December 2023 update

What was on deck ... the last one and a half years

I started this Substack to send a monthly update of my blogging. As the flow of posts has reduced to a trickle, it’s been almost a year and a half since my last update.

But I suppose the year’s end is a good time to share what I wrote in that time:

1. In a paper in Science, Jonathan Hall and Joshua Madsen proposed that dynamic signs that reported Texas road fatalities - “1669 deaths this year on Texas roads” - caused more accidents and fatalities. I don’t believe it.

2. The best books I read in 2022. A bit late, given I’ll write a “best books I read in 2023” post in a couple of weeks. However, since my reading tends not to involve many recent releases - the best books I read in the year, not the best books of the year - the list doesn’t age too poorly.

3. Some notes on how I use large language models as an academic. This is already becoming outdated as generative AI increasingly supports my workflow.

4. A review of John List’s The Voltage Effect. Lots of interesting ideas, but I’m not sure many of the arguments hold.

5. A fact check on the opening of an Adam Grant article in Behavioral Scientist. Unlike the opening claim, there is little evidence that experts are worse teachers.

6. A brief grumble that an analysis of a single paper on how behavioural science could inform policy is being used to claim that “Behavioral science policy recommendations early in the pandemic were LARGELY CORRECT”.

As always, comments and feedback welcome.

Cheers

Jason