Alejandro Schuler
@aschuler.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Biostatistics UC Berkeley
semiparametric statistics, machine learning, causal inference, stats/ML pedagogy, social justice
Modern Causal Inference Book: alejandroschuler.github.io/mci/
semiparametric statistics, machine learning, causal inference, stats/ML pedagogy, social justice
Modern Causal Inference Book: alejandroschuler.github.io/mci/
Reposted by Alejandro Schuler
How can we reform science? I have some ideas. But I am not sure you’ll like them, because they don’t promise much. elevanth.org/blog/2025/07...
Which Kind of Science Reform
What hope is there for science reform, if we can't agree on what to reform? Right now, principles are more important than practices.
elevanth.org
July 9, 2025 at 1:40 PM
How can we reform science? I have some ideas. But I am not sure you’ll like them, because they don’t promise much. elevanth.org/blog/2025/07...
Reposted by Alejandro Schuler
You can't live your life based on hate - that way lies madness and bitterness - but allowing yourself to slip into hater mode from time to time is a lovely little treat, like a drunk cigarette or a decadent slice of cake
November 9, 2025 at 1:09 AM
You can't live your life based on hate - that way lies madness and bitterness - but allowing yourself to slip into hater mode from time to time is a lovely little treat, like a drunk cigarette or a decadent slice of cake
Reposted by Alejandro Schuler
What an amazing essay from the former chair of Africana Studies at Bowdoin. I'll share a few sections in the reply but seriously, read the whole thing. It's all insightful and beautifully written.
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
lithub.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:11 PM
What an amazing essay from the former chair of Africana Studies at Bowdoin. I'll share a few sections in the reply but seriously, read the whole thing. It's all insightful and beautifully written.
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
lithub.com/maybe-dont-t...
Reposted by Alejandro Schuler
Did you know gov shutdowns aren’t in the Constitution, any law, or Court ruling?
They exist because of a 1980 OLC memo—a lawyer’s opinion that everyone just went along with. Before 1980, funding gaps didn’t cause shutdowns.
What one memo created, another can undo. How the next D admin can undo it:
They exist because of a 1980 OLC memo—a lawyer’s opinion that everyone just went along with. Before 1980, funding gaps didn’t cause shutdowns.
What one memo created, another can undo. How the next D admin can undo it:
Why America’s Government Shutdowns Exist and How to End Them
One Legal Memo Created The Shutdown Era. Another Can End It.
open.substack.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Did you know gov shutdowns aren’t in the Constitution, any law, or Court ruling?
They exist because of a 1980 OLC memo—a lawyer’s opinion that everyone just went along with. Before 1980, funding gaps didn’t cause shutdowns.
What one memo created, another can undo. How the next D admin can undo it:
They exist because of a 1980 OLC memo—a lawyer’s opinion that everyone just went along with. Before 1980, funding gaps didn’t cause shutdowns.
What one memo created, another can undo. How the next D admin can undo it:
Reposted by Alejandro Schuler
‘Study after study shows that students want to develop these critical thinking skills, are not lazy, and large numbers of them would be in favor of banning ChatGPT and similar tools in universities’, says @olivia.science www.ru.nl/en/research/...
‘Opposing the inevitability of AI at universities is possible and necessary’ | Radboud University
Since the widespread release of ChatGPT in December of 2022, AI has taken over much of the world by storm – including academia. Most of this happened with very little pushback, despite a myriad of iss...
www.ru.nl
November 1, 2025 at 10:26 PM
‘Study after study shows that students want to develop these critical thinking skills, are not lazy, and large numbers of them would be in favor of banning ChatGPT and similar tools in universities’, says @olivia.science www.ru.nl/en/research/...
I don't like fall.
The feeling of the season is death. Not a brutal, beautiful death that means something. A death that resents itself, that closes a life that wasn't really ever lived.
Picking up your kid from school in the dark fucking sucks.
The feeling of the season is death. Not a brutal, beautiful death that means something. A death that resents itself, that closes a life that wasn't really ever lived.
Picking up your kid from school in the dark fucking sucks.
November 6, 2025 at 11:52 PM
I don't like fall.
The feeling of the season is death. Not a brutal, beautiful death that means something. A death that resents itself, that closes a life that wasn't really ever lived.
Picking up your kid from school in the dark fucking sucks.
The feeling of the season is death. Not a brutal, beautiful death that means something. A death that resents itself, that closes a life that wasn't really ever lived.
Picking up your kid from school in the dark fucking sucks.
Reposted by Alejandro Schuler
my ideal response to AI and crypto is a lot closer to an air strike than a bailout
“It’s not that I’m for austerity, it’s just that I’m against bailing out AI, crypto, private assets/university endowments, and I’m fine with canceled Thanksgiving flights and missed paychecks as long as Republicans take the blame for it.”
