Joe Bak-Coleman
@jbakcoleman.bsky.social
Research Scientist at the University of Washington based in Brooklyn. Also: SFI External Applied Fellow, Harvard BKC affiliate. Collective Behavior, Statistics, etc..
Reposted by Joe Bak-Coleman
Reviewed a lovely little paper tackling a big question with little more than counting. Truly nothing I love more than using the least math and statistics possible to answer a question.
November 26, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Reviewed a lovely little paper tackling a big question with little more than counting. Truly nothing I love more than using the least math and statistics possible to answer a question.
Reposted by Joe Bak-Coleman
making chicken pozole verde. the smell of roasting poblanos and tomatillos to make the salsa from scratch was worth the whole ordeal. i have a huge pot of it simmering on the stove. i love the soup season!
November 25, 2025 at 7:49 PM
making chicken pozole verde. the smell of roasting poblanos and tomatillos to make the salsa from scratch was worth the whole ordeal. i have a huge pot of it simmering on the stove. i love the soup season!
With all the rancor over file drawers and selective publishing it astounds me that journals and the scientific community are consistently comfortable with social media companies having troves of data indicating harms and then occasionally putting out papers to the contrary.
#metascience
#metascience
November 25, 2025 at 11:29 AM
With all the rancor over file drawers and selective publishing it astounds me that journals and the scientific community are consistently comfortable with social media companies having troves of data indicating harms and then occasionally putting out papers to the contrary.
#metascience
#metascience
This is gonna be a shitshow
"the president has directed the Department of Energy to launch an AI project called the genesis mission" sounds like something out of a technothriller
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Launching the Genesis Mission
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose.
www.whitehouse.gov
November 25, 2025 at 2:31 AM
This is gonna be a shitshow
It would, of course, be great if the underlying results were made public but it looks like meta in 2019 ran withdrawal experiments to examine polarization and well being ahead of forging collaborations with academics. Seems like more than enough to design bias the collaborations towards nulls 🧵
November 24, 2025 at 12:46 PM
It would, of course, be great if the underlying results were made public but it looks like meta in 2019 ran withdrawal experiments to examine polarization and well being ahead of forging collaborations with academics. Seems like more than enough to design bias the collaborations towards nulls 🧵
“Are we the baddies?”
November 24, 2025 at 3:24 AM
“Are we the baddies?”
Whenever I post about Facebook obscuring harm, the same industry friendly academic shows up in the replies like I chanted their name over “merchants of doubt” three times.
It’s really hard to defend industry academic collaborations with meta as earnest, if they’re internally burying evidence of harm.
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
November 23, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Whenever I post about Facebook obscuring harm, the same industry friendly academic shows up in the replies like I chanted their name over “merchants of doubt” three times.
It’s really hard to defend industry academic collaborations with meta as earnest, if they’re internally burying evidence of harm.
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
November 23, 2025 at 6:22 PM
It’s really hard to defend industry academic collaborations with meta as earnest, if they’re internally burying evidence of harm.
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
I’ve been hearing about this project for years from @fernpizza.bsky.social and I’m stoked to see it out. It’s wildly elegant mixture of theory and empirics, with novel methods that manages to ask and answer deep questions about selection.
Paper of the year.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Paper of the year.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics
From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...
www.science.org
November 22, 2025 at 11:42 PM
I’ve been hearing about this project for years from @fernpizza.bsky.social and I’m stoked to see it out. It’s wildly elegant mixture of theory and empirics, with novel methods that manages to ask and answer deep questions about selection.
Paper of the year.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Paper of the year.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Fantastic event @astoriabookshop.bsky.social for the launch of Lindsay Stuart Hill’s world of dew with readings from @emilyhockaday.bsky.social.
Two of my favorites so far when going through the books… it’s January still by LSH and River Clay by EH.
Two of my favorites so far when going through the books… it’s January still by LSH and River Clay by EH.
November 21, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Fantastic event @astoriabookshop.bsky.social for the launch of Lindsay Stuart Hill’s world of dew with readings from @emilyhockaday.bsky.social.
Two of my favorites so far when going through the books… it’s January still by LSH and River Clay by EH.
Two of my favorites so far when going through the books… it’s January still by LSH and River Clay by EH.
Reposted by Joe Bak-Coleman
hive-mind, know of any research/academic work that has detailed the various ways social media/large platforms have made audits/critical investigation of these platforms practically impossible. exuberant API fees, access only to partial data even when you can pay fee, retaliation again auditors, etc
November 21, 2025 at 2:13 PM
hive-mind, know of any research/academic work that has detailed the various ways social media/large platforms have made audits/critical investigation of these platforms practically impossible. exuberant API fees, access only to partial data even when you can pay fee, retaliation again auditors, etc
Hot take but the bigger sin then inflation here is having no principled choice for your effect size.
If you compute an effect size (say a Cohen's d type standardized mean difference) several different ways and then selectively report the largest one, what would you call that?
p-hacking
research misconduct
fraud
something else?
p-hacking
research misconduct
fraud
something else?
November 20, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Hot take but the bigger sin then inflation here is having no principled choice for your effect size.
I recently gave a seminar at CITP on the barriers to evidence based tech policy. It’s online to watch now!
H/t @princetoncitp.bsky.social
spia.princeton.edu/events/citp-...
