Nathaniel Hendrix
@nhendrix.bsky.social
Healthcare data scientist and researcher in Washington, DC
🌱🐈⬛🐈⬛🐈🏳️🌈
nathanielhendrix.substack.com
nathanielhendrix.com
🌱🐈⬛🐈⬛🐈🏳️🌈
nathanielhendrix.substack.com
nathanielhendrix.com
IHME has just published their latest Global Burden of Disease study in the Lancet with *2,779* listed authors. This piece describes how their very loose authorship criteria distort metrics and artificially inflate contributors’ citation counts:
Beyond Fraud: How IHME Distorts Academic Metrics
Dr. Ilya Kashnitsky is a demographer @ Statistics Denmark.
ikashnitsky.phd
October 13, 2025 at 7:02 PM
IHME has just published their latest Global Burden of Disease study in the Lancet with *2,779* listed authors. This piece describes how their very loose authorship criteria distort metrics and artificially inflate contributors’ citation counts:
Donna Haraway: “The boundary between science fiction and social reality is an optical illusion.”
October 11, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Donna Haraway: “The boundary between science fiction and social reality is an optical illusion.”
The lineup looks incredible. Sad that I won't be able to go!
🗓️ DEX25 is less than a month away!
We're excited to share that the detailed meeting agenda is now live! View and download the full schedule to explore session titles, presenter information, and more details about each session.
We hope to see you there!
👉 codex.ucsf.edu/events/dex25...
We're excited to share that the detailed meeting agenda is now live! View and download the full schedule to explore session titles, presenter information, and more details about each session.
We hope to see you there!
👉 codex.ucsf.edu/events/dex25...
🚨 Registration is open for #DEX25!
📅 Oct 27–29, 2025
📍 Ann Arbor, MI
Join experts, early career professionals, educators, researchers, and patients to advance diagnostic excellence through presentations, workshops, and community building.
🔗 umich.cloud-cme.com/course/cours...
📅 Oct 27–29, 2025
📍 Ann Arbor, MI
Join experts, early career professionals, educators, researchers, and patients to advance diagnostic excellence through presentations, workshops, and community building.
🔗 umich.cloud-cme.com/course/cours...
September 30, 2025 at 5:53 PM
The lineup looks incredible. Sad that I won't be able to go!
Happy New Claude Day to those who celebrate
September 29, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Happy New Claude Day to those who celebrate
A favorite John Searle meme, in his memory
September 29, 2025 at 4:51 PM
A favorite John Searle meme, in his memory
Reposted by Nathaniel Hendrix
Research active faculty teach classes that are significantly closer to the knowledge frontier.
August 4, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Research active faculty teach classes that are significantly closer to the knowledge frontier.
There should be a moratorium on calling for "systemic change" unless the person calling for it can plausibly prove that they know how to change systems. Which would of course involve answering the question of why they haven't just changed the system already.
September 22, 2025 at 1:45 PM
There should be a moratorium on calling for "systemic change" unless the person calling for it can plausibly prove that they know how to change systems. Which would of course involve answering the question of why they haven't just changed the system already.
Russell Ackoff: “The educational system is not dedicated to produce learning by students, but teaching by teachers.”
A Lifetime of Systems Thinking - The Systems Thinker
hen one reaches 80, one is considered to be ripe and ready for picking. Picking usually consists of the pickers asking the pickee to reflect back on the wisdom he has gained over his lifetime. This re...
thesystemsthinker.com
September 21, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Russell Ackoff: “The educational system is not dedicated to produce learning by students, but teaching by teachers.”
"It's more and more perilous to be generic in any way--to be a generic writer, or to be a generic person, a generic thinker. Because the machines are very good at analyzing [generic models]. There will be a much *higher* premium on cultivating your own distinctive, inimitable voice."
Ian Leslie on Being Human in the Age of AI - Econlib
When OpenAI launched its conversational chatbot this past November, author Ian Leslie was struck by the humanness of the computer’s dialogue. Then he realized that he had it exactly backward: In an ag...
www.econtalk.org
September 20, 2025 at 11:53 PM
"It's more and more perilous to be generic in any way--to be a generic writer, or to be a generic person, a generic thinker. Because the machines are very good at analyzing [generic models]. There will be a much *higher* premium on cultivating your own distinctive, inimitable voice."
Podcast on how Taylor Swift’s engagement represents a crisis for both her songwriting and the popular conception of how love relates to marriage.
Taylor Swift's Engagement – from Minds Almost Meeting by Robin Hanson and Agnes Callard
Audio player and transcript for 'Taylor Swift's Engagement' from Minds Almost Meeting. Agnes and Robin talk, try to connect, often fail, but sometimes don't.
mindsalmostmeeting.com
September 20, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Podcast on how Taylor Swift’s engagement represents a crisis for both her songwriting and the popular conception of how love relates to marriage.
Reposted by Nathaniel Hendrix
nihilism is cowardice.
September 18, 2025 at 4:41 PM
nihilism is cowardice.
A little bit of good news: NIH has caught up with previous years' funding levels. Their staff deserves tremendous respect.
September 18, 2025 at 2:15 PM
A little bit of good news: NIH has caught up with previous years' funding levels. Their staff deserves tremendous respect.
"The closed society represented a perennial moral possibility, whose roots are found in every human soul. In its most common expression, the closed society levels a familiar accusation: that the open society is immoral because it jeopardizes the very possibility of living a virtuous life."
Leo Strauss and the Closed Society - First Things
In the spring of 1941, as Hitler was laying plans for his invasion of the Soviet Union, Leo Strauss gave a lecture at the New School for Social Research...
firstthings.com
September 18, 2025 at 2:00 PM
"The closed society represented a perennial moral possibility, whose roots are found in every human soul. In its most common expression, the closed society levels a familiar accusation: that the open society is immoral because it jeopardizes the very possibility of living a virtuous life."
