benrawk's comments

benrawk | 3 months ago | on: Childhood Friends, Not Moms, Shape Attachment Styles Most

The title is false, the study finds that moms have a large impact on attachment style

benrawk | 4 months ago | on: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

I mean the CEO got fired…

benrawk | 1 year ago | on: 'Smart' insulin prevents diabetic highs – and deadly lows

Doesn’t GLP1 do something similar?

benrawk | 3 years ago | on: Need for cognition

It is not a crazy idea to conceptualize some conspiracy theorists as people who (1) have a high need for cognition (brain wheels are always turning), and (2) direct that at developing wrong/misguided/motivated frameworks for the world.

benrawk | 4 years ago | on: Ask HN: What does an ML Engineer do?

Yeah I think in general “ML engineers” are building models (can include feature engineering) and then deploying them into production.

benrawk | 6 years ago | on: How a 'growth mindset' can lead to success

Most of the growth mindset literature hasn’t replicated...

benrawk | 6 years ago | on: The compelling mathematical challenge of the three-body problem

I took linear algebra with him at UCSC! Super nice guy

benrawk | 6 years ago | on: Ask HN: How did you prepare for being a first-time parent?

Just sleep as much as possible before the baby comes. And maybe take a vacation. :)

benrawk | 7 years ago | on: How the Varroa Mite’s True Diet Was Discovered

Brilliant!

benrawk | 7 years ago | on: Launch HN: Glide (YC W19) – Mobile Apps from Google Sheets

This sounds really cool! Maybe I’ll make an app for my family to keep us on schedule...

benrawk | 7 years ago | on: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

Have kids. Your main problem then is to feed them, keep them clothed, keep them relatively happy, and educate them (all surprisingly non-trivial problems with lots of learning along the way, especially the last two). Pursue career goals as much as possible, but conditional on having acceptable solutions to kid problems mentioned. Simplifies things, and provides a good option in case of failure on work problems (“Work today sucked, but at least I’ve got these great kids!”). Constraints can be good!

benrawk | 7 years ago | on: Why Is Behavioral Economics So Popular?

I know this paper well (and the larger point being made in the paper; I have seen Dr. Gal present on it in seminars). I think the point he is trying to make is that what we really need for understanding of human behavior is good psychological theory of how humans operate. In many cases (loss aversion being one of them, per Dr. Gal), behavioral economics describes the data, but does not provide a deeper analysis of why the data are the way they are (that is, why the humans being studied acted as they did). Of course not true of all behavioral economics, but some of it.

benrawk | 7 years ago | on: Update to Ask HN: What to do if I’m about to lose my job to mental health issues

Antidepressants really do help. Especially for getting out of the lowest lows. Then, when you are out of the lowest lows, the other things (like talk therapy) have a chance to be effective.

benrawk | 7 years ago | on: Tell HN: Rejected from Y Combinator? Don't be upset or quit

This is ridiculous. Rejection sucks, and it will likely slow you down a little bit for some time. That’s okay, and it is okay to feel bad. Over time, however, you will get over it and become better because of it. But if you are slowed down you aren’t doing anything wrong, you are human.

benrawk | 9 years ago | on: Causal Inference Book

Check this one out, it is the classic in book on causal inference: https://www.amazon.com/Experimental-Quasi-Experimental-Desig...

benrawk | 9 years ago | on: Most scientists 'can't replicate studies by their peers'

I am a social scientist studying human behavior, and this is a huge problem in the field. Myself and my statistician friends who analyze the literature have basically concluded that most extremely "novel" and "surprising" findings in the literature aren't even worth trying to replicate (remember, replications cost money to run, so before you start you have to make some judgment about the likelihood of success.) This is especially true of the "sexiest" sub-topics in the field, like social priming and embodied cognition. If you want to learn more about this, the place to look is Andrew Gelman's blog: http://andrewgelman.com/