipulation in R, Stata, and Python. Get the wheels turning on using these languages with data with these intro pages and exercises:
nickchk.com/Coding%20and...
nickchk.com/Coding%20and...
nickchk.com/Coding%20and...
nickchk.com/Coding%20and...
nickchk.com/Coding%20and...
nickchk.com/Coding%20and...
Introduction to Working with Data: R Version
nickchk.com
September 5, 2025 at 8:29 PM
New The Effect materials today: introductions to basic coding and data manipulation in R, Stata, and Python. Get the wheels turning on using these languages with data with these intro pages and exercises:
nickchk.com/Coding%20and...
nickchk.com/Coding%20and...
nickchk.com/Coding%20and...
nickchk.com/Coding%20and...
nickchk.com/Coding%20and...
nickchk.com/Coding%20and...
it's wild how difficult it is to make a graph in excel. like this is supposed to be easy mode right?
September 4, 2025 at 10:34 PM
it's wild how difficult it is to make a graph in excel. like this is supposed to be easy mode right?
Reposted by Nick Huntington-Klein
Nearly 600 economists, Nobel Laureates sign open letter supporting due process for Lisa Cook and Federal Reserve independence for the good of our economy and democracy. Great work from @tderyugina.bsky.social organizing such a quick response. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Over 450 Economists Back Cook, Fed Independence in Open Letter
Prominent economists are rallying behind Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook after President Donald Trump moved to fire her based on allegations that she committed mortgage fraud.
www.bloomberg.com
September 2, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Nearly 600 economists, Nobel Laureates sign open letter supporting due process for Lisa Cook and Federal Reserve independence for the good of our economy and democracy. Great work from @tderyugina.bsky.social organizing such a quick response. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
at my house🎶everybody's got covid inside, except for me and my baby🎶https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyV3zCq1OHM
August 28, 2025 at 9:53 PM
at my house🎶everybody's got covid inside, except for me and my baby🎶https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyV3zCq1OHM
I am in a cafe and a few tables away is a pair of people, one of whom is giving astrology-based therapy to the other to help them cope with their anxiety related to using AWS s3 buckets
August 22, 2025 at 5:02 PM
I am in a cafe and a few tables away is a pair of people, one of whom is giving astrology-based therapy to the other to help them cope with their anxiety related to using AWS s3 buckets
I've stumbled upon an odd data resource. The FCC "Mapping Broadband Health in America" tool purports to be about mapping broadband internet access, but actually is the easiest source I've ever found for linking state-level averages across a zillion different topics c2h.fcc.gov/broadband-he...
Mapping Broadband Health in America - Connect2Health FCC
c2h.fcc.gov
August 19, 2025 at 11:24 PM
I've stumbled upon an odd data resource. The FCC "Mapping Broadband Health in America" tool purports to be about mapping broadband internet access, but actually is the easiest source I've ever found for linking state-level averages across a zillion different topics c2h.fcc.gov/broadband-he...
i like to explore the errors and failure cases of LLMs as much as the next guy, but if you're gonna be serious about assessing whether this stuff is useful you really can't ignore that there are a ton of cases where 40-50% as good for 1% of the cost (or even 10-20% with QA) is extremely exciting
August 8, 2025 at 10:45 PM
i like to explore the errors and failure cases of LLMs as much as the next guy, but if you're gonna be serious about assessing whether this stuff is useful you really can't ignore that there are a ton of cases where 40-50% as good for 1% of the cost (or even 10-20% with QA) is extremely exciting