Waymo data from 95M miles finds an 80% reduction in injurious crashes and, esp. noteworthy, a 92% reduction in pedestrian injuries.
There should be some real moral urgency behind the wide-spread implementation of self-driving cars (and I mean good systems like Waymo's, not Tesla's FSD).
There should be some real moral urgency behind the wide-spread implementation of self-driving cars (and I mean good systems like Waymo's, not Tesla's FSD).
September 17, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Waymo data from 95M miles finds an 80% reduction in injurious crashes and, esp. noteworthy, a 92% reduction in pedestrian injuries.
There should be some real moral urgency behind the wide-spread implementation of self-driving cars (and I mean good systems like Waymo's, not Tesla's FSD).
There should be some real moral urgency behind the wide-spread implementation of self-driving cars (and I mean good systems like Waymo's, not Tesla's FSD).
It seems like people are increasingly using multiplication to indicate a magnitude of diminution: like “20 times smaller than” our “15 times less than”.
Isn’t that what we have fractions for? “One twentieth the size” and “one fifteenth of” are so much cleaner.
Isn’t that what we have fractions for? “One twentieth the size” and “one fifteenth of” are so much cleaner.
September 14, 2025 at 2:15 PM
It seems like people are increasingly using multiplication to indicate a magnitude of diminution: like “20 times smaller than” our “15 times less than”.
Isn’t that what we have fractions for? “One twentieth the size” and “one fifteenth of” are so much cleaner.
Isn’t that what we have fractions for? “One twentieth the size” and “one fifteenth of” are so much cleaner.
Let the PetSmart point float!
September 14, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Let the PetSmart point float!
I think my cats would call each other just to hiss and then hang up.
Scientists pioneer ‘animal internet’ with dog phones and touchscreens for parrots
Glasgow university researcher aims to ‘fundamentally reshape how animals implement control over their environment’
www.ft.com
September 12, 2025 at 2:49 PM
I think my cats would call each other just to hiss and then hang up.
“As philosopher Byung-Chul Han writes, the current media environment is like a ‘dictatorship of emotion’ in its ability to torrentially stir up energy and then dissipate practically overnight.”
The New Vertigo Years
At the start of the 20th century, the world felt anxious and unsettled much like today
open.substack.com
September 11, 2025 at 10:12 PM
“As philosopher Byung-Chul Han writes, the current media environment is like a ‘dictatorship of emotion’ in its ability to torrentially stir up energy and then dissipate practically overnight.”
Current AI models are pretty terrible at Baba Is You, making it an excellent benchmark for future models. (In all fairness, I'm also terrible at Baba Is You.)
arxiv.org/pdf/2407.13729
arxiv.org/pdf/2407.13729
arxiv.org
September 11, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Current AI models are pretty terrible at Baba Is You, making it an excellent benchmark for future models. (In all fairness, I'm also terrible at Baba Is You.)
arxiv.org/pdf/2407.13729
arxiv.org/pdf/2407.13729
If you’ve been fascinated by the recent UAP videos / testimonies, you might also find this interesting, about the detection of glints of light from earth orbit prior to Sputnik.
Pre-Sputnik Earth-Orbit Glints
IMHO, the strongest evidence so far that (some) UFOs are aliens just dropped.
www.overcomingbias.com
September 10, 2025 at 11:57 PM
If you’ve been fascinated by the recent UAP videos / testimonies, you might also find this interesting, about the detection of glints of light from earth orbit prior to Sputnik.
This is so 2008-coded to me.
"All told, there are now 23.5 million health-services jobs in the U.S., or about one in six private-sector jobs. That compares with 12.7 million manufacturing jobs, and 15.6 million jobs at retailers."
www.wsj.com/economy/jobs...
www.wsj.com/economy/jobs...
Healthcare Jobs Are a Rare Bright Spot in the Stalling Labor Market
One danger: Coming Medicaid cuts pose a threat to health services.
www.wsj.com
September 9, 2025 at 3:33 PM
This is so 2008-coded to me.
It's likely possible to slow aging through medications because evolution didn't optimize for longevity and the fitness landscape around it is relatively unexplored.
Really enjoyed these insights from Jacob Kimmel on the Dwarkesh Podcast:
Really enjoyed these insights from Jacob Kimmel on the Dwarkesh Podcast:
Evolution designed us to die fast; we can change that — Jacob Kimmel
Is the answer already in our genome?
www.dwarkesh.com
September 9, 2025 at 1:22 PM
It's likely possible to slow aging through medications because evolution didn't optimize for longevity and the fitness landscape around it is relatively unexplored.
Really enjoyed these insights from Jacob Kimmel on the Dwarkesh Podcast:
Really enjoyed these insights from Jacob Kimmel on the Dwarkesh Podcast:
This faux cover of "Rock Lobster" by System of a Down is so catchy.
if System of a Down wrote "ROCK LOBSTER"
YouTube video by mac glocky
www.youtube.com
September 7, 2025 at 7:27 PM
This faux cover of "Rock Lobster" by System of a Down is so catchy.
“Technophobia has a body count.”
If We Build It, Everyone Lives https://danieljeffries.substack.com/p/if-we-build-it-everyone-lives #AI #optimism
September 7, 2025 at 1:41 AM
“Technophobia has a body count.”
“Pessimism is now a shortcut to intellectual respectability, like using orchestral strings in a pop song or filming in black and white.”
The audacity of mope
Why pessimism persists in an improving world
on.ft.com
September 7, 2025 at 1:20 AM
“Pessimism is now a shortcut to intellectual respectability, like using orchestral strings in a pop song or filming in black and white.”