Ben Bushong
@benbushong.com
1.5K followers 410 following 1.2K posts
Visiting Harvard University and HBS, 25-26 Associate Professor at Michigan State. Formerly: Harvard, Caltech, Oregon. Using psychology ✕ economics to explore people's beliefs and choices. All opinions my own. 🐶 + 🧠 + 📚 + 🏃🏽+ 🌈 + 🩵 web: benbushong.com
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
benbushong.com
This too—an oversight on my part—is such an important insight!
benbushong.com
This is the quintessential example of complete crap writing in the face of authoritarian takeover.

"But it’s not clear that a coin could legally feature an image of Trump..."

It *IS CLEARLY ILLEGAL* you dummies. Just write like human beings and be honest. 🤦‍♂️
nytimes.com
The Treasury Department is developing a one-dollar commemorative coin, bearing the image of President Trump, for the nation’s 250th birthday. But it’s not clear that a coin could legally feature an image of Trump; an 1866 act established that only deceased people could appear on U.S. currency.
Treasury Plans to Mint $1 Commemorative Trump Coin
The coin, bearing President Trump’s face, would honor the 250th birthday of the United States.
nyti.ms
benbushong.com
yoooooooo I mean, so absurdly wonderful
benbushong.com
It might be worth mentioning my bias here. My opinion: The CEOs of the major AI companies and their satellites *have* to spin the story of inevitable success to justify truly astronomical valuations. So they push lies that AGI is “right around the corner”.

But: we don’t understand dog cognition.
benbushong.com
C’mon this MUST be the Bad Place.
phillewis.bsky.social
Bari Weiss is set to be named the editor in chief of CBS News, the New York Post reports
Paramount Skydance is poised to name Bari Weiss as editor in chief of CBS News in the coming days — giving the hard-charging journalist unusual clout to revamp the struggling network as it also acquires her scrappy news site the Free Press, The Post has learned.

Weiss — a 41-year-old former New York Times opinion writer who has built the Free Press into a buzzworthy site with a contrarian bent — is expected to be named to the top post in a Monday announcement, although the talks are in flux and the timing could change, a source close to the situation said.
benbushong.com
The last $20 billion or so of compute has yielded fairly marginal gains. I think another insight like the attention mechanism is needed for significant change. Could be wrong.
benbushong.com
None of them are even remotely close in the LLM space. Nor do I think this is in the near term possibility space.
benbushong.com
First: thank you to you and the rest of the team who worked on this.

Second: I hope that you find support (financial and otherwise) to flesh out these ideas. I can't believe I'm saying this, but we need a *gulp* Project 2029.

Sorry for hijacking; I'll see myself out of your comments!
benbushong.com
I have a hard time with the Democratic strategy right now and this OpEd highlights its flaws. The "it's about healthcare" frame treats the public as if we were asleep for the past 8 months.

We're not stupid. This is about a government gone rogue. Just state in plain words what you believe is true.
Opinion | The Real Stakes of the Shutdown
www.nytimes.com
benbushong.com
...but, and hear me out on this... what if he is?
benbushong.com
Your anti-grift content is [chefs kiss].

...But now that I have your attention let's talk about my idea for an AI-designed Dyson Swarm. The magic chatbox told me I'm really onto something, and it's never wrong because look they have bar charts that show newer, bigger bars. BARS!
benbushong.com
Probability box go brrrr?
benbushong.com
Kinda your fault for reading highbrow spooky season erotica…
benbushong.com
A wonderfully cold hot take. 👍🏽👍🏽
benbushong.com
Genuinely cool. Congratulations. 🥂
benbushong.com
In his latest post, Sam Altman shows that he is at best irresponsible and at worst a hostage taker. "Let us steal data, use colossal amounts of energy, and generally restructure the world without safeguards or careful thought. You *might* get a cure to cancer!"

This is absurd and embarrassing.
benbushong.com
Giving off real R2 energy…
dynarski.bsky.social
Judge’s critique:

“… the president’s 85-page complaint was unnecessarily lengthy & digressive.”

suit waited “until the 80th page to lodge a formal allegation of defamation,” spending “dozens of ‘florid and enervating’ pages lavishing praise on the president and enumerating a range of grievances.”
dynarski.bsky.social
Love seeing this in the headlines as I teach my students that writing shorter is writing better

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/b...
benbushong.com
“I need it for… reasons.”
benbushong.com
I'm fairly sure this type of thing is pretty well covered by [checks notes] THE VERY FIRST AMENDMENT.
benbushong.com
"sometimes" lol gtfu rookie