Peter Ellis
@freerangestats.info
Director, Statistics for Development Division, at the Pacific Community. Posts are personal views, and most likely to be about data and #rstats, maybe with bits of history, social science and philosophy thrown in. Blog is at https://freerangestats.info/.
Ok maybe you've seen his whole speech, which i haven't. I'm only judging by the excerpt given, which doesn't seem to be about the economy at all.
January 23, 2026 at 7:24 PM
Ok maybe you've seen his whole speech, which i haven't. I'm only judging by the excerpt given, which doesn't seem to be about the economy at all.
I'm not sure it is relevant though? He's talking about 'meaning', not GDP.
January 23, 2026 at 7:12 PM
I'm not sure it is relevant though? He's talking about 'meaning', not GDP.
Sweet potatoes aren't potatoes, or even closely related to them. But doesn't matter, this sounds good.
January 23, 2026 at 6:39 AM
Sweet potatoes aren't potatoes, or even closely related to them. But doesn't matter, this sounds good.
But while it was genre-defining and best of this sort of its time, very few people would play it today when Elite Dangerous is available.
January 23, 2026 at 4:23 AM
But while it was genre-defining and best of this sort of its time, very few people would play it today when Elite Dangerous is available.
In fairness to ChatGPT, the issue here seems to be the extraordinary expectation from this author that it work as a filing and document management system, which really sounds like user error.
January 23, 2026 at 2:09 AM
In fairness to ChatGPT, the issue here seems to be the extraordinary expectation from this author that it work as a filing and document management system, which really sounds like user error.
"crowed". Also "spit" which should be "spat". Attention to detail not great in the OP.
January 23, 2026 at 1:08 AM
"crowed". Also "spit" which should be "spat". Attention to detail not great in the OP.
'The cost of living' is -29 though.
January 22, 2026 at 7:30 PM
'The cost of living' is -29 though.
I really hope this isn't turning RStudio into a competitor of Power BI.
January 22, 2026 at 1:50 AM
I really hope this isn't turning RStudio into a competitor of Power BI.
Thanks. Very nice follow-up piece.
January 21, 2026 at 7:11 PM
Thanks. Very nice follow-up piece.
'culmination' suggests this is the highest point they reach, I'm not sure it's time to say that yet.
January 21, 2026 at 2:52 AM
'culmination' suggests this is the highest point they reach, I'm not sure it's time to say that yet.
I think he thought they would, but not for another year or so. And yes, there are arguments for continuing the trade including both what was received in return, and not provoking (in his eyes) an attack.
January 20, 2026 at 10:49 PM
I think he thought they would, but not for another year or so. And yes, there are arguments for continuing the trade including both what was received in return, and not provoking (in his eyes) an attack.
Yeah, I know that. I was just mentioning it.
January 20, 2026 at 10:48 PM
Yeah, I know that. I was just mentioning it.
I had not realised there was a novel between the Asimov short story and the film.
January 20, 2026 at 6:06 AM
I had not realised there was a novel between the Asimov short story and the film.
I find this very hard to believe. What is there about doing it 'by hand' - basically just an old technology - that is so special? Should we make people take notes in cursive handwriting, or cuneiform?
January 19, 2026 at 9:11 PM
I find this very hard to believe. What is there about doing it 'by hand' - basically just an old technology - that is so special? Should we make people take notes in cursive handwriting, or cuneiform?
I can imagine though that even if notes by hand is sub optimal for notes, it could be worth it for the better engagement from no devices.
January 19, 2026 at 9:09 PM
I can imagine though that even if notes by hand is sub optimal for notes, it could be worth it for the better engagement from no devices.
Is there good evidence in favour of notes by hand? It seems counter intuitive to me, I'd certainly not do this in my workplace (because retrieval id so poor other than by date).
January 19, 2026 at 9:08 PM
Is there good evidence in favour of notes by hand? It seems counter intuitive to me, I'd certainly not do this in my workplace (because retrieval id so poor other than by date).
Reposted by Peter Ellis
This is normal in corporate settings, and completely necessary when there are multiple locations. It works fine if the network is fast enough.
January 14, 2026 at 11:19 PM
This is normal in corporate settings, and completely necessary when there are multiple locations. It works fine if the network is fast enough.
I think there's more frequent straightforward mistakes in official statistics re-dissemination by third parties than most people think. US Census Bureau wouldn't have an error as obvious as this on its own site for long, but each time it goes through another org's pipeline things can go wrong.
January 14, 2026 at 1:08 PM
I think there's more frequent straightforward mistakes in official statistics re-dissemination by third parties than most people think. US Census Bureau wouldn't have an error as obvious as this on its own site for long, but each time it goes through another org's pipeline things can go wrong.