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Giles

@gdeejay.bsky.social

3.8K followers 3.2K following 4.1K posts

Applied economist working in international development policy 🇹🇴🇸🇧🇻🇺🇫🇯🇦🇺🇲🇲 (etc), Mostly memes. Sometimes post about #publicpolicy, research, data science, #PFM and #Rstats Economist | Independent Consultant All views my own

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Giles @gdeejay.bsky.social · Oct 22

I'm torn whether to do an introduction post as I'm pretty boring.

I'm not a professor of anything or lead Oxford's AI Ethics initiative...

.. I'm just a humble independent consultant working in the fields of Public Policy, Data Analytics and Development policy.

(1/n)
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Giles @gdeejay.bsky.social · 5h

This sounds like quite the bargain.

🧐

Giles @gdeejay.bsky.social · 6h

Want a discount on your subscription?

Don't renew and wait for them to send you a discount code when it lapses.

🧐

Giles: 1
Capitalism: 0

Giles @gdeejay.bsky.social · 6h

Yes!

Giles @gdeejay.bsky.social · 7h

I (respectfully) called him on pretty much all of his points, which I usually can't be bothered with.

I'm clearly getting old and grumpy 😂

Giles @gdeejay.bsky.social · 7h

I think what boggles my mind about this line of conversation is that the person that starts it thinks nobody has thought about the problem before and the solution is really simple.

They clearly haven't considered that the world might be complicated and change is hard.

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Giles @gdeejay.bsky.social · 7h

...
Sure, it's not a panacea, but it's one of the few forms of development interventions that are about empowering the public.

Which is also why I suggest donors default to cash transfers and design from there.

Giles @gdeejay.bsky.social · 7h

...
My biased opinion as somebody that works in the field is that a lot of the problems come down to building and maintaining good representative institutions that are adapted to the local context.

Which is why I work a lot on democratic/ is institutional development.

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Giles @gdeejay.bsky.social · 7h

...
Because that has never been trialed before.
🤨
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Giles @gdeejay.bsky.social · 7h

I had another discussion with some random about corruption and foreign aid today.

The basic line is the same each time:
A lot of money gets squandered by corrupt government officials in low income countries

Their solution:
Send experts from the west to teach people how to run their government.
...

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Giles @gdeejay.bsky.social · 8h

This is against my rule of thumb to always order a local dish, but I'm in a hotel and all the options were western.

The guy that serves me also recommended it.

I think he just picked whatever, which is what I would have done anyway.🤷🏼‍♂️

Giles @gdeejay.bsky.social · 8h

First night in Vanuatu, so obviously I ordered something local:
a cheeseburger.

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Giles @gdeejay.bsky.social · 8h

*charisma +10*

Giles @gdeejay.bsky.social · 10h

I saw somebody comment that the #AI generated text was mostly right, but this just indicates to me how boilerplate the report was.

Rafe Meager (they/them) @economeager.bsky.social · 10h

Deloitte issued partial refund to the Australian Gov for its error-ridden AI-generated report youtu.be/C17KWJ02Goo

Deloitte delivers report to government using AI which contained errors | ABC NEWS

YouTube video by ABC News (Australia)

youtu.be

Giles @gdeejay.bsky.social · 15h

Researchers: just publish your damned code.

When I see footnotes like this I assume you're not confident about your results and don't want others to discover your mistake(s).

Darakhshan Nehal @darakhshann.bsky.social · 18h

What’s even the point of this?
Genuine question, what counts as an unreasonable request here?

Oh, maybe my 5-year-old niece would have tried recreating the plots. That’s why, right?