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Carl T. Bergstrom

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Carl Theodore Bergstrom is a theoretical and evolutionary biologist and a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington,… more

Carl T. Bergstrom
H-index: 58
Biology 21%
Mathematics 20%
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
"The most notable benefit is that she gets the satisfaction of doing something she enjoys in her own way"

Amen.
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
Not in the least.
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
This is an excellent point.
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
Wait till you hear how I had to subscribe to another package to watch the National League games….
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
The game was rain delayed. FS1 was covering it. They just switched into the Yankees game. This game is now on FS2 which the package that I subscribed to a week ago in order to watch the playoffs does not include.
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
Blacked out here
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
Screw you, MLB, for licensing your games on a case by case basis and not including them in your own streaming package. I had to buy 5 different services to catch all of the playoff games.

But switching the Mariners game to a channel that I don’t have midway through the fourth inning? Unreal.
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
callingbullshit.org/FAQ.html
Bullshit is by no means a modern invention. Each page on this website features a famous bullshit artist of yore. Here on this page, a detail from Michelangelo's 1512 Expulsion from the Garden. According to Christian theology, all of the pain and suffering (and mortality) that pervades human life can be traced to the lies that the serpent fed Eve about the fruit of knowledge. On our syllabus page, Theodoor Rombouts's early 17th century The Denial of Saint Peter. At the Last Supper, Saint Peter assured Jesus that he would never deny him, but Jesus saw right through that. By the next morn, Saint Peter had lied three times in denial of the savior. On the home page, Rafael's 1511 The School of Athens. Here Socrates is depicted as he obliterates the arguments of the Sophists, a group of purported scholars who constructed an entire philosophical school around talking bullshit. (Fortunately, the Sophists are long gone and no other school of philosophy would venture to lay its foundations on the same effluent base. )
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
I love small ball, but that was poorly executed.
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by Carl T. Bergstrom — Reposted by: Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
Thank you so much, April. We’d like to write an update too—so much has happened in a mere five years—but I think we have to tackle the bullshit machines first.
Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines: Introduction
A free online humanities course about how to learn and work and thrive in an AI world.
Thebullshitmachines.com
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
October nerves
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
Goddamn Tommy Edman. You’re lucky you have Freddy Freeman at first.
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
October Ball doesn’t get any better than this bottom of the ninth attempted comeback from the Phillies.
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Reposted by: Carl T. Bergstrom

wrightam.bsky.social
Continuing my tour of books I should have already read, Calling Bullshit by @carlbergstrom.com and @jevinwest.bsky.social. Just a delight - an accessible, entertaining, insightful look at various forms of BS. Much like Weapons of Math Destruction, would love a 2025 update of this one.
Calling Bullshit: Data Reasoning in a Digital World
The world is awash in bullshit. Politicians are unconstrained by facts. Science is conducted by press release. Higher education rewards bullshit over analytic thought. Startup culture elevates bullshi...
www.callingbullshit.org
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
Precisely.
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by Carl T. Bergstrom — Reposted by: Alan Richardson

carlbergstrom.com
Based on the experience of countries that have tried this, there’s overwhelming evidence that it is utterly unnecessary.
enirenberg.bsky.social
Edward Nirenberg @enirenberg.bsky.social · 1d
This serves absolutely no purpose other than to reduce vaccine uptake:
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
www.reuters.com
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Reposted by: Carl T. Bergstrom

enirenberg.bsky.social
This serves absolutely no purpose other than to reduce vaccine uptake:
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
www.reuters.com
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Reposted by: Carl T. Bergstrom

jamesian.bsky.social
Congrats to Mary Brunkow of #seattle for #immunology discoveries leading to shared #Nobel ...
Congrats to Institute for Systems Biology.
#research #science

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/h...
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded for Work on Immune Systems
www.nytimes.com
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by Carl T. Bergstrom — Reposted by: Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
*where “wank” is it precise technical term, via @iris-meredith.bsky.social
An essay on wank | deadSimpleTech
This captures well the uncomfortable, slightly disorienting feeling that wank creates when you're subjected to it, wherein you're expected to speak about and think about the statement as though it say...
deadsimpletech.com
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
Bro if somebody comes in and says “baseball is an economic boon to my city”, this would be a reasonable response. When somebody comes in and says I am happy because my team is in the playoffs even though everything else sucks and you answer with this sort of wank, this way you’re just being a tool.
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
Yeah, I can’t tell. It’s like what if Bill James was completely full of shit and had a professional ad agency producing his columns?
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
It’s completely wild, right?

I mean, I guess the thing is we’re supposed to all be in on the joke and realize these are just spurious correlations and they’re having fun with it — but it’s not a very good joke given that they are lacking an actual use case.
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
Holy shit, you’re literally the waffles guy.
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
Maybe find a better use for your clearly abundant talents because you’re not doing anyone any favors—least of all those of us who actually do economics.
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
I suppose I’m too literal-minded, but I really don’t get these Google Cloud commercials where Google AI finds what are obviously spurious correlations in Major League Baseball stats.

Like isn’t this the whole reason why ML dressed up as AI is bullshit?
Google cloud/MLB logos
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
Is there any particular reason you drop in and try to dump cold water on the small amount of pleasure that strangers are able to find during difficult times?
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
Clearly.
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
If you know where to get $20 parking drop me a tip.
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by Carl T. Bergstrom

carlbergstrom.com
Right? Love that.
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References

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