November 6, 2025 at 6:13 PM
my ideal response to AI and crypto is a lot closer to an air strike than a bailout
Reposted by Alejandro Schuler
I'm hard-pressed to think of a non-Jewish Democratic politician who has spoken to Jews with more respect and empathy than Mamdani. The fact that many Jewish establishment orgs are going after him while staying relatively mum on resurgent Nazism is a disaster, both for American Jews and in general.
November 5, 2025 at 11:49 PM
I'm hard-pressed to think of a non-Jewish Democratic politician who has spoken to Jews with more respect and empathy than Mamdani. The fact that many Jewish establishment orgs are going after him while staying relatively mum on resurgent Nazism is a disaster, both for American Jews and in general.
Daily reminder than numbers actually aren't real either (platonists not allowed sorry)
Qualitative research isn't a consolation prize for when we can't get 'real' numbers. It's a different way of knowing; one that captures complexity, context, and meaning that statistics alone cannot provide.
November 5, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Daily reminder than numbers actually aren't real either (platonists not allowed sorry)
Reposted by Alejandro Schuler
Loved the Oscar Wilde quote read out at the start of Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction ceremony this evening:
“If you cannot write well, you cannot think well; if you cannot think well, others will do your thinking for you.”
Yay books!
(book in pic was in my goody bag, not the winner)
“If you cannot write well, you cannot think well; if you cannot think well, others will do your thinking for you.”
Yay books!
(book in pic was in my goody bag, not the winner)
November 4, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Loved the Oscar Wilde quote read out at the start of Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction ceremony this evening:
“If you cannot write well, you cannot think well; if you cannot think well, others will do your thinking for you.”
Yay books!
(book in pic was in my goody bag, not the winner)
“If you cannot write well, you cannot think well; if you cannot think well, others will do your thinking for you.”
Yay books!
(book in pic was in my goody bag, not the winner)
Almost every single one of these fuckers will go up against the wall when they're done collapsing liberalism. Saturn eats his young.
As an aside, one of the things that continues to be striking to me is how so many of the folks excitedly building an authoritarian MAGA state don't seem to have put 2 and 2 together about how is obviously going to get long-knived the moment that state is secure.
Vermeule thus goes in the same "I can't believe you don't realize your 'allies' will put you up against the wall without delay" bucket as Peter Thiel.
November 3, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Almost every single one of these fuckers will go up against the wall when they're done collapsing liberalism. Saturn eats his young.
Reposted by Alejandro Schuler
Struck by the admission in this that Johnson doesn't think the GOP could ever really win a majority of voters in its current form and so relies on minoritarian rule to wield power.
That is a significant - I'd argue defining - difference from the Reagan-Bush era GOP.
That is a significant - I'd argue defining - difference from the Reagan-Bush era GOP.
Johnson: "If they had no filibuster, they would pack the SCOTUS. You'd go from 9 to 17 or however many liberals they could pack. You would make DC & Puerto Rico into states, which would give 4 additional Democrat senators & make us a permanent minority. You'd see massive restrictions of 2A rights"
November 3, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Struck by the admission in this that Johnson doesn't think the GOP could ever really win a majority of voters in its current form and so relies on minoritarian rule to wield power.
That is a significant - I'd argue defining - difference from the Reagan-Bush era GOP.
That is a significant - I'd argue defining - difference from the Reagan-Bush era GOP.
Reposted by Alejandro Schuler
CEO brain is one of the most dangerous plagues of our time
November 2, 2025 at 6:46 PM
CEO brain is one of the most dangerous plagues of our time
Reposted by Alejandro Schuler
every brave american who stands up to ICE is a hero
Federal immigration agents fanned out across Chicago and its North Shore suburbs on Halloween, chasing suspects through front yards, driving SUVs onto sidewalks and using chemical agents during confrontations with furious residents.
Immigration Agents Clash With Chicago-Area Residents on Halloween
The state’s governor had called for a pause in the federal immigration crackdown over the Halloween weekend, citing concerns for children’s safety.
nyti.ms
November 2, 2025 at 1:27 AM
every brave american who stands up to ICE is a hero
Reposted by Alejandro Schuler
Dunno how to break it to you but we're not going to vote our way to democracy. We're also not suing our way there. As absolutely vital as both of these things are, they're necessary but not sufficient. We need people to get to their bones that we are in extraordinary times & break out of habits.
October 31, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Dunno how to break it to you but we're not going to vote our way to democracy. We're also not suing our way there. As absolutely vital as both of these things are, they're necessary but not sufficient. We need people to get to their bones that we are in extraordinary times & break out of habits.
Bet this guy treats his kids the same way
Here’s a disturbing video from Evanston of a federal agent hitting a man on the ground as people yell that he can’t breathe.