H/t @princetoncitp.bsky.social
spia.princeton.edu/events/citp-...
CITP Seminar: Scientific Barriers to Evidence-Based Tech Policy | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs
Twenty years after Facebook spread across college campuses, its effects on society remain heavily studied and poorly understood. Little consensus exists over whether it promotes or degrades mental hea...
spia.princeton.edu
November 20, 2025 at 12:30 PM
I recently gave a seminar at CITP on the barriers to evidence based tech policy. It’s online to watch now!
H/t @princetoncitp.bsky.social
spia.princeton.edu/events/citp-...
H/t @princetoncitp.bsky.social
spia.princeton.edu/events/citp-...
This exchange about the Meta election collaboration highlights how industry can manufacture doubt without corrupting scientists or creating any sort of conpsiracy. A small 🧵
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reply to González-Bailón and Lazer: Industry control and conflicts of interest in social media research | PNAS
Reply to González-Bailón and Lazer: Industry control and conflicts of interest in
social media research
www.pnas.org
November 19, 2025 at 1:57 PM
This exchange about the Meta election collaboration highlights how industry can manufacture doubt without corrupting scientists or creating any sort of conpsiracy. A small 🧵
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
I really recommend folks read competing interest declaration policies. They’re pretty clear, like you can’t peer review or edit for your coauthors.
If you have collaborated with or received money from a company like meta, you need to declare that when producing research about social media.
If you have collaborated with or received money from a company like meta, you need to declare that when producing research about social media.
November 18, 2025 at 11:28 PM
I really recommend folks read competing interest declaration policies. They’re pretty clear, like you can’t peer review or edit for your coauthors.
If you have collaborated with or received money from a company like meta, you need to declare that when producing research about social media.
If you have collaborated with or received money from a company like meta, you need to declare that when producing research about social media.
It’s gonna be funny when psychology declares victory over the replication crisis because the bots start answering as the researchers are hoping.
November 18, 2025 at 11:10 PM
It’s gonna be funny when psychology declares victory over the replication crisis because the bots start answering as the researchers are hoping.
Folks who make garbage can regressions tend to be very concerned about p-hacking.
the five genres of statistics are Descriptive, Predictive, Causal, Garbage Can Regressions, and P-Hacking
November 17, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Folks who make garbage can regressions tend to be very concerned about p-hacking.
This is a fantastic article about James Watson but mostly it’s master class in dispatching of ghouls in science. Often the problem isn’t just that they’re amoral but that their being a(im)moral makes them dangerously wrong in ways that have cascading externalities on our understanding.
"What James Watson got wrong about DNA"
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
What James Watson got wrong about DNA - The Boston Globe
The science he helped pioneer consistently undermines his view that genes determine everything about us.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 16, 2025 at 2:31 AM
This is a fantastic article about James Watson but mostly it’s master class in dispatching of ghouls in science. Often the problem isn’t just that they’re amoral but that their being a(im)moral makes them dangerously wrong in ways that have cascading externalities on our understanding.
Reposted by Joe Bak-Coleman
"What James Watson got wrong about DNA"
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
What James Watson got wrong about DNA - The Boston Globe
The science he helped pioneer consistently undermines his view that genes determine everything about us.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 14, 2025 at 4:50 PM
"What James Watson got wrong about DNA"
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
Post Malört ergo propter malört
November 15, 2025 at 5:37 AM
Post Malört ergo propter malört
Reposted by Joe Bak-Coleman
What usually gets lost in the focus on what an evil racist James Watson was is just how colossal of a dumbass he was and just how far he set the field back.
But @sramach.bsky.social and @cbo.bsky.social kept their eye on the ball.
But @sramach.bsky.social and @cbo.bsky.social kept their eye on the ball.
"What James Watson got wrong about DNA"
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
What James Watson got wrong about DNA - The Boston Globe
The science he helped pioneer consistently undermines his view that genes determine everything about us.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 15, 2025 at 4:19 AM
What usually gets lost in the focus on what an evil racist James Watson was is just how colossal of a dumbass he was and just how far he set the field back.
But @sramach.bsky.social and @cbo.bsky.social kept their eye on the ball.
But @sramach.bsky.social and @cbo.bsky.social kept their eye on the ball.
A corollary of this is that something can be normally distributed in the parameters but not necessarily in the data. Using the right link functions and model, you’d be surprised how much the normal distribution can do.
Confusing stats language:
The "linear" is linear regression means "linear in the parameters".
It does not mean "can only fit straight lines", and things like polynomials and splines can be included in linear models.
online.stat.psu.edu/stat501/less...
1/2
The "linear" is linear regression means "linear in the parameters".
It does not mean "can only fit straight lines", and things like polynomials and splines can be included in linear models.
online.stat.psu.edu/stat501/less...
1/2
November 14, 2025 at 1:29 PM
A corollary of this is that something can be normally distributed in the parameters but not necessarily in the data. Using the right link functions and model, you’d be surprised how much the normal distribution can do.
The Hitler genetic work is like an over the top hypothetical for the ethics of using onymous dna to diagnose post genetic conditions of deceased individuals.
November 14, 2025 at 12:13 AM
The Hitler genetic work is like an over the top hypothetical for the ethics of using onymous dna to diagnose post genetic conditions of deceased individuals.