Christopher Barrie
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cbarrie.bsky.social
Christopher Barrie
@cbarrie.bsky.social

Assistant Professor of Sociology, NYU. Core Faculty, CSMaP. Research Fellow Oxford Sociology. Computational social science, Methods, Conflict, Communication. Webpage: https://www.cjbarrie.com/

Computer science 22%
Political science 20%
Pinned
Pleased to share the latest version of my paper with Arthur Spirling and @lexipalmer.bsky.social on replication using LMs

We show:

1. current applications of LMs in political science research *don't* meet basic standards of reproducibility...

Reposted by Christopher Barrie

The dream of back to back FIFA Peace Prizes is fading away

I remember Daniel presenting initial research for this at a workshop at UNC Chapel Hill some years back. V excited to read the finished product!
So many people in politics - in the US and the UK - have been in politics or adjacent their whole lives, and are not like most people. Not just the politicians, but also (even more so!) their staff and advisors.

(I know this more about the US than the UK - daniellaurison.com/research/pol...)

Classic Trump shock and bore. "Oh you're not actually deporting thousands of high skilled workers already in the country like we initially thought with your mad announcement. No news here."

Except there's lots of news

Reposted by Christopher Barrie

So many people in politics - in the US and the UK - have been in politics or adjacent their whole lives, and are not like most people. Not just the politicians, but also (even more so!) their staff and advisors.

(I know this more about the US than the UK - daniellaurison.com/research/pol...)

The biggest shock to the system of this naively brash no-nothing was going from PhD (boss of one who is paid to respond to requests) to university faculty where it's unclear who your boss is and no one is going to answer any of your requests no matter how much you tell them they're mad

I ran 5k today in the mountains at -2 while it was snowing. I am now having a breakdown

I've just registered for a half marathon and also today scrolled LinkedIn and found it moderately engaging

Am I having a breakdown?

Yeah basically agree with that. Memorising syntax, I'm relatively sure, will become like punch cards

Yes but someone has to also evaluate the foundations of some set of competing approaches. Maybe it's fine and we can just trust LLMs to do that faultlessly. But I fear we're in an odd limbo land rn. Even SOTA models can still do some mad things

This is very funny

The past is a foreign country

Cool new postmodernism just dropped, guys

I'm confused. Only my one looks like Blobby?

Who wants another teaser of my new paper with Robert Cerina?

Definitely many can be accused of haughtiness! I just find it a little on the nose, as Per implies, to write a piece about causality and credibility with no reference to disciplines that have outstripped sociology IMO (we still have no replication requirements in the top journals of our field)

Thanksgiving Twitter is happening again
Tesco Margherita Oven Pizza x Christmas Turkey Gravy. This is British food culture.

💣

Also have we not outgrown the whole "I don't like this person who said x" style of academia? We have substack for that now

As someone who spans political science and sociology, I am increasingly bored by the tendency of sociology to pretend some haughty superiority to disciplines whose standards have long (10-15 years?) exceeded its own.

Sociology has a lot to say. It would say it better if it read other disciplines

This is like if the Executive Committee of the UCU tried to make a political party

Me when I use claude code to specify a multilevel model
another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls
another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls

🫡

What does it mean?! Well you'll have to wait won't you

I have a cool new paper with Roberto Cerina cooking. Here's a teaser because I think it looks cool

AI-Feynman is a lot more polite. Not believable

Reposted by Christopher Barrie

What a beautiful photo from last night’s snowfall. Photo credit: Adam Gray for The New York Times

This is very funny

Reposted by Christopher Barrie

Tesco Margherita Oven Pizza x Christmas Turkey Gravy. This is British food culture.