November 1, 2025 at 4:46 AM
Bet this guy treats his kids the same way
Reposted by Alejandro Schuler
More than three dozen streets across San Francisco will be closed to traffic for trick-or-treaters on Halloween this year.
Use our map to find where you can take the kids out without fear of big, bad automobiles.
missionlocal.org/2025/10/sf-h...
Use our map to find where you can take the kids out without fear of big, bad automobiles.
missionlocal.org/2025/10/sf-h...
Here’s every car-free street in S.F. for Halloween this year
More than three dozen streets across San Francisco will be closed to traffic on Halloween. Use our map to find the ones in your neighborhood.
missionlocal.org
October 31, 2025 at 12:48 AM
More than three dozen streets across San Francisco will be closed to traffic for trick-or-treaters on Halloween this year.
Use our map to find where you can take the kids out without fear of big, bad automobiles.
missionlocal.org/2025/10/sf-h...
Use our map to find where you can take the kids out without fear of big, bad automobiles.
missionlocal.org/2025/10/sf-h...
Reposted by Alejandro Schuler
i think if you ride public transit enough you learn that most weird behavior is not dangerous, and conversely i think driving a car teaches you that everyone is trying to kill you at all times
October 29, 2025 at 4:49 PM
i think if you ride public transit enough you learn that most weird behavior is not dangerous, and conversely i think driving a car teaches you that everyone is trying to kill you at all times
This is also the problem with campaigning based on polling. Stop responding to "opinions" and SHAPE the opinions. If you're responding, you're already dead.
The problem w polling - as someone who does lots of surveys - is that surveys construct opinions that simply do not exist in nature for *huge* chunks of people and too few of the data science bros conducting campaign polling understand this very basic feature the survey response. Vibes indeed.
The existence of this photograph (which is a real photo of a real person at a Mamdani campaign event) is enough to establish for me that voters writ large have absolutely no grasp of what policy is or how any given policy impacts their lives. It's all vibes.
October 30, 2025 at 3:41 AM
This is also the problem with campaigning based on polling. Stop responding to "opinions" and SHAPE the opinions. If you're responding, you're already dead.
Reposted by Alejandro Schuler
The problem w polling - as someone who does lots of surveys - is that surveys construct opinions that simply do not exist in nature for *huge* chunks of people and too few of the data science bros conducting campaign polling understand this very basic feature the survey response. Vibes indeed.
The existence of this photograph (which is a real photo of a real person at a Mamdani campaign event) is enough to establish for me that voters writ large have absolutely no grasp of what policy is or how any given policy impacts their lives. It's all vibes.
October 30, 2025 at 1:32 AM
The problem w polling - as someone who does lots of surveys - is that surveys construct opinions that simply do not exist in nature for *huge* chunks of people and too few of the data science bros conducting campaign polling understand this very basic feature the survey response. Vibes indeed.
Reposted by Alejandro Schuler
Look at this fucking shit. In Chicago the "elite" CT unit of the USBP detained (a violent assault resulting in 6 broken ribs) a 67yo US citizen driving home from his morning run, then tear gassed a Halloween party with kids in attendance. There's no reforming this. It's unamerican and unacceptable
October 29, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Look at this fucking shit. In Chicago the "elite" CT unit of the USBP detained (a violent assault resulting in 6 broken ribs) a 67yo US citizen driving home from his morning run, then tear gassed a Halloween party with kids in attendance. There's no reforming this. It's unamerican and unacceptable
Reposted by Alejandro Schuler
Look, at this point, if indoctrinating radical left antifa super-soldier shock-troopers and/or Zohran Mamdani is the only way to get funding for our departments, then I'm passing out copies of Mao's On Protracted War (1938) so we can talk strategy properly.
Either way, the academic Left is clearly responsible for Zohran Mamdani
October 29, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Look, at this point, if indoctrinating radical left antifa super-soldier shock-troopers and/or Zohran Mamdani is the only way to get funding for our departments, then I'm passing out copies of Mao's On Protracted War (1938) so we can talk strategy properly.
Reposted by Alejandro Schuler
Folks, if we had sectoral bargaining with wage boards and the best anti-trust imaginable, we'd still need a welfare state. If we had a fully socialist economy we'd still need a welfare state. There is a lot we can do to empower workers but poverty is a household level phenomenon.
October 27, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Folks, if we had sectoral bargaining with wage boards and the best anti-trust imaginable, we'd still need a welfare state. If we had a fully socialist economy we'd still need a welfare state. There is a lot we can do to empower workers but poverty is a household level phenomenon.
Please consume AI porn so that the global economy doesn't completely implode when the AGI bubble pops. It's the industry's only chance at profitability. This is how we will bail out SamA before it's too late.
October 23, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Please consume AI porn so that the global economy doesn't completely implode when the AGI bubble pops. It's the industry's only chance at profitability. This is how we will bail out SamA before it's too late.