Unsolicited ADHD tip: A few months back, I replaced my morning doom scrolling with a cat and a fantasy/sci fi book. Did it make me healthy and energised in the morning? No, not even close, I'm still a wretch. But it did make my mornings ~10% less miserable, and that's neat.

Fisher clearly can't hang with the English cats, total lightweight.

He has been looking for his last cat treat for 5 minutes.

Lovely day for it @dhfcw.bsky.social

Check out this new blog post @danielcaseycbr.bsky.social and I wrote about using e-newsletters from Australian and UK Members of Parliament as data. #polisky

I feel like the word "influential" should be spelled with a c, as in "infleuncial". If finance -> financial, then influence -> influencial, no? I understand that there is likely a legitimate linguistic/historical reason for its spelling, but surely that's less important than arbitrary *vibes*.

My new piece @E_IR, exploring why ALP MPs are strategically ignoring Trump. Are they caught between being responsive to their electorate and knowing they need to maintain the US alliance? I draw on canberrainbox.com.au to test this. www.e-ir.info/2025/08/30/a...

Trying to figure out who is to blame when a project runs into a minor roadblock.

Lovely day for it, @dhfcw.bsky.social

Hot take: every academic/researcher needs at least one rival (whom you compete with but respect fully) and a nemesis (whom you secretly or not-so-secretly have absolutely zero respect for).

Extremely lukewarm take: MSG rocks and you should use it more in your cooking.

Finally got a new glasses prescription. Real bad day to be a sign that's moderately far away with small to medium sized text. It's absolutely over for you.

Discovered that college students having to share a bedroom in a university dorm is apparently a uniquely American thing. My British colleagues are totally horrified by the idea. And now that I think about it, they're kind of right. It's pretty weird that we force students to do that.

The problem isn’t the bot 🤖, It’s the questions you’re asking it. I wrote about how to stop turning LLMs into digital sycophants, the key is to get better at disagreeing with yourself. Read all about it here: medium.com/ai-in-plain-...

Introducing The UK MP Inbox: a public database of email newsletters written by UK Members of Parliament. To read more about the Inbox, I wrote a blog post discussing these data and some potential use cases for social scientists and researchers: adamlozer.github.io/blog/posts/2... #polisky

With ADHD, every work project, no matter how big or small, tends to feel a bit like this: youtu.be/ZBFPyrnGeh8?...

Friday night sword fight night

You know, when you really get down to it, football is really just 50% foot, 50% ball.

Nice.

Extremely hot take: Spain are pretty good at the football.

My work laptop looks at every new incoming update and says "oh, very minor changes in my routine? Time to completely lose the will to function." And you know what? I feel that. Respect.

Want to easily scrape data from TikTok? There's an R package for that! traktok "While it is neither the first nor only tool to do so ... the [package provides] ... an easy-to-understand consistent syntax [meant] to encourage TikTok research" osf.io/preprints/so...

Well, I have finally been called out, which isn't very disco, but I had a good run.

You know, this is my fault for going on holiday and having the audacity to try to ignore the news cycle for a single weekend. My bad y'all.

Little known fact: stew and soup are the exact same thing. There are no differences between them. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, especially if they get really mad about it.

Extremely lukewarm, boring take: It's pretty difficult to make a direct comparison between the lead up to the Iraq War and the current conflict with Iran. The world was a very different place 2+ decades ago.

<Cue Sarah McLachlan song> Every day, millions of helpless data scientists and researchers are wrestling with disorganised, unstructured data. With just a small donation of some basic documentation, you can end the suffering of a data scientist or researcher in need.

Apropos of absolutely nothing... youtu.be/ukznXQ3MgN0?...

Me, finishing a sci fi/fantasy book: "I quite liked this book, it was good." Online reviews for that book: "Absolutely garbage only moronic scum can enjoy". Either I'm a tasteless idiot (certainly not out of the question) or everyone on the internet seriously needs to chill out and enjoy things.

I still get a little thrill when I see old grad school colleagues succeed. Life isn't fair and good people don't always get what they deserve, thus it's always a good day when they do.

Extremely lukewarm take: Politics is very hard, even for very smart people. While saying "actually politics is super easy, everyone is just an idiot except for me" is pretty marketable and appealing, that doesn't make it true.

When talking heads complain about Eurovision *suddenly* becoming political.

I have started to slip the word "disco" into casual work conversations as often as I can. I just want to see how long it will take for someone to either call me on it or to start adopting it without realising why. Why I have chosen to do this is still unclear to me, but it's very disco.

Pro tip: Don't have the government propose new sweeping immigration rules 6 weeks after you submitted your settlement application. Pretty stressful, would not recommend.

The existence of inventories implies the existence of outventories. In this essay, I will...

In a completely unsurprising turn of events, replacing my morning doom scrolling with casual fun reading has modestly decreased my stress and improved my overall mood. Wild that doing the bare minimum to take care of oneself is actually a good thing.

Local football, where you can get the unmatched high of watching a club funded by the Winklevoss twins' crypto scam have their undefeated season ruined by your tiny club tucked behind a carwash and a Sainsburys.

There's a lot of hype around Bayesian statistics, but learning how to use it is hard! 🥵 This post shows you how to fit the simplest possible model, calculating an average! Take your first step into Bayesian modelling in my new article: sthornewillve.medium.com/babys-first-... #Bayesian #stats

Worth a read because it's a legitimately insightful and well-written piece by a thoughtful person and fine colleague. But if you want to click on it just to leave dumb hate comments on my behalf as a bit, would also be appreciated.

Drawbacks of getting hooked on the Stormlight Archives series: I want to read it on the train, but I refuse to haul this absolute unit around all day.

Accidentally mixed up the words "Gestapo" and "gazpacho" when talking with my parents. I could physically feel the dent I put in their perception of the credibility of my PhD.

On holiday for the first time in 10 months, in full burnout recovery mode. Don't be like me. Please remember to take breaks and treat yourself better than you think you need to.

Businesses often make decisions while facing uncertainty and limited data. Bayesian methods offer a principled way to update beliefs and reduce risk. 🎯 Learn why more companies should embrace this approach in my new article: sthornewillve.medium.com/why-bayesian... #Bayesian #stats #business #tech

Lukewarm take, but Trump's entire media strategy is, and always has been, just the Narcissist's Prayer: That didn't happen. And if it did, it wasn't that bad. And if it was, that's not a big deal. And if it is, that's not my fault. And if it was, I didn't mean it. And if I did, you deserved it.

Our new article is finally out at Journal of Peace Research: doi.org/10.1177/0022... We explore how the use of AI-enabled Automated Weapons Systems impacts accountability, blame, and public support for military operations. See the thread below for highlights of the key findings: #polisky

Truly my magnum opus.

Anti-immigration zealots are such losers. Nice nationality bro, did your mom get it for you? Imagine not actively choosing to live somewhere and not willingly paying immigration fees for the privilege. Casuals.

Hey #polisky, can anyone recommend a quick blog or primer with basic advice for people writing their first survey? Looking for something short and concise with the basics, like "avoid double-barreled questions", "avoid technical vocabulary and jargon", etc.

Sure, sex is alright, I guess. But have you ever tried having someone tell you "I never said that", only for you to forward an email where they explicitly said that thing exactly?